No, lack of fertilizing is unlikely to be the cause of lack of taste. They are weeds where they grow native. Usually the main "fertilizing" concerns are getting enough iron to them or they go chlorotic from iron deficiency. I fertilize with some iron in the summer when I put them out but missed it this year. They mostly still look ok though. I can't really tell from the picture but that sort of looks like M. koenigii and sort of doesn't. If there's an issue with scent or flavor its more likely an issue of the variety than whether or not you fertilized. It actually still has a way to go before you could consider it productive. From whence cometh your plant? I'm wondering if it came from a tried and true mother plant or if it is of more anonymous provenance. Nearly all my seedlings did eventually sprout, plus I got some freebie "daughter" plants, and they all smelled like curry leaf plant from the time they sprouted. Just brush them and there is the aroma. I lost a few to container mix experimentation and then a few more to lack of watering when I had a long illness, but I still have 15 or 20 mostly good sized plants now (with some experimentation victims gradually trying to catch up with their more fortunate peers). It's still too small to flower or set fruit, neither of which are likely to happen if it doesn't get plenty of warm weather and proper lighting. Outside mine do better in light shade (I am in a desert region with fierce fierce sun); inside they do better in the strongest sunlight I can manage. You are correct in your assumption, now is not the time to fertilize. With what do you fertilize, btw, and what are you using for your container mix?

Seedmoney, thank you for the Peperomia graveolens ID. Here I thought it was a Crassula ______, for sure. :) I'm sending some cuttings to Stush and at least now we know what it is. In looking up the Cotyledon name you gave me, I think I discovered what #2 is! The Cotyledon orbiculata v. oophylla was very, very similar but my plant actually has each leaf fused to the leaf on the other side, and it stems/branches out vigorously where the one you showed me is much more compact and each "leaf" is individual to the stem (and pretty !). But then looking around, I found Crassula Nudicaulis var. Herrei -- which has that leaf structure. What do you think? Thanks again! Grace

Hi again. So my C. Orbiculata is growing so fast and like I said in my last post, the big bottom leaves are getting pushed down. Not only are they starting to hang over the pot, but I just noticed that one of the big bottom leaves is getting yellow on the tip and shriveling up. I don't really think it's a water issue. I've been using a water meter and water it when it's dry. Do you think I should remove the leaf or should I start watering more to try and save it? I don't want to leave it on if it's going to affect the rest of the plant, but it's so huge that I wouldn't even know how to remove it! PLEASE HELP! I love this plant! Also, if I remove the one big one, should I remove the other, since it probably will face the same demise? I've posted some pics. If you scroll up you can compare and see how much new growth there has been since my last set of pics (the tiny leaves on the plant from my Dec. 29th post are now the almost full grown ones at the top, and there are new tiny leaves growing in! All in less than a month!). I guess this is a winter grower. Sorry about the massive size pics and the amount of them..but I wanted to give a good idea of what's going on. Thanks in advance for ANY advice. Oh, just in case this helps, the width of the big leaves are about 3" at their widest, and the width of where the leaf meets the steam is 1". Whole plant with leaf hanging over (bottom right): Whole plant with even MORE growth: Tip of "Bad" leaf: Another image of "Bad" leaf: Close-up of where leaf meets stem (seems difficult to cut off without damaging plant):

Spade, You sound like you have a scientific background, so I doubt that you are wrong. Strangepeeps: PEPPERS/TOMATOES: There are anecotal reports from folks indicating that they believe clipping off the cotyledons when repotting tomato plants into a deeper pot stimulates growth. The anecdotal reports also indicate that, if you repot your seedlings from one container to another and if you clip off some of the true leaves at that time AND plant deep, you'll get great root growth and topgrowth as well. The question is, does it work? One method of doing this [deeper repotting combined with pinching off leaves (some, not all leaves)] was described in Jeff Cox's wonderful book "Jeff Cox's 100 Greatest Garden Ideas" and is idea #85 "Plant Deep To Reap a Heap of Tomatoes". I tried it for several years and did get very healthy, very vigorous transplants. However, I couldn't tell that I got either earlier tomatoes or larger harvests overall, so I stopped doing it. Both last year and this year I started seeds in peat pellets, pricked them out and potted them up to styrofoam cups once, and they are about ready to do into the ground. The plants look just as good, though slightly smaller, than when I followed Jeff Cox's plan of potting up three times to successively larger containers. I haven't done it with anything other than tomatoes. FRUIT TREES: Like Spade, I don't think picking blossoms off fruit trees is beneficial. My fruit trees always set way more fruit than they can successfully carry to maturity so I have to thin them out once the flowers have fallen and the fruit are small but visable. If you are removing blossoms before you get fruit set, you may inadvertently remove too many flowers that would set fruit and leave too many that weren't pollinated and didn't set fruit. In general, I'm not crazy about attempting to manipulate plants, especially trees. Just let them grow at a natural rate and don't overfeed or overwater and they will grow and develop and perform as Mother Nature intended. MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI: I am too tired to think and talk about this one tonight, but I think maybe Randy is doing something with it. I'll try to remember it and post it tomorrow if I can find the old thread. Do I think it probably works? Yes. Have I tried it? No. Dawn