I think we all can agree that beating a dead horse is useless, but this one still has a little life in it! Bboy, I do know there are people that analyze their food intake for such parameters as calories, etc. yet in my 54 years of experience in eating, I have consistently been able to gauge proper amounts to eat using the "eyeball method". This really works! Now about these soil tests many are saying are necessary, the one key thing they will not tell you is the N status in the soil. And in nearly every case, whether in the managed landscape, or in a woods, the addition of N will yield a positive response. So, from that perspective, can we say the N was "needed"? Maybe, maybe not. Again, it depends on the goals for the given plant(s). And now, a little about tree roots. The fine absorptive roots are not permanent. They are used up, primarily during the summer, and new ones are regenerated, with the Fall season being one of the key times when this can happen. As such, Fall can indeed be a good time to add some N to the system to aid in this regeneration. The basic rule is that soil temps must be at or above around 50 degrees F for this growth to be taking place. Adequate soil moisture need be present as well. Thetman, your experience of applying hollytone to that one tree is interesting: This would seem to indicate there was either a nutrient deficiency in the soil, or a pH problem making one or more nutrients unavailable to the plant. However, as far as I know, the genus Thuja is not one having very narrow soil pH parameters, and in fact, our own T. occidentalis in my rgion has a strong affinity for higher pH soils, or at least, those soils having a good supply of calcium/magnesium, which goes a long way towards explaining why, of all parts of the state I live in, they are most numerous and vigorous here in the east, where we are underlain by dolomite, a form of limestone high in both of those minerals. And this makes me wonder if the GGs are that different that an acid-type fertilizer....Hollytone....would elicit such a strong response. But soil buffering capacity could account for this otherwise "wrong" fert. type still working! As you can see, there's quite a bit to this, and I could really bring in a lot more, but won't for now. That's one of the reasons why I say, if you want to fertilize, go ahead, but keep it on the mellow side. +oM

Hello from Ft. Lauderdale, I am the go-to guy in my nursery for ideas, answers to questions, etc. I sell hundreds of both palms each month, and can tell you the basic visual difference. Cat palms are considered understory palms (in nature, grows under the canopy of taller plants) so are conditioned to like shadier areas during the heat of the day. They like LOTS of water, can actually take being overwatered, but no drought. They grow to about 7 or 8 ft. tall in the ground, often shorter in a pot. The stems of a cat palm are rather bulbous towards the bottom as compared to the pencil-thin and pencil-shaped stems of the areca palm. The cat palm has relatively few stems, perhaps a dozen in a 10 inch pot, the areca many, many usually thinner stems. The areca will grow to 18 to 20 ft. tall in the ground with the stems growing correspondently thicker, and by necessity is fine in full sun, and to perhaps 10 or 12 ft. in a large pot. The cat palm will therefore take more shade for a longer time (indoors, for example) as long as adequate food and water are applied. Cat palms can tolerate full sun, but will usually get an overall yellowish appearance in the leaves from too much sun, which will green up again when the hot summer weather turns cooler.

I have been growing palms a long time and I have seen professional grower's techniques and methods, some who have been doing this for a living for over 30 years. We all find that for almost all palms, the smaller the pot (to some extent) the faster and better the palms will grow. This is mostly likely due to the improved drainage and speed at which the water and nutrients pass by the root hairs (most palm roots dislike sitting in wet, sloggy or inactve soils unless they are ultratropical palms that normally live that way). But there is something more to it than that. It's as if the palms do better as soon as their roots hit a surface, like the sides or bottom of the pot (sides, more likely). Otherwise one could just add more pumice or large materials to the soil to make the soild drain faster in larger pots. I have tried this but it does little to speed things up. Palms definitely like to 'feel' the limitations of their growing situation for some reason- I am sure someone with a better understanding of palm biology and soil science can explain this, but that is why professional palm growers never grow their palms in larger pots (no, it's not to save space or soil). Planting a palm in a larger pot I think would sure cut down on the repotting times and efforts, but the fact is simply palms grow faster the more their roots are confined (there is a point of course at which this confinement is problematic and the growth rate declines... but it is amazing how extremely pot bound a palm has to be for this point to be reached). I know growers who never pot up a palm until it has split the pot. I know other growers who pot up palms unscrupulously too early just so it looks like you're getting a bigger plant because it's in a bigger pot, too, but fortunately I know fewer of those types than the other. I have purchased many a palm from these people and noticed that the newly repotted palm goes through a long period of 'sulking' where it does not grow and its rootball remains in the original size and shape it was in the previous much smaller pot for some time. It does appear this 'shock' of the roots no longer being confined markedly slows the palm's growth down. Dr. Hodel, a PhD in biology, specializing in palms, has done numerous experiments on planting and growing palms, and has found that this is indeed the case for many species of palm (all common ones of course... hard to do research on rarer species due to the cost restraints... and the rarer species comparatively slower growth rates). His conclusions have included digging narrow holes barely any larger than the size of the pot when planting palms in the ground to decrease this sulking time. He also has found that back filling these holes with the same soil that was dug out of them works as well if not better than putting in 'ideal' or ammended soils in the hole (a somewhat unrelated topic, but interesting to me, as well). Anyway, though it may seem counterintuitive, it does indeed seem that the smaller the pot, the faster a palm will grow (I think at some point in a palm's maturity, this may no longer be the case as the large palm's nutritional needs exceed this need for root confinement). But it never ceases to amaze me when I go to Home Depot and see these monstrous, healthy Queen palms, some over 20' tall, growing in pots literally the same diameter as their emerging trunks, and the split pots with the roots making their way out the bottom holes and splits.

Are you using these products to avoid topicals or orals for your pooch? It would be so much easier just to treat the dog and not use BBG or DE, both of which might not be so good for the dog or the environment. I worry about inhaling DE. I was terribly concerned about giving my dog a product like Frontline, but I found a site which rated some of the flea products as to their safety for the dog, and I finally settled on Comfortis which I stretch out beyond the 30-day application period. Seems to be working ok so far. I'll give you a link to the site in case you are interested. Just my 2 cents, and I hope you get something settled for your dog because it surely is torturous having fleas, and you don't want them in the house either! Good luck. (Good looking dog, by the way!) Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Resources Defense