Okay, dachall, you trapped me into this conversation. What follows are some of my latest thoughts and experiments. I agree with you that cornmeal scattered at the base of tomatoes, peppers and basil every two weeks does help to ward off some fungus problems. Spraying with a cornmeal tea once a week also helps. That formula is 1 cup of cornmeal to a gallon of water, let it sit about 36 hours or to the point where it has a sweet, yeasty smell; strain through coffee filters, add a few drops of a surfactant such as lemon dish detergent with NO additives and spray early morning or in the evening. I am now on my third year of trialing the Aspirin Technique for fungus problems on tomatoes, basil and peppers, although Kimm declares it is not organic. I figure that a baby aspirin a day is keeping half the world alive and that there is no harm in using it in the organic garden. That said...here is the formula and how to use it. Dissolve 1 baby aspirin (81 milligrams) in 4 cups of very hot tap water. Allow to sit for at least six hours, buzz with your hand blender, pour in hand sprayer, add 1 drop of lemon detergent with NO ADDITIVES (that means antibacterial junk) and spray in early morning. I begin this treatment when my seedlings grow their second set of leaves and continue the treatment once a week until frost. Suggest those of you interested trial this on a few tomato plants, whatever size they are presently. You should see it resulting in stronger plants with less disease problems. Some thoughts re Verticillium Wilt that run against textbook directions. As far as I know there is no organic or inorganic treatment for it. As Dan points out above VW is naturally present in soils and enters a plant through broken/cut roots. The cultural wisdom of the ages says that when planting you should break up a soil ball and spread the roots. Do we really want to do this when planting those prone to VW? Rather, should we make certain that the soil ball is well dampened, handle it very gently so no roots are broken and gently tuck it in its new home? Would this method help to prevent VW of tomatoes, cabbage, dogwoods, maples, etc? Think about this. Suggestion...on a rainy day do a search for plants prone to VW and keep a list of those you grow so that you will be extra careful planting and digging around them.

I've never actually gotten a straight answer on what the injections cost, but I know a guy around here who did it last year and his huge American Sycamores look great this year. It really pains me how many trees have chronic problems due to accidentally imported diseases and fungi: American Sycamore American Elm American Chestnut Fraser Fir Eastern Hemlock Butternut Dogwood And any tree that gypsy moths eat...

Hey Phase, our weather down here should have something to do with it. It is still pretty cold at night even though it is Spring already. There is another cold front coming in tomorrow and we should get some more Chill hours as the nightly temps are estimated to go down to around 43F. Ong Nurseries Hak Ip and their large Kaimana tree that is planted in the ground is starting to flower when I checked them out today so you may get lucky if they have some males developing soon. If you have just one male flower, the pollen from that male can pollinate hundreds upon hundreds of females as long as you collect the pollen when it is fully ripe but not completely dried out. Just keep your eye on that single male flower and let if fully develope. If you touch the pollen sacs gently with a black card (for contrast) and can see little particles that look like dust on it, then the pollen should be good to go. You want to make sure you don't catch it too late because one strong gust of wind and most of the pollen can be blown away. I used to go to a place called Pacific Tree Farms around the Chula Vista area but I'm not sure if they are still open or not, I thought I heard people saying it has shut down. There is another place called "California Tropical Fruit Trees but they are only open on Sats from 9am to 4pm or Mon-Fri by appointment only. CTFT's is in the Vista area not too far from Exotica. Your flower spikes on your tree may be more tightly clustered because your plant is in the ground and pretty healthy because you innoculated with mycorrhizal fungi and we got a good amount of chill hours this year. Longer less dense flower spikes can be caused by low chill hours. With low chill hours the growth begins with some leaves and small flower spikes which grow long but with very few flower buds inbetween. Just my guess :)

call your county extension office.. and find out how to submit a sample for analysis ... and then compare that to your DIY system ... just to see if they square up ... ive always wanted someone to do this.. please ... just to test the DIY test kits .... you might also discuss with them.. if this particular tree is good for your specific area... they might refer you to the county forester ... or a state forester ... many times.. they simply know the area.. and the basic facts of such.. that we dont .... when i moved out to this county ... i spent an hour in the office.. and got a lot of great general info ... that would have taken me years to figure out on my own ... like well water is neutral.. as is most the soil except for a few specific areas ... county was half sand.. half clay.. i choose sand ... etc ... your county Ag office is an equivalent for many soil issues .... back in suburbia.. i presumed my suburban lot was basically one micro climate.. micro system ... when i moved to 5 acres .. boy did i learn how wrong that presumption is .... i have at least 3 areas ... where forsythia do different things in spring .... bloom.. no bloom.. and in between ... so dont presume... both spots are equivalent.. in all aspects.. not just soil ... e.g. .. perhaps winter wind is worse out front.. compared to the fenced back with trees.... etc ... winter wind is one of the hardest things on a dormant.. non established tree .... of course.. i dont know TX.. so work that out for yourself. .... ken ps: one other thought ... they are not twins .... frankly.. they both look fine in the first pic ... as to getting established.. and prospering ... [not the chlorosis issue] and maybe the only problem is that you think they should look precisely the same .... that just isnt going to happen .... just like kids.. they do their own thing ... most of it .. underground.. where we cant see to compare ...