Quote Originally Posted by lipps
What is 5. 5. 5. ? Have you used the same soil for a year? Have you tested it for N P K and PH? until you do you're just guessing. If you take a spray bottle and wet the soil first will the water absorb into the soil with out running off? Wet attracts water, dry rejects water........
Thank you for the reply. .5.5.5 on my smartphone at the time should have been the NPK ratio for my bag of "soil." As for the PH testing, no I have not tested it formally and I understand the assessment of just guessing if the value isn't known.

As for the spraybottle + water question: if I spray water on top, the initial spray with absorb. A few more sprays and the water is seemingly running through the soil. Despite this, the water runs straight out of the holes on the bottom. I mean straight, as in "found the quickest route down that did not include the natural process of water being absorned by the soil, making it's way slowly down to the bottom ."

As a test last week, I followed the normal watering procedure and proceeded to water it. As I lightly sprinkled it's normal serving all around the plant. After watching the water drain out like it had been the past few waterings, I took to removing bits of the soil from the top which water had just been sitting on top of and when I did, these clumps of soil were completely dry except for the bit on top where the water had been. This is not a normal condition for soil.