How in the world are all 3 fitting in a peat pot? 6-8 month old seedlings should be about 8" tall with quite a bit of foliage. I'd carefully try to separate them and plant in individual containers. If they are stunted from being crowded in a small pot I wouldn't bump them up too much, maybe a 4" pot. I transplant seedlings when they have a couple sets of true leaves and give them a diluted fertilizer at first. By the time they are a few months old they get full strength fertilizer. I wouldn't feed your plumie seedlings just after transplanting but would give them some Superthrive or B1 to help with transplant shock. Give them a couple weeks in their new containers before feeding.

It's always tempting with any plant, not just trees, to buy the biggest one which often is a plant left over from last year. I've made that mistake more than once. The advice is to buy the current years offerings to avoid the root bound problem. Sometimes the older root bound plant will grow and thrive, especially if you loosen the roots, but not always. I bought a couple of large Mediterranean palms in 4 or 5 gal. pots for $10 each once and thought I got a bargain. Inside the pots it was just a mass of roots. I loosened them the best I could although the roots were very stiff, and nursed them along for two or three years and the darn things just sulked and never would grow. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes.

We smoke 2-3 times per week. In fact, we are smoking ham and corn on the cob today, by request of our son who is visiting. The Smoke Vault we got in December is huge (24"W x 16"D with four racks) compared to the worn out smoker we used previously. Mesquite is probably our least favorite wood to smoke with; alder, wild cherry, apple, pecan, hickory, etc. are favored. To smoke corn, just tie cooking string around the cob end to hold the husks in place and soak in cold water until ready to smoke. After it has been cooked, and cooled enough to handle, just remove the husks and silk. The silk is much, much easier to remove after cooking--saves a lot of time! --------------------------------------- I am a bit between learning new skills or adopting a fresh hobby/area of interest right now. Will have to wait until something strikes my fancy. We downloaded Windows 10 this week. Learning how to tweak it should keep me busy for a little while. Please let this one be the last; I was happy with the Windows 7 and would rather not have had to switch. But I learned from XP that there is no sense putting off this one because, too soon, nothing will work properly without support. It was pleasantly surprising how little difference there was using the computer after Windows 10 was installed, especially after reading some of the thread posts I saw in KT not long ago.

Hi, I'm in Maryland, Zone 7A. We did have a pretty cold winter with about a week below 20 degrees and single digits on a few nights. Then we had the big snow fall of about 28" that's finally pretty much gone now. I don't know how they would have done outside this winter. I suppose the question is how soon I can put them in the ground outside. i.e. Just go ahead and plant them, or wait until it's likely not going to be freezing, or wait until after the average last frost date (April 15th)? We are definitely not done with it being below freezing at night (likely at least once a week), and I wouldn't be shocked if we had another night or two in the teens. I know boxwoods aren't necessarily tender plants, but they're still little and have never been outside. Thanks for your help.