So much depends on your local weather and soil, not to mention the tree type. Where I live, I have sandy loam soils and a virtually rainless summer. However, the winter and spring rains reliably saturate the soil to field capacity. This soil drains well but there is a reliable source of moisture at 18 inches deep and below. Not lots of moisture, but enough for plants to draw on, and it gets replaced constantly by capillary/wicking action from deeper below. This is how our wild blackberries grow foliage and juicy berries with no rain. Not to mention the trees and other perennials. I generally water my newly planted trees liberally for the first year, less for the second year, and maybe a bit on the third year. None thereafter. It's quite possible I'm overdoing it, but I figure better safe than sorry.

photo? Not sure what you are referring to as a seed pod. These trees make hanging inflorescences, which eventually develop into a huge number of red fruits, which have a single seed inside each one nearly as large as the fruit (entire fruit is a little smaller than your typical marble). If you peel away the thin soft layer of fruit, you will find what is the seed pod inside (a small, spherical brown nut) and inside that is the seed. These pods do NOT open on their own- they germinate from within the pods (or sometimes in an animal's gut). Usually there are many many hundreds of fruits per inflorescence. So not sure what you are referring to when you say you see two seed pods.....?

Hi Amanda, I am not too sure coming from seed but I think you are looking at 1 to 2 years. I grew my salvia discolor from a tiny cutting and it flowered in a year, it is actually flowering now and has been for the last 8 weeks.It sure is a beauty.Look under the leaf, the underside is white and the stem is white.Lets hope someone else can be more definate for you. Cheers Annette

In Montana, most of my tomatoes (started by me) become fully ripened in August. However, tomatoes I started this year on 3-25 (and transplanted to 1-gallon pots at some point) ripened in July (early July through the first 3/4 of the month). NOTE: Those started on 3-25 (and transplanted into 5-GALLON pots) ripened earlier--in late June. Transplanting for both sets was the first week of June. (BTW, I have never seen any stress caused by transplanting, no matter the size of my plant/pot. My tomato plants really take off after they go in the ground.) Those started later, on 4-10, have NOT RIPENED as of August 1. ALL of my tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes, ripe or not. This data doesn't give us the same info as comparing the planting of 6" plants vs. 12" ones would, but it shows that starting early CAN produce earlier tomatoes, especially, IMO, if bigger pots are used, as needed. I did, btw, plant some tomatoes in 4" pots (that were very tall and should have been transplanted into 1-gallon pots) at the same time that I planted the ones in 1-gallon pots in the ground. Those made a good effort in catching up, in size at least, but they were just flowering when others had lots of fruit on the vines. Were any of my plants root bound, particularly the ones in 4" pots? Not that I recall. In fact, I need to learn how to produce more root and less growing top because my tomatoes get too tall before transplanting outside (I have them on a southern-facing, plastic-covered back porch WITH a roof, so they don't get full sun, by any means, which is the main reason they get so tall). I like starting plants earlier than recommended, especially since I moved to this colder climate. I believe, if the roots are given plenty of room, this method can produce healthy plants that produce earlier, just like with flowers that you want to bloom earlier. But beware--it's a lot of work to bring all those plants in big pots inside every time the temp looks like it's going to dip below 45 degrees F at night!