Toxcrusadr, While never having spoken (conversed) with you before I have read some of your posts and am happy to be able to share a few thoughts with you. As has been stated earlier in this thread, I did my best to keep things simple but do not feel that limit necessary with you, the pleasure is mine. The reason your limit of familiarity with "colloidal humus compost" is due to the fact that the author of the book spoken of coined the phrase is my understanding. Each term stands on its own; however in the original discussion that was the name given to the substance at the time and it has stuck. Humus can develop colloidal properties, yet compost cant; compost can lead to humus, yet humus cannot lead to compost. "Humic substances are key components of a friable (loose) soil structure. Various carbon containing humic substances are key components of soil crumbs (aggregates). Complex carbohydrates synthesized by bacteria and humic substances function together with clay and silt to form soil aggregate. As the humic substances become intimately associated with the mineral fraction of the soil, colloidal complexes of humus-clay and humus-silt aggregates are formed. These aggregates are formed by electrical processes, which increase the cohesive forces that cause very fine soil particles and clay components to attract each other. Once formed these aggregates help create a desirable crumb structure in the top soil, making it more friable." (See link below) While I do enjoy making compost, my larger focus is allowing said compost to develop the largest amount of humic and fulvic acid as possible. And too, auxins, cytokinins, and other grown hormones and enzymes can be present and ready to go to work once the compost is applied to the soil. It is for this reason I constantly stress allowing ones compost be allowed to cure/mature. Those of us who have developed soil with such an organic foundation find we grow plants that refuse to die. As an example, those "Georgia collard greens" in the photo above will live well past a year, growing a stalk over three (3) feet tall, and will harvest collards with a taste to die for. I do have a different understanding of the nature of humic and fulvic acid, with fulvic being much smaller than humic, thus is the main carrier of nutrition in foliar sprays. Fulvic acid and the many wonderful functions it provides for all life on earth is one of my favorite topics so all I will say for now is that once our planet has replaced both fulvic and humic acid in our soils our health will be akin to those collards I just spoke of, in human time. I too will avoid the topic of bio-char as well; I trust you will understand. I do appreciate your insight and sharing of knowledge, it is very much well taken Blutranes @gmail.com

Thanks for the help, everyone. I'll try to get a picture of the tree tomorrow and post it for review/comments/advice. Some thoughts based on comments: --I didn't actually prune it this year. I'd read to prune it after leaf-drop, and it never really dropped all its leaves this year. And by the time I realized that, I was worried it was too late. --I fed the tree a fertilizer they gave me at the nursery. It was Moon Valley, and I have to say I'm stunningly dissapointed with every other part of my interaction, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's not the right product. --Deep watering, check. --Thinning, check. But since it's still not a big guy, perhaps I wasn't being quite aggressive enough. --No leaf curl. Though I believe I did have that last year. Moon valley said it was thrip, but it really, really looked like leaf curl to me.

HH. Someone needs to invent the "beem me up Scottie" technology so that we can all visit each other and lend a hand. Wouldn't that be fun?! Woof! This is Brody. I've never had a problem because we've always had a "loose" dog on patrol. As far as ground critters, I have 5 cats. The only problem they haven't solved is the squirrels that live in our roof (and maybe walls).

I don't know if anyone will remember, but I had a gorgeous 15 year old clivia that was almost completely destroyed by snails last year. I managed to save the largest two pieces with lots of peroxide soaking, sulfur dusting, root cleaning and scalping them of leaves. The largest one, which I had to stump, is doing well, have put out two pups, one growing like mad and the other smaller one coming along nicely. All the smaller pieces died, unfortunately. The smaller of the two plants is growing extremely slowly. It put out a pup, but the main plant seems to be completely stagnant, and has put out no new leaves at all. It seems to be trying to grow, but just isn't doing anything. I had cut the leaves back to about 1 inch from the stump, and it has only gotten one new little tongue of a leaf in the center since then, which just isn't getting any bigger. I have them indoors for now, because it's raining like mad here in FL, and I've found snails in other plants, so I just didn't want to risk it. Plus, I moved to a place with no shade, so indoors is the only safe place for them. I put some balanced timed-release fertilier on them in the spring, and that's when the pups started growing from the stumped on.. I guess my question is what could be wrong with the smaller plant? It is properly rootbound, since I planted it in a size pot that would allow that. It has plenty of roots. Why would the leaves not emerge from the top?