Good questions Brady. I will only comment on what I have observed with my plants in my area because I haven't been doing this long enough to say what's right or wrong. Im defiantly still in the learning curve with my plants. With Rabbiteyes I think there are a few things to consider. I live right next to the gulf of mexico, with in 1 mile of Galveston Bay. Needless to say its very humid here in a normal year. Add a very wet spring on top of that and leaf fungus becomes a issue with the spring flush of growth. My limited experience with them has shown me they are more sensitive than SHB to really humid/rainy conditions when it comes to leaf fungus and premature leaf drop. I saw this last spring. In a dryer environment it's probably not a big deal? Can't say cause I don't live in a dry environment. Because of that I tend to prune to keep the center of the bush open which seemed to help with my fungus issue. Also some varieties of Rabbiteyes can get very tall and I'm not crazy about breaking out a ladder to pick fruit. What I've doin the past 2 years is after harvest I cut the fruiting canes back to about four feet. By the end of the season they are right back to 7ft or so when they stop growing. Perfect for picking I'm my mind. Now some varieties are more up right while some are more spreading so prune accordingly. Also in late winter I will do a light prune to thin fruit buds on the tips of branches. I dont know if I even need to do this as I obviously thin next years crop by topping back the plants at 4ft but I do it any way. I leave 5 to 6 fruit buds but I may really be shorting my self on fruit. Maybe some one can correct me here? I do know that berry size has not been a problem. They are very large so far. Chill hours have also been a concern for me here with Rabbiteyes. From looking at a chill hour chart for my area we only received 180 or so chill hours in 2011-2012. For some reason it didn't seem to effect any of my Rabbiteyes negatively. They all fruited and leafed out fine. This year I'm showing 250 or so chill hours so it should be a good year for them if the past holds true. All mine fall in the 300-450 chill requirement. Maybe excessive pruning is keeping them fruiting and growing???? I don't know,,,, I would think lack of chill hours would keep them from fruiting and leafing out but I haven't seen that yet??? SHB are a little different. Now keep in mind I'm growing all my SHB in pots with the exception of one Emerald. I can tell you this, the one Emerald in my raised bed is massive compared to my potted plants. It's actually wider, just as tall and much more impressive than my rabbiteyes! Now with SHB it's all about controlling crop load as a over producing plant can bring on unwanted disease. Stem blight is bad one that can kill a plant in a matter of months. How much fruit is too much??? Don't know and don't want to find out. I'm not in it to push a plant, I'm in it to feed my 3 boys home grown organic goodness! I have pretty much followed Fruitnuts and Bams advice on pruning them. Prune heavy after harvest and a light bud pruning in late Jan before the buds break to control crop load. I've gone with 5-6 fruit buds on all the major branches. All small thin branches or weak shoots that spout in the fall get pruned out in Jan. So far so good. I haven't had leaf fungus problems on them like the rabbiteyes, at least not yet. I do tend to prune with more of a open center though with SHB also just in case. Keep in mind I tend to over kill everything so take my post with a grain of salt. I try to be as proactive as possible rather than reactive and that's probably helped me more to this point than anything.

I think I have said before that I get whatever hostas I like to look at, regardless of their parentage. I read Tony's info years ago after I was already growing some of the ones he would not recommend for my zone. Too late for me. As long as you can give them the required number of chill hours they will be fine. Of course, none of them will be as magnificient as the ones that get a good hard long freezing nap, but that is the trade off we make by having mild winters...and wanting our cake and eating it too. I'm happy as long as I have a place to tuck them away after they go dormant so I don't have to look at bare dirt filled pots. Then I can gaze upon all the wonderful broadleaf evergreen plants that flower during the Winter months. I have a weenie little lot with a Japanese style garden and space is at super premium here. Hey, Mocc... get out your Q-tips, brushes and baggies and do some controlled crossing and see what you get. ;-) -Babka

Deep frosty winters kill germs and build character. We've built up a LOT of character here near Lake Michigan over the last three winters, with 50" snowfalls. I don't mind the cold -- since I don't have to be out in it -- but I do mind less cold *grey sky* days. The other three seasons are *beautiful*, and we escape to Maui for a few weeks to break the winter. I wouldn't feel at home in The South, Florida, Arizona or California. So...how did the book tour go? Worth the effort? Stay in any nice hotels? Enjoy Room Service? Any good restaurant meals? (Bet you are glad to be home and cook what you like!)

Hey Marshall, here's my tips to help ya out: -Root Pouches (or smart pots) 15 gal or larger are great for fruit trees since they prune the roots. Bigger the better. I'd probably go with 30 for most of my new trees in pots. I get mine from greenhousemegastore.com -5-1-1 is too fast a mix for root pouches. Figs wilt, peaches shrink, etc and you'd need to water like 3 times a day. 5-1-1 is great for normal containers. Though, once you're into fruit trees, it takes a lifetime to sift hundreds of gallons of 5-1-1. I just use patio plus. -Perched water tables are less of an issue for fruit trees since they're so aggressive. Sitting water is bad but, as you know, if you've ever potted up a 5 or 15 gal in nursery mix, the roots completely dominate the pot. -I go straight kellogg's patio plus for trees and brambles or dr earth for veggies. -With root pouches and root pruning, the trees are basically dwarfed like bonsai. Except for the crazy varieties like avocados which can't handle pots. -If one buys the cheap root pouches, you can just cut them off the plant every couple of seasons for some deeper root pruning or repotting. It's way easier working with big trees that way. -Al's Osmocote Plus and Foliage Pro is the best fert setup I've found. I'd look at Fertigators like Dosatron or Mixrite for the ultimate fertilizer setup. -New varieties of blackberries (prime ark freedom) and blueberries are made for warmer climates and do really well in containers. -I don't bother with dwarf varieties because of the bonsai effect. But dwarf citrus are the only ones I get. All others are just normal trees and I keep in 15-30 gal. -Any deciduous is easier in a normal pot -- simply root prune every winter and repot. -Biggest tip for first time fruit tree growers in containers: only grow what you can carry. Get a dolly to move them around.