Happy Thursday!

Here are 3 plant health tips, 2 thoughts of the week, and 1 question for you.

3 Plant Health Tips:

• …Brix. Brix is a fancy term for the amount of sugar present in your plants leaves. Your plants are like little sugar factories. If we could shrink down and go inside a leaf it would be like Willy Wonka's Factory.
   
  Carbon Dioxide (the stuff we exhale), sunlight and water combine inside a plant to produce sucrose (a type of sugar). The plant them distributes these sugars to its tissue to use for energy. Up to 95% of a plants growth comes directly from this process and so it's safe to say it's super important.
   
  But what does this mean for your plants? Well the higher the Brix level (sugar content in your plant) the more pest resistant your plants become. This is because insects that feed on the sap in your leaves cannot digest high sugar content.
   
  Plants have their own natural defences just like our own bodies, you just need to give it the right conditions in both the space where it grows, and the roots.
   
  *TIP: Microbes in the soil help deliver nutrients to your plants increasing Brix levels 🪴

• …Tap Water. As noted above, water is an important piece of the plant health trifecta. Water quality is super important and traditionally plants got water from rivers, rain, and underground. All of these sources are pure and full of minerals to support plant growth.
   
  Tap water however is full of chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, nitrates, etc. Tap water does contain minerals but the mineral content can be extremely high causing the white build up on pots and soil. This can clog your roots preventing nutrient and water uptake!
   
  Check with your local water supplier if chlorine is added and let your water sit for at least 24 hours before using. If your tap water has chloramine which many municipalities are switching to, keep it away from your plants because it does not evaporate. 

• …Hydrophobic Peat Moss. Peat moss is a great growing medium because it contains lots of organic matter and can also contain beneficial microbes your plants need to stay healthy. BUT a big downfall is that if it dries out too often, the particles will tighten and prevent water from flowing through. This is apparent if soil is hard and crusty or you water your plants super well and they are still droopy or feel light. You may think you’re watering your plants but it's still bone dry in the root zone.
   
  You can fill up your sink and let your pots sit for a while to try and rehydrate the soil but the best solution is using a wetting agent (Yucca Extract) whenever watering your plants. A wetting agent reduces the surface tension of water (high surface tension is why water forms beads on surfaces).
   
  When the surface tension of water is reduced it can more easily flow into tight spaces like those in hydrophobic peat moss. By using a wetting agent like Yucca Extract every time you water your plants you’ll never get hydrophobic soil.
   
  If you’re saying “but Aaron, I do not use Peat Moss 🙅‍♀️”, well let me tell you that Yucca will also help your plants absorb water more easily and plants can only absorb nutrients via water so this is how you get huge green babies. 🪴

2 Thoughts of the week:

• …The snake of good vs. evil (from my daily journal).
   
  “The snake is depicted throughout ancient culture as the never ending battle between light & dark, good vs. evil. I feel like I have a choice. I can choose to replace darkness with light. The problem is that the darkness became the default.
   
  The automatic program that I must first become aware of before I can choose my conscious path in life. The time and effort beyond daily unconscious thoughts that it takes to reprogram my mind seem ever daunting.
   
  When I make the choice to put effort towards this, it feels like I am grabbing myself by the ankles and lifting myself from the mold forming around me. Like I have control even though I know control over the universe is not in my hands.
   
  However, my thoughts, actions and beliefs are in my control. These create waves that interact with the universe itself and instead of playing from a place of control, I can play from a place of collaboration.”