I agree with the carefully separate with minimal root disturbance and keep out of sun for a few days part, but plants in a wet or damp soil are much more difficult to separate, and roots that are somewhat limp from temporary drought stress are more durable and don't break as easily as turgid roots in damp soils. I would let them dry down to the point where you even begin to see the first signs of wilt before performing the separation quickly, then replant and water in well. We take advantage of this physiologic response to dry conditions in bonsai by doing our repots for the reason mentioned, and also planning any extreme bending of branches or trunks for when we know soils are very dry and tissues more flexible. Al

What are you talking about, Joe??? I didn't do any claims about a language barrier at any time! Right, there was grizzman who pointed out as quoted: >>I believe the whole misunderstanding came from the fact english is not jean-luc's native tongue.Actually YOU alone were pointing out for the language barrier earlier, - well actually pretended that you didn't believe there was any! And here is the exact quote of what I added as a conclusion to my explanation about my cultural background: >> I am not proud of any of it nor claim any sort of special treatment, though! If there is any suspicion that something got lost in translation, the best way is to ask in case of confusion!Right, I Didn't claim anything so far, - on the contrary: I insisted on not wanting any special treatment! What you are pretending here is just ridiculously false and another unjustified offense on top of the others. You trying to frame me here or what? If you do not like me, just say it - but stick with real facts and the TRUTH then! But anyway all these personal attacks (as in this stupid ad hominem argumentation, that goes on and on) don't make any of the contradictory claims about best formulas (with extremely high P or K content or high concentration) more plausible or credible. And my claims on the topic get neither proven wrong nor false either. I have no problem with disagreement at all! But if someone quickly stops by and wants to discredit with just one or two critic sentences, what I meticulously worked out and wrote, I simply don't accept it! Personal attacks that are only made up as diversionary tactics to cover for one's own lack of knowledge, are even worse! As to me it is clear disrespect and insult in the first place. And simple Quit pro Quo is the only answer I have got to that! And that is exactly what you can expect from me and generously have gotten now. ;-) Cheers my friend, have a wonderful sunday!

Sorry I didn't get back to the thread sooner. I'll take a couple photos and post them. I haven't checked under the leaves for critters, but other than that I haven't seen evidence when working around the plants. It has been a weird year weather wise and the bugs have been busy. We had a massive Japanese beetle infestation on one single tree (a linden) which has never happened before.

You would think with our 4-10% humidity all summer long, the only problem I’d not have is mold. I don’t know what else it could be though - and I’ve now seen it on about 4-5 of the plants. It’s always just on a portion of the stem, and I’ve left it there after a couple times of rubbing it off with rubbing alcohol. But it does seem to have started after I started afternoon watering. But with our ridiculous temps being in the 100-114 range already (and it’s not even our hottest months!!), watering late seems to keep them most prepared for the next day’s onslaught of heat and endless sun. Or maybe I’m imagining it. That was a Sinahuisa, I believe, because I remember thinking it’s good that it happened on that one because I have a much slower seedling that I put aside, which I could grow out of this succumbed to whatever this white stuff is. I only have two pepper plants where I grew out more than one. That said, so far, it doesn’t seem to spread up or down the stem any further and when removed, there’s no scarring or any noticeable damage. No sign of mealies or anything else alive. Now I just leave it there on the plants that have it. I have bigger fish to fry as shown below. Five of these have mowed down three plants overnight. I could scream. Actually, I did scream. Haha.