<p>So I planted a baby rosebush in about April in this transparent organiser box … think the type of organiser box your child would use to store things away from college – 4 - 6 gallon box? </p>
<p>The thing is, I made it transparent so I could check the condition of the roots. Punched some holes into the bottom of the box. It was difficult to do, I was being stingy, so the holes are quite small (5 about evenly spaced, about 7 mm in diameter each), but it does drain … copiously sometimes, the thing I don’t know if it’s enough. From the color of the soil, there’s always wet soil at the bottom and sometimes it takes days for the wet/not-so-wet boundary to go down.</p>
<p>Anyway, putting it into a transparent box is an interesting diagnostic tool … but I don’t know if allowing sunlight to reach the soil makes for interesting soil conditions. Recently I’ve been spotting green algae-like growth growing in the soil and at some portions it appears to intersect with the roots! And I only have a 2D view so I can’t tell if there’s root rot or not. The plant doesn’t show symptoms of it yet (other than holes due to lots of aphids and caterpillars I didn’t catch earlier) – no leaf dropping, no yellow leaves. </p>
<p>Also, are there easier ways to take care of aphids other than manually wiping them away by hand with a wet paper towel? Sometimes I have to reach really tough-to-reach spots … like the joints of two stems.</p>