Hi all, I am hoping to find a good source of data for common house, garden and landscape plant success by certain attribute patterns, including: soil moisture, light (quantity and quality), air temp and perhaps humidity. I know that is a mouthful and I am sure the data are out there, but I don't have the background in this area to know where to start. Any thoughts? As usual on these forums, I am humbled by your help.
Welcome ctgscott. That is a big request! I am not sure if this is at all relevant to your question, but for what it may be worth.... In Britain the Royal Horticultural Society RHS do trials of different plants each year. They are judged by the experts to see how they have performed, not just over one day, but several, sometimes over a few years. If they have suceeded to grow well etc they are awarded The Award of Garden Merit status. AGM. Gardeners know that by selecting a plant with AGM after it it will be a good "doer" Sorry I am having trouble adding link. Use this link.. scroll down on left side to......... Award of garden merit AGM and click for the link I tried to add! http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/award_plants.asp
I am not sure I understand the question, but All America Selections might be of interest. http://www.all-americaselections.org/Mission.asp
Thank you all for great information. I am sorry for the confusion. I am trying to create a model for some of the most common plants around a house based upon the handful of most important environmental factors predicting success. I am assuming that the most important factors are watering pattern, light levels and quantity, ambient temperature and perhaps humidity. I know this excludes critical elements like salinity, pH, minerals, bugs, disease, dog-trampling and a million other factors but I wanted to test the ultra-basics. In the end what I wanted to have was a complex algorithm for a simple question: "what should I do to give the best chance for this plant to grow". This assumes an average person has access to local soil and other data which rarely is the case but still this academic pursuit is interesting for me. For example, if I had a beefsteak tomato plant and I knew that I had temperatures between 65 and 85F, average humidity of 75%, 9 hours of direct sunlight daily, watered to 40% moisture at 6" root depth once weekly, and held everything else equal... What are the odds this thing would grow well. Also, changing what factors a little would result in the greatest chance of success. Anyway, I was hoping to track down archives of broad plant success testing. Thanks again all!