IN-PERSON MEETING: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021, 7:00 p.m. (Doors open 6:30 p.m.)
REDEEMER LUTHERAN CHURCH, 1084 WEST BULLARD, FRESNO CA
"Feeding Succulents: How Fertilizer, Water pH and Soil Can
and Should Be Adjusted"
Presented by Ernesto Sandoval
and Should Be Adjusted"
Presented by Ernesto Sandoval
Perhaps you’ve heard that pH is important for plants? Ernesto will summarize why you
want your plants to receive slightly acidic water and various ways you can adjust it for
your succulents. How is this similar and different than fertilizing “regular” plants?
Ernesto will discuss all of this plus the importance of “soils”/container media and the
details of how you can maximize the root potential for your plants!
Biography: Ernesto Sandoval has been wondering
and seeking questions and answers to why plants
grow and look the way that they do for nearly 40
years. Now he explains and interprets the world of
plants to a variety of ages and from amateur to
professional gardeners. He regularly lectures to a
variety of western Garden Clubs throughout the year
and particularly to Succulent Clubs throughout
California. Desert plants are his particular passion
within his general passion for plants. He describes himself as a "Jose of All Plants, Master of
None" and loves learning from the experiences of others as well as his own. Ernesto
thoroughly enjoys helping others, and gardeners in particular, to understand why and how
plants do what they do.
When he was about 13 he asked his dad why one tree was pruned a particular way and
another tree another way. His dad answered bluntly "because that's the way you do it.”
Since then he's been learning and teaching himself the answers to those and many other
questions by getting a degree at UC Davis in Botany and working from student to weeder/waterer
Director/Manager over the last 30 years at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.
He's long left the "mow blow and go" monoculture
landscape gardening world and has immersed himself in
the world of horticultural biodiversity by growing
several thousand types of plants at the UC Davis
Botanical Conservatory, many of them succulents!
Several of his favorite garden projects involved
converting lawns and or water loving landscapes to
drought tolerant and diversity filled gardens! He likes
to promote plant liberation by encouraging gardeners
of all sorts to grow more plants in the ground when
possible. He loves the technical language of Botany but
prefers to relate information in more understandable
methods of communication! By helping people to
understand the workings of plants he hopes to help us
better understand how to and why our plants do what
they do and how we can maximize their growth with
less effort.