Two of them look totally dead. One is hanging on. The hot pepper plant (can't remember which it is, but I think it's Serrano) is doing fantastic. I think maybe the bells needed a light set up for the winter (something I don't think I want to spend the money on...but then, I have to use lights to start a new batch of seeds anyway). We've been remodeling and I just now had time to move my lights and stuff to another room. I'm thinking of putting the plants that look dead under lights just to see if it helps them, while I start a new batch. Would you believe my Datura conked out too? I overwintered it last year and it bloomed nicely outside, in the ground late summer. The stalk had turned to wood outside, I transplanted it back into a pot to overwinter indoors. It was doing great for weeks and then it just dropped all signs of life :-( If I had known that would happen, I would have Summer Sowed more. Ah well...adventures in overwintering... Thanks for asking, PV :-)

No ya don't :-)) Anything that purports to be a "root booster" is just a marketing gimmick. Studies have shown that no particular 'starter' fertilizer, root boosters or high P ferts recommended as root simulants have any significant benefit and do not promote root development. If planting at this time of year - mid growing season - all you need is sufficiently frequent watering to the depth of the rootball. And don't forget to butterfly and soak the rootball before planting, as mentioned previously.

You can pot up anytime, though very late spring to early summer would be ideal. I'd wait until mid-June to do a full repot, which includes bare-rooting and root pruning. Plants have natural rhythms (search Circadian and/or endogenous rhythm). Over the course of the plant's rhythmic growth cycle, their stored energy levels and their ability to create energy/food waxes and and wanes. In most cases, to repot (as opposed to just potting up) a plant when its energy stores and ability to create energy are both on the wane is to ensure a much longer recovery period. Repotting and root work is a heavy hit for the plant. It draws down the plant's energy reserves much faster than would occur if you repotted in June, when both energy stores and current photosynthesizing ability are reaching peak levels would be at peak. Since a plant's natural defenses are a byproduct of it's metabolic rate, it's not difficult to see how a significantly weakened plant with compromised ability to defend itself, combined with a longer recovery period work in concert to make the plant far more vulnerable than it would be if you were patient enough to sync with the plant. Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Your plants aren't in danger of serious decline due to root congestion, and they are small enough that, even if the soil they're in is VERY water-retentive, you can use a work-around that requires no special tools, materials, or knowledge, other than an understanding of how to put Newton's First Law of Motion to work on behalf of your self and plants, which I'm about to describe. When you water, water to beyond the point of saturation. The entire soil mass should be at maximum capacity and a good measure of the water used in your watering exercise (at least 15-20%) should have exited the drain hole. After the pot has stopped draining of its own accord, hold the recently watered planting over the sink and move it up and down. You'll soon see that on the reversal from downward to upward motion, quite a bit of water exits the drain hole, and the sharper the reversal, the more water exits the pot. An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion [the water in the pot] stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. When water ceases to exit through the drain hole, you'll have removed ALL perched water that has the potential to be of any consequence. Last, but not least, we all have a 'nurturing bone' - we like to take care of things. Knowing that you're planning for your plants' future in a way that allows you to take advantage of its strengths and make allowances for it's weaknesses for no reason other than it's in the best interest of the plant, offers the grower a much greater sense of personal gratification than an approach that lacks that planning. Al

As far as too-dry roots, should I have just sprayed them more? Or should I have pruned less off the roots in the first place, and maybe kept some of the soil around them? They didn't have all that much mass, and I did wonder about that. My husband kept telling me, don't cut its roots! Even if you use a soil that allows you to use a much larger pot than you could use (effectively) when using a water-retentive medium, a ficus will usually colonize the soil to the degree the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact - so it doesn't fall apart when you pull it from the pot. That's how I judge when a plant would benefit from a repot ..... but I'm using a high quality medium. I said that so I can say, if it's been more than a year in the same pot and the soil wasn't fully colonized by roots, there's something amiss. The plants might be reacting adversely to one or more of your soil's ingredients, or to how it's structured. In container media, that there is nothing phytotoxic (poison to plants) in the soil and how favorably (to the plant) the soil is structured are the most important considerations. It's not the soil's job to provide nutrition, that's your/our job. The soil's job is to provide a ratio of water to air that doesn't prove limiting to the plant, and it's better for the plant if you err on the side of more aeration than needed than more water than needed. The former is only limiting if you can't keep up with the plant's water needs. The later is a limitation any time you water appropriately - to beyond the point of saturation. This is a ficus repot of a F benjamina v "Too Little": After most of the soil has been removed: After all the root work was done. Note I kept only fine roots, the workhorses that do the lion's share of the heavy lifting: Repot completed - 90% of the top (branches and foliage) removed. It's pretty apparent I'm not too bashful about removing huge %s of roots, and the only trees I've ever tented were junipers of one species that I had grafted Shimpaku juniper (a variety of chinensis) branches to. I often tent hard to root cuttings, however. Even though conventional "wisdom" says you shouldn't prune the top of the plant to balance the volume of roots to shoots, those of us who collect trees in leaf from the wild or transplant/repot trees in leaf know it's foolish to think one size fits all. It's very often requisite that a significant fraction of the top be removed if the root system is weak or you judge it insufficient to support the top mass. After a few repots, you'll get better at making that judgment. The kitty litter contains *only* bentonite clay, and NOT clumping, NOT scented. Keeps its form when soaked, frozen, and thawed. OK, good. Was there a lot of dust in it? Fine bentonite forms a slippery, slimey paste that expands when it gets wet. I use it in Kokedama and in the dams that must be built to hold soil on top of tree plantings on flat stone slabs Al, I would feel very good about pruning. I don't see buds, but the tree-lets were in good shape and putting out new leaves before...before I tried to help them. Be patient. You can always take it off (branches) - harder to put it back on. Questions: --Are you talking about topping them above a branch? Just saying that's something you COULD do if you like - not a suggestion, just an observation. I do it all the time on very large plants. Another "story". Imagine how tall this tree was when I chopped it back. Does it look like a bonsai? No? Much better - right? No? this spring after repotting into training pot: Taken last Fri as it comes into leaf: Won't that get me two shoots/trunks at each cut, or a funny joint? No. The top branch becomes the new leader and the branch below it gets restrained. You'll prune it so it's growing horizontally. Changing a branch's position from vertical to horizontal also significantly changes the amount of energy that flows into that branch. The tree will always pay more attention to the branches growing vertically. Would I choose one branch, wire it up straighter, and remove the other? See what I just offered. Will that joint be strong enough? ;-) This is a tree in a put, you're not going to hang a tire swing off the branches or a chainfall so you can use it to hoist cars. It'll be fine. --Cut back a third in height? More? Whatever you like, but wait until the tree recovers. For now, just prune the branches. I can help guide you in that process. --If I take off the slender little twigs and actual branches that now go the wrong direction, will the trunk put out completely new growth from old wood? Yes. There are already dormant buds immediately distal to the point where every leaf that was ever on the tree was attached ...... and if that's not enough, the tree will form adventitious buds at random if it's healthy and really likes it's growing conditions. It seems like it might.... You're right. --Would it be better to repot it (them) into a different soil or is it too late? I don't have a good sense about what kind of job your soil will do. I'm not at all a fan of coir. Every experiment I ever did with it ended up with the plants in coir or CHCs faring nowhere as well as plants in pine bark and/or peat. Even in view of the fact I was using appropriate work-arounds for several of coir's shortcomings. This the soil mix I made today, which I could use tomorrow to repot. I was attempting to come *closer* to 5-1-1 but with some Turface added: There was no image. It would be great if you could come up with something that resembles one of these, or even a combination: [5 parts?] 3 cf Gro-well Soil Conditioner (composted forest product, sure looks like the composted pine fines photos to me...at least closer than coir???) [1 part?] 4 gallons Perlite [1/2 part?] 2 gallons of coir (peat moss substitute? ...feels similar to peat moss in texture...and that isn't very large proportion of it...) [1/2 part?] 2 gallons of MiracleGro Potting Mix (peat moss substitute) 2 C Osmocote 5 small handfuls of gypsum (~1/2 C?) [2 parts?] ~1 cf Turface MVP If you think you have a medium that drains reasonably well and will be adequately aerated if we get rid of the perched water, using ballast can make a very large difference by nearly eliminating all saturated soil with as very simple trick of science. This explains how it works. Al