Bottom-Up at the Clinic

In practice

A plant arrives: leaves yellowing, soil soggy, and the decorative pot has no drainage holes. Three facts enter the ledger. Round one: rule one's body — yellow leaves, soggy soil — is fully established, so it fires: overwatered joins. Round two: rule two's body — overwatered, no drainage — is now complete: root rot risk joins. Round three: rule four fires on the fresh risk: needs repotting joins. Round four: nothing fires — rule three waits on brown tips that never arrived — and the fixed point is reached. Six atoms established, three of them derived, and the cascade reads like a diagnosis any owner can audit: soggy plus yellow means overwatered; overwatered plus no drainage means rot risk; rot risk means repot.