The mental model
Here's the whole plant as one system: a vertical pump that runs on light, water, and air. Four inputs enter at different points; photosynthesis in the leaves makes sugar; the vascular system distributes everything. Anything that interferes with one input interferes with the whole plant.
Fig. 12. A plant as a vertical pump. Every later module is operating instructions for some part of this system.
Read the signal, name the cause
Tap a symptom on the left, then tap the explanation on the right that fits it. Diagnosis is the skill, so you do it, you don't just read it.
The symptom
What's actually happening
Fig. 13. Every diagnosis you just made traces back to one of the four inputs, and to a later module. That's the whole apprenticeship in one map.
The seven things to keep
- A plant runs on four inputs: light, water, air, nutrients. Every care decision serves one.
- Roots respire. Overwatering does its damage by filling the pore space and pushing out the air they need; most absorption happens at delicate root hairs that turn over every week or three.
- Stems carry water up (dead xylem, via cohesion-tension) and sugar anywhere (living phloem). No pump: evaporation does the lifting.
- Leaves are layered factories; stomata trade water loss for CO2 every time they open. Light opens them and water stress closes them; warmth on its own does not.
- Photosynthesis: capture light, then fix carbon into glucose. Leaves look green because chlorophyll uses green light least, though they still absorb most of it. Indoors, light is the limit.
- Transpiration drives the column; evapotranspiration adds substrate evaporation. Humidity, heat, and airflow set the rate.
- Flowers are sex organs: pollination, fertilization, seeds, fruits. The rest of the apprenticeship is operating instructions for this system.
Sit with one plant, then walk outside
Start seeing the system you just learned. Nothing to fix. Just look, slowly and on purpose.
Part 1 · One houseplant
20 min · indoors
Look at the leaves
Count, arrangement, color, shape. Are they turned toward the light?
Check the roots from outside
Any roots at the drainage holes? Lift the pot. Heavy (wet) or light (dry)?
See it as a system
What's this plant doing well? What might it be struggling with?
Part 2 · One outdoor plant
25 min · outdoors
How does it hold leaves to the light?
Branching pattern, overall shape, how the canopy fills space.
Same system, different scale
How does this plant solve the same problems your houseplant solves: light, water, gas exchange, reproduction?
Every plant runs the same system. Once you see the pattern, every plant you meet is legible.
"I've done the field exercise and I understand the foundation."
This marks Module I complete and carries your progress forward. The work is done by your own honest account. No points, no badge, no leaderboard.