1) If the plant has leaves, you shouldn't bare-root it. Just tease the roots apart a little, being careful not to let them dry out - and pot it. If it doesn't have leaves, go ahead and remove the soil before you plant. 2) It's helpful if the soil is a little damp when you make it. Beyond that, it doesn't matter much if it's damp or dry, but you don't want it wet. It's too hard to work with. 3) No problem I can see. 4) Wait about 2-3 weeks before you fertilize. Then use something like FP 9-3-6 or either of the 3:1:2 MGs, like 24-8-16 or 12-4-8. Let me know if you need that translated. By the looks of the soil you made though, you're pretty well-schooled. ;o) 5) I can't tell you how often to water, Nik. You'll have to figure it out for yourself. It will partially depend on how deep the roots of your plant go - how large the root mass is. If it goes deep into the container, you'll need to water much less often than if your plants are small & the roots only go down a couple of inches. After the plant is well established, you might want to occasionally withhold water until you see some sign of wilting - just to get a handle on how long the plants CAN go between waterings. You CAN over-water, but you have to work at it. Use a dowel pushed deep into the soil. If it's wet/cool, withhold water until it comes out dry. Al

Hi Al/plantcrazed/et. al., I thought I should come back and share some results from my "experiment" that I started at the end of April. The controls in my little trial were almost non-existent, but I think that actually makes the results more relevant to me and my growing conditions (and hopefully others will get something from this too). Back in April I got an order of leaves of 19 varieties of AVs. 14 came as pairs of leaves, so I decided to try growing them in different media. As I described in my post in mid-May, 14 leaves went in 100% vermiculite and 19 leaves in 100% turface fines (the smaller stuff left over after sifting for other mixes). The planting tray is an old kit I had leftover from years ago that has a clear cover for germinating/propagating. I had grand plans to carefully measure watering, leaf condition, first sign of roots/new leaves, etc. (like a good experimenter would), but the same day I planted the leaves my toddler ended up in the ER, kicking off several weeks of stress and doctor's visits, not to mention usual life events and adventures when working full time and caring for a small child. My plant care regimen settled in to, basically, watering when I noticed they looked dry. After the plantlets started to appear I took the covers off the trays, but otherwise I've just watered and left them under fluorescent lights and hoped for the best. Here are my results. Vermiculite 4 have plantlets, all of which seem to be growing alright 5 are mostly-dead or all-dead 1 formed a nice-looking plantlet that subsequently died, tho the leaf is still there and has roots 4 have roots but no sign of new leaves (yet?) Turface fines all 19 leaves are still alive 16 have multi-leaf plantlets 1 has a new leaf just beginning to appear 2 are strongly rooted and some gentle investigation revealed new leaves that just haven't broken the surface yet (I had just finished watering when I took this photo, which is why the turface shows wet and dry spots. This is what my usual watering of this tray looks like) A few other observations: the leaves of the new plants in the vermiculite are larger than any in the turface the leaves of the new plants in the turface are much smaller, but there are many of them, they are a strong green colour, and have a vital appearance (my experience tells me these are stronger plants than in the vermiculite) one variety was not in very good shape when it arrived. I considered complaining to the store owner about the quality, but see above re: bigger life priorities right now. That variety didn't survive more than a few days in the vermiculite. The leaf just rotted away. In the turface, it slowly rotted up the stem towards the leaf, but then rooted from the remaining piece of leaf and now has a lovely little plant growing: What these results say to me is that, for my horrible, neglectful treatment of these leaves, the turface was a better growing medium. I'm sure Al or Kevin/ewwmayo would have the correct terms for the properties of the two media, but I would say it seemed like the vermiculite contributed to a less stable environment - it went from a soggy mess when I watered to very dry, very quickly - and the turface was much more stable and allowed these poor things to survive despite my neglect. I've read some of the very lengthy threads about the properties of the various gritty mix ingredients and it makes sense to me that a plant like an AV that doesn't like to dry out but also hates being soggy would appreciate the turface's qualities of holding water but allowing for drainage and air movement through the medium. I think from now on the turface fines will be my preferred method for starting AV leaves (and likely other similar plants like episcias or begonias). I also moved two other AVs (a standard and a mini) into a modified gritty mix (1:1:1, but perlite in place of bark). So far nothing meaningful to report, though neither plant has bloomed and the mini seems to be happier than the standard. But with my neglect of the plants lately I don't think these results are meaningful, beyond saying that AVs can actually survive in the gritty mix even with an inconsistent and sub-optimal care routine. If there's anything interesting to report as these AVs continue to grow and I pot them up (likely into a gritty mix of some sort), I'll be sure to come back with an update. I would happily accept comments/questions/criticisms of my results, but please be kind in your criticisms of my care routine. I might be bad with my plants, but this little one is thriving: Thanks everyone, Melanie

An update. After months of cold and damp coastal weather, we finally are getting some warm sunny days here in coastal N. California. The Santa Teresa is now almost 3 months into the new pot and gritty mix surrounding. It's sporting new purple leaf growth on most major branches. My 2 older trees are showing signs of blossoms or new leaf growth now. My previously rootbound Valencia that got bare rooted lost about half its leaves, but has stabilized. It has dozens on young green fruit that are still holding and expanding in size. I did get a fair bit of branch die back over the past 3 months, and I did some light pruning. Because I am starting to seeing signs of the trees thriving , I decided I'd go ahead and repot the remaining 3 older trees last week. This time, I SIFTED the fir bark and Napa 8822 to remove the fines. It was much work, but it makes a cleaner looking mix and doesn't seem to separate as much after watering. One day, I may redo the others (sift them), but for now, they need to recover and thrive some before disturbing them again. I'm hoping the fines don't adversely effect things for the time being - I will be able to compare them with the trees in sifted mixes. On fertilizer, I took advice here and got Foilage Pro (FP). I went light at first then increased to 1 tsp per gallon manually applying by hand once a week. On top of that, because I have a drip irrigation system (no fertilizer feeding into it), I later added some CRF (Osmocote), but then started to get leaf burn. I backed off to 1/4 tsp per gallon FP and the burn subsided, that's when I started to notice all the new growth coming in (after 2 months). My drip irrigation system comes on every 3 or 4 days, and I manually water once a week with the light dose of FP fertilizer at 1/4 tsp per gallon. I'll post some photo when I have more to show - right now, all the older trees are not in the greatest health, partly I suspect the previous soils were old and the roots never penetrated the lower parts of the pots (all except my orange tree which became rootbound). Hopefully, as the months go by, they will thrive in the new soil. The next 3 months will be the sunniest/warmest for us no more coastal fog) until the winter rains start, so I am hoping we'll get some growth. One good sign I did notice- I have some onions nearby that have gone to seed. The winds blows the seeds into the pots, and I am finding them sprouting very rapidly in the gritty mix. It must be very good on any fine/delicate roots.

Hey, I remember when I was first excited to use the good mix too...You would be amazed at how awesome trees do in the stuff you are so anxiously waiting to use..By the way, great idea about soaking the bark! It is even so clean looking and just beautiful to match that beautiful tree.. I wonder about that mix it came in..It looks like it is ready to break down fast already..Hard to really tell..It looks like it would be good draining for one season more. Let me ask you this..This is your homework. Call that place tomorrow and ask them specific questions about the care your tree just came from and what kind of mix they use. Here is what I would ask them to help give your tree a head start and to mimick as close as they did. 1. What exactly is in their mix? 2. How long has the tree been in that same pot? 3. What kind of warmth did it recieve? 4. How much sunlight did they get? 5. Were they grown outside or in a controlled environment, like a greenhouse? 6.Did they use any type of acidifyer product? 7. What was teh fertilizer they used? By the way, what Zone do you live in? Where in the world? Will you have to winter it inside or will you be able to expose it to full sun all winter long? Does it get cold there? That will determin if you can use a less than ideal mix to carry you over until spring) MIke This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Thu, Oct 30, 14 at 17:30