There are upright and prostrate forms of P afra, and only the upright lends itself willingly to the formation of a heavy trunk. If you don't have the upright form, remind me come May, and I'll make sure you get started cuttings if you'd like them. Determining whether a soil is good or bad depends on what you're contrasting them with. MG isn't so bad when compared to all the other commercially prepared soils as a group, and that are commonly available and used for houseplants; but, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being perfect and 1 being almost unusable, I'd rate it at about a 3-4 - LOTS of room for improvement. When you think of potting soils and what to use as your base, think of larger particles, like pine bark or other inorganic particles much larger than peat particles. In your mind's eye, picture a soil made of particles the size of BBs, and see all the healthy air spaces between the BBs. No matter how much water you pour on the soil, those air spaces won't fill with water. Now imagine a soil based on peat, compost, topsoil, sand ..... The air spaces between particles are very small and tend to fill up with water when you water - like you said the peat your plants are in does. If you mix the peat and BBs 50/50, the peat just fills in around the BBs, robbing the BBs of their air space, so a soil that has mostly larger particles and very few fine particles so the air spaces stay open is going to be much healthier for roots than a soil with all the little air pores filled with water. The primary difference between these two types of soils is that because the more open soils hold less water, you need to water more frequently. You'll need to decide if the extra effort is worth greater promise for your plants to grow to the potential they were genetically programmed for. There are 2 sides to that coin. Some feel the soils that I and many others grow in hold too little water, and robs them of the convenience of longer intervals between waterings, but since we build these soils with the plant's well being in mind, I know without doubt that soils that offer extended intervals between waterings hold too much water to NOT be limiting in their effect on growth and vitality. One of the most important considerations is that well-aerated and fast-draining soils are far more forgiving and much easier to grow in. They forgive your watering mistakes readily, as long as you don't FORGET to water, and make fertilizing easy. Because they promote such healthy root systems, they have the potential to produce much healthier plants with robust metabolisms that make the plant better able to resist insects and diseases. I'll leave you a link below to some information that explains the soil/water relationship. An understanding of the concept it defines almost automatically puts you far ahead of other container gardeners as a group. It shouldn't be too difficult to see what other growers that have read and applied it think. There are other threads similar to that one about other aspects of container culture, like nutritional supplementation, when/if you're ready to move on ..... or you can just not respond & I'll take that as a 'not interested'. The comments I left on YM's thread today might also be of interest. What my houseplant's feet are in: Al Here is a link that might be useful: I'd like to see you put this in your tool box!

Might have to do with your curing method, variety or storage conditions. I kept my 'Spanish Roja' in a cool, dry and dark spot in the basement after harvest and 3-4 weeks of drying. I planted mine 3 weeks ago and have about 75-80% sprouting. Could also be planting depth? hortster

Where do you live? France is a big place. And does it snow in your area? Here is some general info on lawns. Ignore your neighbor. He's trying to intimidate you and set you up to fail. Plant new seed only in the fall. Start in the early fall. That might be August or it might be September depending on where you live. You seem to have done it pretty well - perhaps by accident. Not rototilling was excellent. Rototilling is a big mistake that a lot of new gardeners make. See if you can rent a roller. You only need it once the first time you seed a big yard. After that, for annual overseeding, you can simply walk on the new seed to press it down onto the soil. Water new very lightly 3x per day, every day, until you get 80% germination. For the shade grass you planted that would be 3 weeks. If you have shade type grass, I'm assuming it's a fescue. Fescue should be mulch mowed at the mower's highest setting most of the time. If it gets hot in the summer, then mow every other week. The idea is to develop deeper roots to get water from deeper places in the soil. Fertilize for the first time on Fête du huitième mai or Jour de la Victoire 45 (same date different name). Fertilize again on Assomption and for the last time on or about Jour d'armistice. With the new lawn skip Jour d'armistice for this year. National holidays are easier to remember than specific dates. If you want to use organic fertilizer, you can do that any time including now. The application rate for organics is almost always 7 kg per 100 square meters. I like to use alfalfa pellets (lapin chow) as a fertilizer. Get them from a local feed store in 20-kilo bags. They really work. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 3 cm all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps from 33-38 deep water once per week. With temps from 25-32 deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps from 21-24 deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 21, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. In the USA this deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont (for Oz think Hobart to Darwin including Alice Springs), so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. These are in reverse order of importance. Watering is key to getting a good lawn with the fewest problems. Weeds: Spot spray a liquid herbicide in mid April and again in mid September.

Seaweed is supposed to have low levels of both auxins and cytokinin. They are also unstable and exposed to elements they break down quickly. I have not done what I suggested myself since I did not face a situation like yours. There are artificial cytokinins but they are tricky to use properly. The dilution has to be very precisely controlled. Nurseries and commercial growers use them in all sorts of fancy ways to increase fruit production. May is a bit late to ship bare-root but it is still OK. General rule for pruning deciduous/evergreen tree when they are growing is to prune just above at least one or two leaves or a branch with a few leaves. Otherwise it may end up in branch death. When they are dormant, you can be more aggressive with established deciduous plants as long as they are strong and healthy. I do that frequently. Scratch the bark off in a little spot in the top inch of the scion and see if you notice any green. If it is green the scion is still alive. If not then try a little lower. Use a knife to scrape the bark. I bet the bark is pretty thin and should scrape off. Since your scion is not showing any sign of growth, I would let one branch grow from the rootstock and keep that pruned to 5-6 leaves. Keep the height of the rootstock branch below the first bud on the scion. That will keep the juices flowing and feed the roots. If the scion is still alive it may push growth. I will be inclined to provide all day shade for that plant.