I just Googled Superthrive to see if I could find a retailer near you. I had no luck. (There may be a retailer link in there somewhere. Personally I found the website so over the top, retro, right out of the fifties that I had a difficult time wading through it all). The website is giving away free samples!

Sounds like the soil we have here in the south except my nemesis is clay. Digging holes and over amending it with much of anything will result in swimming pools that plants will rot in when we do have rain. What I have found is that adding a little additives to the hole, compost or composted pine bark chips, to help with moisture percolation and spreading mulch and organic matter on top of the soil will eventually generate a tilth to the soil in the manner that Mother Nature generates it naturally. The amendments will decompose, attract worms that will till the material deeper into the soil, and will deposit their own natural droppings to the soil which will increase tilth. Another little known thing that adds organic matter to the soil is the natural death and decomposition of root hairs on roots. I suggest you read a good book on permaculture to learn about how people can generate growing conditions and grow plants in less than hospitable conditions. A good one that was a real eye opener to me was a book entitled "Gaia's Garden--A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture" by Toby Hemenway. I wish I had read it years ago when I first started gardening. No one, myself included, is telling you not to use something that makes your life easier, but as is often the case, there is often more than one way to skin a cat and permaculture techniques are a means of accomplishing this which do not involve something that is purchased in a container and are much less expensive in the long run and better for the environment.

I once received a small rooted plant from Sweden. Actually it came from Germany, was mailed to Sweden, and hand carried to Kansas City, where I got it. It had been wrapped in loose wet moss in a ziplock, and it rotted off all the leaves; so, I was left with a stem with a healthy tip (an episcia). I took the moss, squeezed out excess moisture, and potted the stem back into it, in a small regular pot, putting the now potted plant back in the ziplock and placed on the window sill. I was at the convention that week, so it had to make do with a hotel room window sill. By the time I was ready to head home to California (five or six days later), it was starting to recover, with leaves so tiny they needed a microscope to see them ;). It survived its plane ride, went under lights, and grew into a plant, which I now grow. So, the "moral" of this story is: I rooted it in long fiber moss (New Zealand type is best but American long fiber sphagnum moss works well too), in a small pot, enclosed in a ziplock bag and in good light. After it grew a healthy shoot I propagated it again into a standard gesneriad mix (peat, perlite and vermiculite). I agree with Nancy, a shot glass just doesn't sound right. You need a small pot with drainage. When I pot an unrooted cutting, I will take some dry moss and thoroughly wet it to total saturation in the sink, then take it in my hand and squeeze out the water. I take that compressed ball of well squeezed moss, fluff it up again and lightly place it with cutting in the pot, not compacting it at all. In the loose moist moss and enclosed in the bag the roots are exposed to lots of air and very high humidity. They then shoot out through the moss capturing all the moisture. Once you have roots going wild, then a light feeding will speed things up. Jon PS: When you say you got a gesneria, do you mean a plant of the genus gesneria or are you using this word in the old fashioned sense, as a general term for a gesneriad? Really, this term should only be used for plants of the genus Gesneria. Plants in that genus need high humidity, constant moisture, and should never be allowed to dry out. They often are best grown in terrariums or in small pots under enclosures like sweater boxes or domes. Many plants in the genus Gesneria can be hard to root.

GraceNmercy, micorrhizae are indeed fascinating organisms, and research within natural settings continues to show a huge array of species and relationships out there. But.........all research I've seen so far attempting to show a positive response from proprietary products has been dissappointing, save for a few studies in sterile soils such as mine tailings, where a response was noted and measured. So what I'm saying is that, while nature is doing this all over the place, and in ways we've just barely begun to understand, human efforts to provide a beneficial product have mostly failed so far. What you can do to ensure survival of your trees is A) Plant them in native soil-no amendments around the backfill area, B) Inspect root systems when you take them out of their pots and correct or attempt to correct any winding, circling roots you see. Also on that score, some practitioners have actually begun to wash or otherwise remove all of the potting mix, which is almost surely of a drastically different texture than the soil into which the plants will be going. this is to ensure water movement into the original rootball. Remember, there are no roots initially beyond this rootball. If that thing dries out, the plant will die. C) Try to water in a timely fashion. May be easier said than done, I know. FWIW, I've planted thousands of seedlings with no watering ever, and had most survive. Some which went into the ground as little as three and four years ago are now approaching twenty feet in height. So it can work! Mycorrhizal products will come on line at some point, that do actually work. That is my belief and I consider it the future of all cropping systems. We're just not there yet. It's highly complex stuff, and so far at least, I do not believe we've solved issues of survival, proper matching of fungal component to plant species, etc. +oM