We all spend a lot of time thinking about soil mixes and drainage. I have personally seen severe tree damage or death caused by large dry areas of hydrophobic soil inside of a container mostly caused by too much peat moss. But whenever I buy some decorative plant or use seed starting soil I am always amazed to see mostly-peat soil draining like sand. I now know this is because they have added wetting agents. It makes me wonder... why not just add wetting agents to all container plants with ever repotting (they don't last forever). If I search for 'wetting agents' I get a mix of:
1) scientific articles not specific to agriculture talking about wetting agents in a general chemistry sense
2) various soil wetting agents for sale
3) instructions on how to make your own wetting agents, seeming to always be detergent soap + water
So, we all know plants don't like salty soil, so dumping soap into the soil doesn't sound like a good idea at all to me. Of the many wetting agents for sale, I can't really understand the pros and cons of different types. Anybody have experience with this?
Is there a low cost wetting agent that I can safely apply to my container trees?