I’ve heard many times of plants in pots dying due to drowing by over-watering. Why is it that so many times I see people with young plants starting out in a cup full of water so as to allow the roots to sprout and yet have no soil. As soon as it is planted in soil and over watered it will die.What’s up?
This is a howlingly generalized answer, but while some plants can be started in water, only those adapted to very wet conditions can continue to thrive in water. It’s a bit like the difference between babies thriving on breast milk but needing to be switched to solid food. (That analogy is inexact, and I don’t want to hear about volunteers for the “breast diet”.)
It’s easiest to start plants in water. Just take a cutting (a leaf or whatnot) pop the stem into water. When roots sprout, transplant to potting soil. A similar tactic is dipping the end of the cutting into rooting hormone powder and then putting it into damp, sterile rooting mix.
But if the plant isn’t “hard wired” for a very wet environment, the plant will die soon.
Veb
When you root plants in water, there is generally no bacteria in the water that will cause root rot. It’s the bacteria and fungi in soil that cause over watered plants to rot (some get crown rot). And actually, some plants can continue to be grown in water. I have some dieffenbachia cuttings (called “dumbcane”, a common houseplant) growing in water right now and theyre doing fine. I even had their parent stem in nothing but tap water for about a year, and the plant didn’t die (it was saved from my bro’s fiancee’s plant). The only difference was the leaves were smaller.
I’ve also started seeds by soaking them in water for about a night, this helped the plant germinate much faster than it would have if I had done it in soil (Doesnt work well with very fine seeds though).