Fertilizing seedlings does move them faster, but there are also advantages in not overdoing it. If you're like me, you like to get a feeling for what's going on as soon as possible, and a bunch of dark green seedlings won't tell you much. If you let the fert wear off a bit you can see colors and markings at a fairly early stage. Too much, though, and they stop growing, so you have to find that happy medium. Of course if you're just growing out species and/or planning to keep all of them then it doesn't matter. This is only useful if you're doing hybrids of Neos or some other types with colorful foliage and plan to do some culling.

Kiss Balázs, Pilismarót HUN He is a forrestal engineer with a special outlook to conifers. Juniperus chinensis Körmend Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 1995 Kiss Balázs of seed in Körmend HUN. The seedbed was planted by Horváth Ferenc, Körmend HUN. Introduced 2003 Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A natural dense dwarf, looks like a flat top green globe. Mother plant in Pilismarót in the Kiss Balázs Collection, along the Danube bend. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Juniperus communis Kiserdõ in the meaning of Little Forest Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 2009 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description Selected of seed this broad dense fastigiate type beauty. After a while sidebranchlets turn to the sky and form a narrow habit. Shows a little greeny forest at age. Great find. Very similar to Juniperus pingii Loderi in habit. Photo documentation Juniperus communis Kiserdõ Photo author Juniperus communis Kiserdõ Photo author Juniperus communis Kiserdõ Photo author Picea abies Tahi Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 1986 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Collection, Pilismarót HUN Description A seedling dwarf, some times breakes out, this gives a strange habit to the clone. Photo documentation Photo author me Picea obovata Mongólia Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 2009 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A dwarf WB seedling, found 1982 in Mongolia by Barabits Miklós & Kiss Balázs HUN. 1,5 m in 27 years, conical green form with short branchlets. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Pinus nigra Isaszeg Published 2010 Mesterházy in the Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 1980 Kiss Balázs found in Isaszeg HUN of seed Introduced 1984 Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A slow growing seedling dwarf with a dense habit, looks like a mushroom. Grows very slowly, remains on a dwarfy Pinus pinea. Photo documentation Pinus nigra Isaszeg Photo author me Pinus nigra Isaszeg Photo author me Pinus sylvestris Isaszeg Published 1995 Mesterházy Zsolt in the Conifer Treasury Breeder/Found 1980 Kiss Balázs, Németh Rudolf and Varga Lajos forestry engineers wild found in the Isaszeg Forest, near Budapest HUN as a natural seedling. Introduced 1984 Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A /Viridis/ type dense, narrow columnar conical clone from a European common pine (Scots pine), 4 m in 30 years, witchs broom with green colour. Original (grafted) plants in Dömös, Pilismarót and Körösladány HUN. Zone 4. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Photo author me Thuja occidentalis Gabi Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 2009 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description Created of Thuja occidentalis Smaragd seed this 1/3 size goldie, irregular dense column. Having a sight to her, makes the day happy. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Photo author me Zsolt

Mike, I have nothing against Miracle Grow water-soluble fertilizer and, in fact, do use it sometimes myself. It is just that I prefer to use organic fertilizers most of the time. One difference between most organic fertilizers and most synthetic fertilizers is that the synthetic fertilizers seem to give the plants a bigger boost more quickly, although that is not necessarily desirable in some cases. Why is a big, quick boost in growth sometimes undesirable? There's lots of reasons, but the one that I am most concerned about is that sometimes the ones that verge towards being a bit high in nitrogen will cause more top growth to occur too quickly and the still-immature and smaller root system cannot support that top growth. Also, if you're working to create biologically healthy soil with lots of microbes, synthetic fertilizers can have an adverse effect on your microbe level so those fertilizers are working against you in your effort to create soil that is teeming with microbes. I like using the Espoma line of dry fertilizers because they do contain some of the microbes needed in biologically active soil. However, I've liked them less and used them less since they changed the formula of the Tomato-Tone a few years ago. I think that there is room for both synthetic and organic fertilizers in any gardening program, particular when we are talking about growing plants in containers. Because container growing here requires so much watering in the summer, even with very large containers, it can be hard to grow in containers organically because of the way the constant watering leaches nutrients from the soil. In a year when we have tons of rainfall (here in my part of OK, I'm thinking back to 2010, 2007 and 2004), the constant rain can keep the root systems of the plants so saturated with water that they cannot take up adequate nutrition and the plants will stall in growth and develop a sickly color, that generally indicates a lack of nutrition because of the waterlogged roots. In a case like that, I'll spray the foliage of the plants with a water soluable fertilizer because at least that way they are getting some nutrition. Using Miracle Grow in this way pretty much saved my garden in 2007, and also in 2009 when a freak of-nature rainstorm dumped almost 13" of rain over our part of the county in one 24-hour period. The last thing my plants needed was more water on their roots, so by using a water-soluble fertilizer sprayed on the foliage, I could give them food without waterlogging the roots even more. Larry, Everyone I know here at the southern end of OK is way behind too. Pretty much all I've seen in any garden other than mine is onions. I do think some of my fellow gardeners here will be trying to get the rest of their cool-season crops in the ground this weekend because it is getting too late to put it off any longer. I have onions, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, radishes, potatoes, sugar snap peas, strawberries and some herbs and flowers growing now, but the only ones that really went into the ground on time were the onions, and I feel like I've been playing catch-up with everything else. Oh, and the tomato plants in the one early bed, which were planted my favorite way--early. The rest of my tomato plants (the ones I grew myself) aren't fully hardened-off, and won't be for another few weeks. I keep moving them into the shade-cloth covered greenhouse to get them out of the strong winds, so it has been hard to get them the ever-increasing increments of light needed to harden them off. This year its been a one step forward two steps back effort with the hardening off of the plants. I've got tons and tons of seedlings on the light shelf indoors and might move a bunch of them outside to the greenhouse later today. I am fighting a losing battle because the minute I move a flat or multiple flats of plants to the greenhouse, I feel compelled to fill up the empty shelves on the light shelf by starting more seeds. Carsonsmimi, Well, April is around the corner and it usually brings the onset of severe weather, so it might not be so bad to be a little behind with the seedlings. When the early-April severe weather hits, your seedling babies will be safe indoors. It's so hard to put them in the ground at the time that feels right if the weather forecast shows the potential for severe weather that same day. I cannot tell you how many times I have said "the heck with the weather, I'm planting" and then have had hail hit my seedlings the very same day I put them in the ground. It would be so much easier to be gardeners in Oklahoma if the weather didn't have so many ways to attack our gardens. It isn't fair that we have to worry about frost and freezing temperatures overnight and early in the morning, and then worry about high wind, wildfires, hail, and tornadoes the rest of the time. Kim, The very first time I bought fish emulsion and opened up the bottle, I thought I had bought something that had gone bad. : ) It sure is stinky stuff. Dawn

Since you live in an apartment, I would go with either an Emperor Lychee because they stay somewhat small or a named cultivar of Dragonfruit. The Lychee will be much more difficult to fruit but others have succeeded. Lychees tend to be alternate bearers and may fruit only lightly. I'm currently growing Sweetheart Lychees but the tree will get fairly large so I would not recommend it for your situation. I really love Dragonfruit but you should do your research before investing on a cutting. I would not recommend growing dragonfruit from seeds because they will take a long time to fruit and the fruit will be unpredictable. I currently grow the white, red and yellow varieties of dragonfruit. The white variety is the easiest to grow for me and the fruit is extremely large and sweet but is nowhere near as complex and tasty as the red varieties. The Red varieties I have growing are "Halley's Comet, American Beauty, Bien Hoa Red, Valdivia Roja and a few others. The Red varieties are sweet and have a hint of berry flavor. Halley's Comet and American beauty were the highest rated dragonfruit at the UC Irvine Dragon Fruit festival last year. You can purchase these varieties online at pineislandnursery.com but the shipping is super expensive. Dragonfruit will sprawl so you have to be sure to train it properly and prune it back every year once it reaches the ideal size. I like to train it into a dragonfruit tree. Good luck with whichever plant you decide to go with!