Good morning Jenn, Yes, they can be potted now. I'd think your chances of success would be greater if they are potted now. There is a finite time they can sit in the conditions they are in before they use up their stored resources and die. Bud wood lasts as long as it does in storage because it's kept closer to freezing so they are not using resources to develop. Mine are potted outside. The space is on the east side of the house between the street wall and house. They receive full sun from ten-ish AM to a bit after noon. The rest of the time they receive strong reflected light. They are watered by hand, or hit by the sprinklers if I run them. It all depends upon how windy, hot and dry it is and how dry the potting soil seems when I tip the soil balls to check progress and condition. I'm in Encino, in the hills between the Valley and Beverly Hills/Brentwood, on the edge of the Santa Monica Mountains State Park. It's been arid and warm during many of the days with a few incidents of Santa Anas. Nights are cool and fairly damp. I'd think our weather should be fairly similar. If you have somewhere to provide similar light and wind protection, potting them outdoors would seem better than anything inside. By keeping them outdoors, they are already hardened off when they push growth and roots so there is no issue with having to acclimate them to the more severe conditions outside later. There are also no issues with keeping them too damp, which has frequently been the case when I've tried propagating here under bags, bottles and plastic. They don't seem to require that extra humidity as long as a good percentage of the cutting is encased in the damp soil. Some of these here are only about half covered. Others are three quarters or more. As for soil, I've used the good stuff at $15 a bag and am using Super Soil at half that cost right now (budget restraints and all), and they are working. You want a medium which drains well so it doesn't stay 'soggy', but you also want it moist with good air circulation in the soil ball. Whatever your choice of soil which works well in your conditions should be fine. It isn't necessary for it to contain fertilizer, and may actually be detrimental to new root formation. Newly propagated cuttings don't require "fertilizer" as they are developing on the combination of stored food and anything the green parts of the cutting can generate from light. Once there is a developed root system under them, feeding with dilute strength fertilizers is safer. Personally, I would not use organic fertilizers with cuttings and very young own root plants. They are too slow acting; they provide too little nutrition over too long a period; in small pots, it's way too easy to use too much resulting in molds and rot. Whatever water soluble type you prefer, used initially at quarter strength after a thorough watering is fine. As they develop more roots and more top growth, gradually increasing the concentration of the fertilizer is fine. Once they are in gallon or larger pots, or in the soil, use what you like. My experiences and feelings are I want to provide immediately available food to provide as immediate results as possible, but I also want to make sure I don't burn them, or out right kill them with too strong a concentration. I'm not saying you CAN'T do it differently, just that this is what I am doing and why I am doing it, and these are the results I am getting here right now with these methods. Of course, your mileage may, and very likely will, vary due to many factors. I wanted to give you as much information and theory/observation behind the results as I can so you will be better prepared to massage them to suit your conditions and preferences. The failures seem consistently the thinner wood tried of each variety. Nothing which permits instructions such as "use pencil thickness", because some won't produce pencil thickness. This time, the thicker the wood of each variety I've tried, the greater the success. My impression is the thicker wood not only contains more stored resources, but also is more insulated against the weather swings, temps, changes in humidity and soil moisture and is likely harder, more suitable for callusing, rooting and storage with this method. If I were using a mist propagator, the thinner material is what I would have selected and what I always used in the old mist propagator at The Huntington. It makes sense. Propagation under mist, in a greenhouse or under plastic is better accomplished with softer, more actively growing material. Wrapping fails with that type of material. This method succeeds with harder wood cuttings, that which is more 'dormant'. The kind of stuff your grandmother would have broken off the plant and stuck in the ground under the mother bush. Here are a few I started in wraps on Christmas Eve and New Year's Day. The December ones were left for three weeks, the January ones went two weeks and were potted in these bands and cups right here, where they've been since.

I'm continuing to hold my own. I had been 1 lb under my goal then up 1.6 but now I'm back down the .6 to my goal. I do much better when DH is out of town - easier to stick to my rigorous tracking of everything I eat plus no eating out. I was at the grocery store tonight getting some bread sliced at the bakery counter - where they had all kinds of gourmet desserts. I was practically drooling right onto the containers. I LOVE that stuff - I could eat a whole dessert in one evening. In fact one of the last "incidents" before the new healthier me in 2012 had to do with a french silk pie I bought for Christmas eve - kind of a tradition. Well I guess DH doesn't really like them any more so I ended up eating all but about 1/8th of the pie - in about 24 hours. Loved it but how disgusting is that. I did walk away without buying any dessert tonight. I will treat myself to a chewy chocolate calcium supplement instead..... I'm kind of detail oriented by nature and now I feel like I've taken that to a new level with weighing my food! I never did much of that in the past but with a lot of things that's what you have to do to tell how many portions you're really eating. It's kind of interesting - how much a portion is (and what I eat now) vs. how much I ate in the past. I've said it before and I'll say it again - unless you're an exercise maniac you just can't eat much and even maintain your weight let alone lose any. On the activity front I have had major problems with my leg. I think I mentioned before that I'm an above knee amputee and it's the prosthetic leg that's the problem. It's nine years old and everything is going to he!!. I got a new foot not too long ago but now my computerized knee is shot. It kind of works but needs to be replaced. The worst problem though is that it's custom fit to me and since I've lost the 8 lbs it's too big; i.e. falling off!! I started having that problem last summer but dropping the additional pounds has pushed it over the edge. They tried to temporarily fix that and made matters worse to the point I could barely walk - yikes!! I have come up with a reasonable temporary work around but now working feverishly to get a new prosthetic leg approved by my insurance company and constructed by my prosthetist. So the weather is starting to get a little warmer and I simply can't walk any where - which I hate. Oh well, happy I can just walk around the house and the office and that I have insurance that will cover most of the cost of the new leg. I'm not sure what's worse - knee problems with real legs or artificial legs. I kind of feel like it's easier to fix my knee problem - just buy a new one (easier as long as you have insurance coverage for such things).

Gibby, I come from an alcoholic home, too, and don't drink for the same reason. As you said, I think any addiction can be substituted for another. Kelly, as I said in another thread, deprivation never tends to work for me. The last thing we need is more guilt, and I think the idea of a "detox" is sort of like seeing our bodies and our eating habits as dirty and shameful. I know some people do it w/o that connotation, but it's good to see if this is part of why you want to do it. If so, you may want to reconsider. As for craving vegetables vs. sugar . . .again, using my "look deeper" attitude, think about what you are craving when you want sugar. First of all, remember that most of us DO crave sugar. That is not abnormal. But, is there more? Do you crave energy? Do you feel like you are "treating" yourself when you want the sugar? Again, most of us do like the taste of sugar-- it's programmed into us. Breastmilk is sweet for that reason! I have mentioned that I like the ADDITIVE attitude. So, if you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, go for it! One of the things I learned about myself was that I do like veggies . . .a LOT, but only if they are prepared (vs. just boiled/steamed). For example, I could easily live on veggies the way they are prepared in Ethiopian cuisine. My friend just made a salad with grilled veggies and pesto. I craved it because it was GOOD. Bottom line-- I don't think juicing will cure you of cravings. But, if you want to add more fruits/vegs. into your diet, maybe try preparing them in more interesting ways, as well as juicing, but maybe don't limit yourself to only a juice diet until you have your expectations clearly laid out. (Not saying you don't already.)

Ah, Polly, my plank used to be my pride and joy. I could hold it forever. Do you ever do the plank and leg lifts at the same time? It's a killer!! Now I have more weight to hold up and it's more difficult so it's a work in progress for me now. I have a love/hate relationship with my trainer. He loves doing this "Ready, set, go!" thing with me so I'll squeal "Wait, wait!!" It tickles him every time. Also, I'm totally there with you on the heart disease. My mom had a heart attack at 54 and it's the big killer in my family. When I was younger, vanity was my main reason for losing weight but I guess it wasn't enough motivation. When I turned 40, all of a sudden I realized that I only had probably a dozen more years to live if I didn't lose the weight. Now that is a motivator. Gibby - I'm anxiously awaiting to be where you are now! Congratulations on hitting your goal! I've been curious about something and please feel free to ignore my possibly intrusive question. With a prosthetic leg, how do you gauge your body weight? Did you establish your goal weight on just what feels best for you or did you work off of a table like BMI or something? Bethpen, so sorry to hear about the bicep tear. I know exactly how you feel. You're going along just great, feeling like a champ and then BAM! sidelined and feeling down in the dumps. I eat the worst when I feel sorry for myself so all I can say is that it will heal and you'll be back on top in no time! Hhireno, try to get that weight lifting in your schedule. Nothing burns more calories than having muscle - and it looks good too! Sue, Gibby has great advise about the eating. I'm sure you probably already know what to do - it's just a matter of listening to yourself which is the hardest part of all. If it were me, I would set a plan for the following week to come out of the gate running and start physicing myself up for a great week. I purchased a Bodybugg last year but didn't really get into it - just wasn't in the right frame of mind. My subscription ran out and I remembered that I had it this week. Wow, it's been a great tool. You plug into the program how many pounds per week you want to lose and it tells you how many daily calories to burn (resting metabolic rate + activity) and how many calories to consume. I said I wanted to burn three pounds per week and it told me I need to burn 3050 calories and eat 1550 calories per day. That gives me 100-200 calories more than I have been eating. So I weighed myself this morning and have lost four pounds for the week! I didn't really lose anything last week so some of that is probably left over but I'll take it. Also, I'm winding down the juicing. It really helped me get some control over cravings and I really don't care to eat any sugar. Another benefit, is that I have no desire to eat red meat. We have been a big steak and potatoes kind of family and DH, DS & me are just not into that stuff anymore. I'm going to try to stick with a more vegan with fish sort of diet, it seems to suit us pretty well.