Quick update- I have spent all day/night (literally for the past 13 hrs and it is now almost 1am) fretting over the possible death of my guys; reading and reading and becoming more and more confused between the various websites' info. One thing that has not confused me is the confidence everyone on THIS site has in Al's GM [Al, how r u not mass producing this already?! ;-) ] The current status of my guys are that they r not sitting in water but have received 2 very hot and steamy treatments in my bathroom over the course of the night- i am hoping this will mAke due by supplying SOME semblance of water w/o drowning them.... one website I read mentioned letting the roots dry out??? Again- lil Miss Confused over here :-/ All is (hopefully) not lost bc thru my trusty google search and Turface's website, I've located a dealer who is less than 5 miles from me! :-D I'm emailing the unsuspecting manager tomorrow and hopefully will be able to move forward w/ what seems to be one of the hardest of the materials to find. *fingers crossed* I will admit that altho I have pics, I am simply too embarrassed to post them :( and also have further confused myself by reading mentions of the 5:1:1 mix but out of pure exhaustion have not fully read up on-yet. It sounds like Al's GM works for all of my guys including all of the succulents I have managed to NOT kill (yaaaay me!). From the fellow forum members' posts, sounds like I can find the proper bark and granite supplies at my local Home Depot. Al - I know you are out there somewhere and I thank you for sharing this knowledge with the rest of us newbies!!! Will post again RE: the process!

Ahhhhh . . . you may wanna rethink that. Balconies and potted plants are often more trouble for both than one ever would think in advance. The only happy people with balcony plants are those that (1) don't own the balcony, and (2) have no ground floor space at all. That's because balconies and wet pots do not play well together -- think rotted wood wherever that pot drains, unless you can somehow create a "no standing water, ever" drainage way for the watering water. And that's hard to do, in practice, because there's always somewhere that water collects near a pot. And the plants are not usually all that happy either -- balconies tend to be either hot and dry or shaded and damp, and it's hard to find one with decent sun exposure that doesn't get too hot. Many HOA's have "no pots on balconies" rules for exactly that reason, and having been a construction defect lawyer for awhile, I completely understand the need for that rule.

Gary, thanks so much for all that info. This is my third year here. Now and I am a bit wiser by experience. I do need to study up on the florida weather zones. I live between Lakeland and Winterhaven in a little town called Auburndale. I was advised to let them get a little age on them before planting them into the ground, which is my primary intention. My very friendly grower/ dealer suggested that palms are tender until established and would even benefit from partial shade until they have a years growth out of the greenhouse, as in a pot. I find asking AND following the advise of the wiser is the only way to go. Hmm now I have to admit I am somewhat confused as to wether I should put them in the shed or not. Other then the warmth of our mobile they have no protection. The mobiles don't have overhangs or gutters. I have lost 2 coconut palms one during each of the first two years I was here. The first one I left in a pot and the second one went into the grown. Both died. Now onto the living palms. Someone mentioned something about the rainy season causing them to get to much water. OK maybe my concerns are a bit on the side of overkill. Like i said Last year I lost 19 seedling palms. I bought 3 or 4 each month at approx 5 bucks a piece plus shipping and handling, any way I lost between $150 and $200 and that was last year.. This year I bought less often and smaller quanities and ALL were listed cold hardy. I just dont want to loose it all. I am also guessing that I should NOT fertilize till spring.

I put some yard waste compost. A couple inches. And every 2 week I spray neptune harvest fish seaweed fertilizer