It's best to bare root and correct root issues and congestion at planting time; however, if you prune roots/plant it in fall, the roots will need protection against freezing and you'll be unable to provide that protection. I would leave it in the pot as is and over-winter in an attached/unheated garage or dug in and mulched on the north side of a heated building. Just remember to throw a shovel of snow on it every 2-3 weeks or water at that interval. Roots need at least a little moisture to remain viable. Then, as soon as the ground thaws and before the buds are swelling in spring, bare root and do the root work immediately before planting out.

Linda Chalker-Scott PhD has built a solid reputation from debunking horticultural myths. See What She has to Say about how to deal with roots at transplanting time.

Al

Can water be taken into veins of a detached leaf from tip? (opposite end from petiole or attachment point). I need to prevent small leaf from drying until egg on leaf hatches, and egg is near attachment point where water normally would enter.

The leaf has billions of micro-pores through which a small amount of water can pass; but somehow, I'm thinking that whatever hatches will want to feed on the sap, and whatever emerges from the egg might not only be unable to pierce the hardened leaf surface, the sap it will want to feed on will likely have had its chemical composition changed after being detached from all the chemical compounds that keep the plant's systems humming along.

Maybe you could try gluing the dead leaf to a living leaf so the nymph or whatever emerges has only a short journey to the nearest feeding station? Any idea what laid the egg?

Al

>"micro-pores through which a small amount of water can pass" ___ Great, question answered.

>"what laid the egg?" ___ Phoebis philea butterfly.

>"feed on the sap" ___ If leaf is tender enough, then hatchling caterpillar gnaws leaf, making tiny holes, progressively bigger holes as it grows, ultimately all or most of leaf.

>"gluing the dead leaf to a living leaf" __ Excellent idea. Because the usual behavior of this species is to stay unnecessarily long on one leaf, even when leaf is seriously ratty, and relatively little is being consumed, I will glue only the egg-bearing bit of leaf. Can anyone suggest an appropriate glue?

I'd use polyurethane or waterproof wood glue.

Al

@tapla Al, which thread contains your commentary about training birds to eat their food from your hand?

Let me do some looking .....

Edited to say, Find it Here. I posted directions several times on different threads, but the one I linked to is the only one I could find. The carvings are from Mike VanHousen.

Al

Thanks.

Back to the critter (and leaf) recently discussed.

Remnant of egg shell after caterpillar (at right) had first meal of it today.

this guy needs help with media ... gritty mix probably.. as noted there.. thx.. ken

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6303890/questions-about-transplanting-potted-trees#n=5

hello everyone. do you find your plants leaves look sick after flowering? my lovely jasmine sambac flower monthly from later winter to early fall. it gives around 100 flowers on each flush. after it flower. all those leaves looks a bit sicky. lost its glossy green colour and looks dull and yellow for a while. before it flower, I did give it low nitrogen feed to to boost flower growth. I don't know if I direct all the energy to grow flower, so the leaves looks unhealthy. how do you take care of plants before and after it flower? photo below is my poor jasmine recovering. my potting mix is 2 part of compost with 3 part of grit and bark mix.

when it's healthy. it looks like below, leaves will be more shiny and green and open flat instead of wrinkle leaves.

It lost its glossy green colour and looks dull and yellow for a while. Before it flower, I did give it low nitrogen feed to to boost flower growth. An increase in Nitrogen would support more vegetative growth rather than reproductive growth (blooms/ fruit/ etc). A regular greenhouse practice to slow vegetative growth and stimulate blooming is to decrease the amount of nitrogen supplied relative to the rest of the nutrients essential to normal growth. Commonly this is achieved by finishing (getting the plant ready for sale) with a change from a 3:1:2 ratio to a 2:1:2 ratio, which reduces N by 1/3. You won't need to do that type of manipulation. I don't know if I direct all the energy to grow flower, so the leaves looks unhealthy. how do you take care of plants before and after it flower? A plant allots its food supply/ energy to it's various parts in a particular order, 'pecking order, if you will). Where the plant sends its energy is called an energy sink, and the sinks are prioritized thusly: Energy is first allocated to respiratory function, i.e. to maintenance of living tissues, then, to production of fine roots, followed by flower and seed/fruit production, then primary growth (extension of both roots and shoots), then secondary growth (thickening), and finally, the synthesis of defensive chemicals. You'll notice that flower/ seed/ fruit production comes before primary and secondary growth, which would include branches and leaves. It's not uncommon for blooming plants to show a bit chlorotic from the point in time when blooms are forming to the point in time when fruit/ seeds have matured.

Both images you uploaded suggest there is a nutritional issue in play. How are you fertilizing, how often, with what, and what are the NPK %s. Does it contain Fe and Mg (iron and magnesium, respectively). If it's an Fe deficiency, you might be dealing with a pH issue. Are you using tapwater, or water from another source?

Do you use supplement lighting? If yes, how close to the light are the plants?

Al

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” ~ Eleanor Rosevelt

thanks for reply Al.

Do you use supplement lighting? If yes, how close to the light are the plants?

yes, I grow it only under supplement light. cause all the natural light spots are occupied. it's 30cm under grow light from the highest point. I also checked with lux meter. the brightest point is 20,000lux, shadiest point is 8,500 lux. I have the light on for 16 hours. most of the leaves are on 14,600 lux to 17,000 lux.

How are you fertilizing, how often, with what, and what are the NPK %s. Does it contain Fe and Mg (iron and magnesium, respectively).

I fertilized it on every fourth watering. water it once every 3 to 5 days. so I fertilized it every 13 days in average. I use dyna gro orchid pro. 7-8-6. I use 1/2tsp per 1/4 gallon. I didn't totally follow the instruction. do I use the correct fertilizer? the reason I choose this one is because it gives detail of what's in the fertilizer and it's almost a balance fertilizer and a little higher on phosphorus,because around half of its new growth are flower and it flower in long season. I use RO water most of the time. I recently test and find out my RO water is at ph 6.5. some other plants also seems to have magnesium and iron deficiency. I occasionally give them bottle water for magnesium fix.

Need to know about early water needs of newly grafted avocado in container : Leafless 0.35" diam scion inserted into top of 0.75" diam root stock that is cut off at 4" above growing medium. Zone 9b Central FL, October. All will be shaded, in adequate natural light.

Pulling low weeds around 1/4" diam vine, weed strands severed vine, I inserted it into ground. Effectively a long cutting. Would liquid fertilizer now be of any benefit?

A low dose of fertilizer would be of some minor benefit insofar as stimulating rooting is concerned, but both the energy (food/ photosynthate) and building blocks (nutrients) required to form new roots will come from the propagule itself. As soon as root primordia develop (small white bumps - the first hint the cutting has rooted [but don't be tempted to pull up the cutting to check on how things are going]) there will be a more efficient pathway by which nutrients can make way into the plant.

You said the cutting is long. If TOO long, there is risk the entire cutting will collapse from an inability to maintain adequate hydration. It's often advantageous to remove a number of leaves from cuttings with a lot of leaf surface, or cut leaves in half across venation to limit transpirational water loss. I'm not sure what type of vine you're dealing with, but many have preformed adventitious roots at every node, which would be a considerable advantage when propagating.

Al

>" fertilizer would be of some minor benefit insofar as stimulating rooting" ___ Then I want to do it.

>"primordia develop (small white bumps" ___ I see them sometimes on cuttings of SOME plants in water, have found them to correlate with successful rooting. Now I know, through what you tell me here, that they ARE roots (rudimentary).

>"You said the cutting is long...." ___ I am glad that you picked up on that, and I will reduce it to an unvinely length.

>"adventitious roots at every node"___ I will go for that by replanting the stem, this time nearly horizontally (now is perfectly vertical).

“Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Al

>"primordia develop (small white bumps" ___ I see them sometimes on cuttings of SOME plants in water....

I was pleased to see today the third success of a hundred attempts to root cuttings of this in water.

Many people confuse the terms 'root initials' with 'root primordia'. This is especially prevalent in the fig-growing community for some reason. Root initials can't be seen until they produce root primordia, which is what you are seeing and correctly identifying.

It's time to put your cutting in a solid medium. I know you probably don't want to, but when you stick it using grow medium, you should shorten the branch with the bloom back to the most proximal node with leaves, and the largest leaves on the thicker half of the bifurcation should also be removed.

The existing roots, having developed under water, will be inefficient at taking up water from a solid medium. Reducing the leaf surface area, which decreases evaporative/ transpirational water loss will help prevent the propagule from collapsing due to water stress (lack of water).

Al

>" It's time to put your cutting in a solid medium" ___ Yeah, true. And I will trim in exactly the ways that you recommended.

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” ~ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Al

I came in from outdoors, opened the email message that bears the quote in small font, while my eyes were transitioning to narrow focus I read, "Be at war with your wives"

If it rains a lot, does that negatively affect the roots of in-ground plants the same way ovrwatering plants does in containers?

It can, but if it does depends on plant species, the plant's level of vitality, soil structure/composition, and soil temperatures.

Al

Al, this never happened before on any of the hundreds of things that I have rooted; many dozens of this (Pentas lanceolata). Would you say that it was provoked by animal or non-animal agent?

Looks like tissue callus at the cut site. Callus size varies between plant species but is sort of proportional to the thickness of the cutting. Quite large for such a thin cutting though. Did you use some sort of rooting hormone?

Root Gall

Images

Al

I flagged it too, so now its gone.

tj

Thank you to tropicofcancer and to tapla. Gall it is. On stem, somewhat distant from cut site. No rooting hormone. Interesting the term "crown" gall in the photos labels.

Stopping in to say HELLO! It's been a while since I've visited the site. But now that spring is here, my thoughts turn to the green growing everywhere, and so quickly here in the Midwest! And those thoughts include the wonderful and fulfilling information I've learned following Tapla's teachings which have made me a much better gardener!

I've been more successful than I thought I ever would where container grown plants are concerned, and I've even been asked by my daughter to teach her more about gardening, and also about how better to care for her houseplants! It warms my heart and makes me proud that I do have the knowledge to pass on, thanks to Tapla!

In my short walks around the property here, and along the country roads that pass by ours, I've discovered some new plants that I've not seen until this spring... including a light blue Camassia, Dog's Tooth Violet, Jewel weed, and another small bulb that I have not yet identified. The roadside ditches are filled with wild spearmint, wild strawberry plants, and trumpet vine. Both purple and white violets grow in patches across the road.

I can't wait for my Tulip Tree to bud and flower, and there's so much more!

Well, it's time to feed my goat herd, gather milk from a couple of them by hand, and get the poultry fed and eggs collected.

Happy Gardening, Everyone!

Aw shucks. Lol Thanks, Jodi. I appreciate the sentiment. We're getting to be the old timers here.

Al

The sentiments are well deserved, Al. And I must say, I surely do feel like an old timer! Aging is not on my list of things I want to do, I can tell you! Nor is it for the faint of heart!

I'm not sure if it's the lupus I deal with, or aging, or any of a multitude of other issues, or just a combination of everything, but it's frustrating to be forced to scale back on doing the things we enjoy, not to mention the things we have to get done! I feel weaker, and I have to rest more often. Chores take longer to accomplish, and I never seem to get to the bottom of my to-do list! I try to apply "work smarter, not harder", but it's not always as easy as it would seem to put that into practice! And I think the weather, and more to the point the barometric pressure, that also plays quite a role in it all.

I do hope everything is good your way, that your health is good, and that your plants and bonsai are still a great enjoyment for you!

Well... I'm off to try to accomplish some things today, with any luck! LOL! Take care, and I'll check in from time to time to say hi and see how life is treating us old timers... and everyone else who has been bitten by the gardening bug, so to speak!

Happy Gardening!

All's well here. Retired 4 years ago and have been loving it - have plenty to keep me busy and active. Just finished setting up new jet-boat for shallow water fishing. Amazing how far electronics has come. The trolling motor has Spot Lock, which automatically keeps the boat in one spot w/o using an anchor, it can follow a directional setting and keep the boat on a perfectly straight line regardless of wind/waves/current, and automatically navigate from way-point to way point which can be set from the helm using the sonar to set the points on a chart, or it will follow a depth contour. I don't know if I'll ever figure out all the features on the sonar equipment.

I don't do all the mixed planting containers I used to

and I've rid the garden of the ill-behaved ground covers and spreading ground covers I used to be willing to put up with and work to keep corralled. Now, it's pretty muck bones (trees/shrubs) and some well-behaved perennials - just not as ambitious as I used to be.

I've started to cut back on the number of trees I tend. I have so many young trees it's not likely I'll ever see their potential realized, so I've been giving them away or handing them over them to local gardening clubs ...... none of my kids are interested in them other than to look at, so I'll pare the number down to less than 100. 30 tropicals and 50 outdoor trees is more realistic. I forgot how much I enjoyed fishing and I can't be fishing and care for trees at the same time ......

I hope you get to feeling better! Take care.

Al

Prior to coming into this conversation on container soils I was reading through a lot of the research done by Ted Bilderback at the NCSU.

He published an article in the Hortitechnology in 2005 that contained the following table with the properties of various substrate mixtures. The data here nicely matches with what's been discussed in these conversations.

Healthy Substrates Need Physicals Too!, Hortitechnology, October 2005 . . .

With two links to other relevant papers by Hilderback . . .

Substrates for Plants Grown in BIG CONTAINERS?

Managing Container Substrate, Bilberback

>"I forgot how much I enjoyed fishing" ___ Al, tell us a few things about Muskies, either from your experience or as the locals tell it. Difficult /easy to catch? Tasty /nasty?

I have caught 2 tiger muskies (usually a sterile, planted, cross between the muskie [muskellunge] and northern pike, and 1 muskellunge. All were accidental catches while fishing for other another species. The muskie was caught trolling at 45 ft with downriggers for salmon. Since I have regained interest in fishing, my target species has been large and small mouth bass, northern pike, and walleye. I'm blessed to live on the shore of Saginaw Bay (part of Lake Huron and surrounded on S, E, & W by Michigan's thumb and the hand part of the mitten) where fishing for these species spectacular.

Since I've never fished specifically for muskie, I can only relate what I know from my reading and the anglers that fish for them. When the the fish are actively feeding, they they can be easy to catch, but those days are few and far between, and it's only likely to happen if you know where populations of the solitary (not school fish) and uncommon are known to be present in numbers worth fishing for them specifically.

I do have a story, though. Since getting back into fishing, my favorite spot to fish is a smaller bay off of Saginaw Bay. I'm typically fishing the edges of heavy reed beds close to deeper water (5-12 ft) or in shallower water along the edges of phragmites (a perennial reed grass common to marshlands, with tough stems reminiscent of bamboo). last year, fishing the reeds next to deep water, I hooked 4 fish I could not even turn. I use a bait-casting reel backed with 30 lb braid and about a 6' fluorocarbon (like monofilament but with more advantages) leader with the leader having to be 12-17 lbs minimum because of the tough reeds and phragmites.

I probably caught 50-75 northern pike in this spot, all incidental to my efforts to catch bass. All 4 of the fish I hooked last year but couldn't turn were unidentified. Having been an offshore troller for all the different trout/salmon species the Great Lakes offer, I can tell a weighty fish on the line, so I can eliminate bass from the equation, as well as trout and salmonids due to the water temperature being too warm for them. My frequent companion (son) and I agreed the fish were either pike in the >15lb class or muskie.

The day after this Mother's Day I hooked another extremely large fish. We were moving between reed beds and I cast the 8" rubber stick bait (Geecrack Bellows Worm in purple) to some reeds just starting to break the surface of the water. I had a strike, hooked the fish, and it immediately leapt out of the water. I knew it was a huge pike or a muskie. The fish ripped off about 25 yds of line like it was nothing before the line suddenly went slack. I said, "Darn (or something similar), I lost it". When I started to retrieve my line, it went taut again. The fish had turned to run toward the boat. It went under the boat and turned so the line was around the trolling motor, so we had to lift that clear. Fortunately there was no tangle. After a couple of shorter runs and the fish making another circle around the boat, we were worrying about how to land it because the nets we had weren't nearly large enough. As it got closer and the runs shorter, the fish was starting to wallow on the top of the water and we could clearly see it was a muskie in the 40-44" range. I could see the fish has swallowed the bait and the hook was fully in it's mouth, not a good thing when you know your leader is fluorocarbon line and no match for their dagger-like teeth. I had the fish tired, but the only way to land it was going to be by slipping a hand behind the gill plate and dragging it over the gunwale. I keep a filleting glove on board for handling big pike, so my son had that on. I was trying to guide the fish in a lazy turn back toward the boat when I felt the vibration of the line raking across it's teeth, and there he was, GONE.

So, while it's still a mystery what the 4 outsize fish I lost in that spot last year were, muskie is now a prime suspect, followed by very large northerns. I frequently see the same Conservation Officer there and often talk about stuff after I'm done loading the boat. I asked about muskie catch in the spot I was fishing, but he didn't know. As we were coming back to the landing last Fri, a commercial fisherman was going back to port. We asked if OK to come alongside and got an OK. I asked about muskie in that part of the bay and he said he sometimes has 10-15 in his nets from ice-out to the end of June, so we might actually set up to try fishing for them next year. We use side planers when trolling and MI allows three active poles per angler, so we could put 6 baits in the water for muskie or outsized pike.

I have never eaten a muskie or tiger muskie (all returned to water), but I have eaten a lot of pike, especially when I was growing up. They are a very bony fish but not too hard to debone. I used to fillet/debone them and my mother would grind them up and mix with bread crumbs and a bit of onion and seasoning, form them into patties, fry them in a bit of peanut oil, and served with a bit of Béchamel sauce over the top. Very mild and delicious. They can also be canned (with the y-bones in). With so many walleye in the bay now, we return almost every fish (other than walleye or lake perch) to the water.

The muskie I caught trolling for salmon was 44.5" long and had a 24" girth and weighed 33-3/4 lbs. The one I lost last week was of similar size, maybe a bit smaller, so it would likely be in the 30 lb range.

Al

Thanks, Al, for the overview + detail that is great for my (non-fisherman) desire to learn a bit about things.

With regard to Walleye, I, having known the name "Walleyed Pike", looked up information about it, learned that it is not a pike. (I know that you know it)

I, having known the name "Walleyed Pike", looked up information about it, learned that it is not a pike. Indeed it is not a pike, rather, it's a member of the perch family which is why older fisherman commonly refer to them as pike-perch or yellow-pike-perch based solely on the fact they share characteristics with yellow perch and northern pike. Walleyes take advantage of their ability to see under low light conditions by feeding mostly at dawn and at/after sunset or during the night or on overcast days when there is a good chop on the water. They are also especially active where stained water from tributaries enter deeper water in our big lakes, they move in and out of current lines that separate the stained/silty water and keep the water from mixing. This is also a trick I use with great success fishing steelhead high in the water column miles from shore. We look for colored water 5-10 miles off shore and the slicks (floating debris - decaying vegetation, sticks, leaves, suspended pieces of floating/suspending plant matter decaying. It attracts feeder fish and holds them high in the water column where the fish are easily reachable using flatline techniques or flatline/ planer-board set-ups.

Al

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Al

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

A curiosity. Here in Italy (and in the other Catholic Countries) thw Father's Day is celebrated on 19 March, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as "the putative father of Jesus".

Hello everyone. I've been disengaged for quite some time now; but not a day goes by I don't think of the "Old Timers", Al, Laura, Jericson etc... I'd like to thank everyone for your comments on my posts; it feels good to be of help to fellow growers. Special thanks to my mentor "tapla" (Al F.)

Forever your student, Rob.

I've been disengaged for quite some time now

Disengaged on the forum or with plants? Greetings from Italy.

Rob! What a wonderful surprise ..... and a relief as well. I've so often wondered where you went, and every time I wondered I hoped your absence was due to no more than your pursuit of other interests. It was already going to be a good day, but you made it so much better.

YPA

Italy - I've been away from the forum for a number of years now but am still actively growing.

Al - It's been a rough 5 years or so. Back in 2018 I started my own business selling high quality Adeniums (cultivated by me from seed) to local nurseries. When Covid hit. All the nurseries shut down and business came to an abrupt halt, I had 118 Adeniums ready to go but no one to buy them. I eventually sold some to family and friends, but gave most away (keeping my favorites).

More recently, my mom died in May this year of an aggressive form of cancer (no one saw it coming). It's left me wanting to get out of Colorado; and move to someplace where Bougainvillea's grow naturally outdoors.

Rob

Sigh, Despite being the shortest month, February always feels like the hardest Trudging through days of grimly greyness.

Cheer up SJ, it is the final countdown! March 20 is right around the corner! SPRING!

Cheer up SJ, it is the final countdown! March 20 is around the corner, SPRING!

I used to really hate February, but then again, there are all those delightful, pagan festivals of late Winter, including Carnaval and el Día de San Valentín. Both mean, that Spring is coming.