It only takes minutes after application for soluble fertilizers to make their way into the plant's nutrient stream. Many nutrients need to be in the nutrient stream constantly for the plant to grow normally. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are considered mobile nutrients and are readily borrowed from one plant part to sustain other parts, particularly strong sinks like new growth o flowers/fruit. Calcium and boron are usually considered immobile nutrients, and need to be in the nutrient stream at all times for normal growth to occur. Sulfur, chloride, copper, zinc, manganese, iron and molybdenum are intermediate in mobility, and only under certain circumstances are intermediate elements mobile. The mobility of the intermediate mobile nutrients is usually linked to the breakdown of amino acids and proteins in older parts of the plant under low nitrogen conditions and their movement to younger parts of the plant via the phloem stream. Again though, unless nitrogen availability is good, these elements are mostly immobile. That it rains doesn't mean all the fertilizer you applied is washed from the soil. Elements attach themselves to colloidal surfaces and tend to remain there to some degree until they are exchanged. Cation exchange in soils occurs when root hairs utilize proton pumps to pump hydrogen ions (H+) into the soil. The hydrogen ions effectively displace the cations that are attached to negatively charged colloidal surfaces, making the cations available then for root uptake and incorporation into the nutrient stream. AL

Yes .. this is true .. on a process level there are differences but still wound closure can be very complete leaving only a relatively minute "scar" and along with included branch wood below the surface still sound and intact. Cavities are not the norm but the result of poorly planned wounds or inadvertant wounding encountered as the tree grows under less then ideal conditions. Ofcourse nothing is 100 % ... but trees move slowly. As a japanese gardener who wishes to manipulate trees it would seem to be of benafit to understand how to work with the trees system ... in some respects Shigo was a bit "rigid" in his tree work .. his original goal was working with trees for lumber straight trees with little defects .. many arborist I work with are also rigid. There is a trend against manipulating plant materials as if it can't be done in a sound manner. Topping we all know is bad for a tree but some have suggested pollarding as not good for a tree .. one arborist well respected locally used to point out the difference between topping and well planned pollarding .. a pruning art he called it .. but later perhaps under pressure from the days dogma .. has avoided mentioning pollarding at all .. kinda a taboo subject in a crowd of arborist these days. Can we manipulate plant materials and still have a sound tree given we understand the trees biology /growth ect..?? To what extent ? Is a bonsai tree biologicaly stable as a "textbook" well pruned Oak ? Are Japanese gardens biologicaly sound ? Good Day ...

I think those suckers were pretty THICK. For thicker suckers you should use the "Missouri pruning" method. > Thicker suckers should not be snapped off, since could damage the whole plant .If it's thicker than a pencil, use the "Missouri pruning" method: pinch out just the tip of the sucker, leaving one or two leaves behind for photosynthesis and to protect developing fruit from sun scald. The drawback is that suckers will develop from the stem that you leave behind, which will require additional pruning, but this technique is better when you're dealing with large suckers--if wound becomes diseased, it will be further away from the main stem, and leaving a few inches on the sucker reduces the shock to the plant. Prune suckers all summer long to keep the plant healthy. They grow quickly, so you may need to prune once or twice a week.

Hey walkin -- I'm *far* from an expert on this--people here helped me on the one I've done. I bought a kit of the precut wood and MDF parts, complete with screws and such, truth be told, just because I didn't want to have to do all the measuring and cutting--sometimes I hit "tilt" and have to take the easy way out. The kit was from eBay. We did buy better foam, however, than the kit came with. And we also wrapped it. Probably way overdoing it. It wasn't hard at all, in fact rather enjoyable in an instant-gratification kind of way (esp. since I didn't have to do the cutting :))--we did do two rows of staples, alternating spaces kind of like sewing stitches, because the fabric seemed to pull between the stitches so I wanted it anchored completely. We didn't edge it with wood, but we could--we just did a simple rectangle which extends 24" above the surface of the mattress (we have a high mattress--if you were to purchase the same set and not have as high a mattress setup, it would be taller unless you cut it down). We love the simple lines. It would be easy to put wood around this if we chose to, or to make a slipcover for it down the line.