Lamora, waiting a few days before repotting was a good idea. Some authors suggest waiting six-months, but when roots pop out of drainage holes, it's time to repot. If the pot is too large there will be problems. The max is 2" larger than the rootball. Miracle Gro is good soil, but it should be amended with other mediums like Perlite. MG has some Perlite mixed in, but not enough. So, if you decide to reduce pot size, add Perlite with MG. After repotting, 'pot needs drainage holes,' water thoroughly. Place in a bright to sunny spot, and let be. Watering depends on pot size, air moisture, and heat/cool temps. Soil should dry between waterings. Three ways to test soil is, 1. insert your finger or a thin stick deep in soil..if it comes out moist/wet, bottom soil is still wet. Don't water. 2. Lift pot. If it's heavy, soil is damp to wet. Don't water. If light, give it a drink. 3. Water guages. Don't bother with the little cardboard types..they're trash. If you want a decent guage, buy one at a reputable shop. But, inserting a stake/finger is the best, and econical way. No need spending money. Lamora..you didn't fail your plant. Losing plants is part of gardening and a way of learning. All gardeners, in and out, lost plants at times. We learn by our mistakes. Correct what we did wrong with the first plant. So, please don't feel bad. There are two other methods I use and find very helpful. you might or might not be interested. One is misting plants daily. Sprayers are inexpensive. The second is a product called Superthive. Superthrive contains hormones and 50 Vitamins. It does wonders with sick plants, seedlings or healthy plants that need a boost. It is not a fertilizer. In fact, it can be used with fertilizer, but not to be confused as a fertilizer. Neither methods are needed, but as a long-time gardener, I've been using/doing both over 20 yrs. Actually longer, but I won't go there, lol. Hope your Spider does well...Toni

debndulcy, The best thing you can do is just be patient. It's going to take a few years before your new plants will take off. You have to consider that you've just taken away your plants access to nutrients and it has to start all over just like a seed would. Look at how many roots are on the plants you buy, this doesn't happen overnight it takes a long time and a lot of man hours to get those plants looking that good.Then look at how few roots are on your cuttings. You've already done the hard part now just take good care of them for about 2 or 3 years they will be fine. Regular fertilizing and watering is the fastest way along with long hours of light. Long hours under lights will make the difference I'm sure. I have some hydrangea cuttings that I've been nursing for 2 years and they may finally be able to be put in the ground next year. I hope. I just stuck some mum cuttings about 3 or 4 weeks ago and still have my fingers crossed. Anyway Good Luck and just have fun with it.

So the op's question was answered that it will recover even though it has been heavily 'pruned'. And expect a much lower yield in fruit... I can't wrap my head around those that do not prune can't wrap their head around those that do... I prune because i want more varieties in a smaller space and need to go 'up' with trellising and protect from critters and bunnies and such... My neighbor wants volume and grows 30 plums, two varieties, so he can make sauce.... removes skins, and all the watery seeds cavities...then cooks to death... I want fresh and many varieties...many oxhearts that do so well for me and are meaty, not watery...freeze whole, roast then freeze, etc. at the end of season. Much different wants and needs and desires. He did not want any of my extra plants this year. I might just stick them out in the field with the sunflower rows...let them be...and might get the best crop of my life! : )

"...cindylou, imagine if you can what it would be like after all you and your husband have experienced with your MIL if your own children grew up and estranged you..." If I had a child who estranged me, I would not think it had anything to do or not to do with my MIL. I would not think that they owed me a relationship because I tolerated my MIL (maybe I misunderstood what you meant by connecting my MIL into that idea). If my child estranged me suddenly and with no warning and if I asked and they said, "You know", and I truly didn't, I would make the assumption they didn't quite didn't know themselves. That they have feelings and upsets they don't quite understand themselves and that they needed time away from me to work them out. (This is assuming there's no mental illness or addiction. If there is mental illness or addiction, then I do know and frankly, maybe I'm just getting too old, but I've seen the hopelessness and heartache of addiction and mental illness, and I think I'd just be grateful for being cut out). More likely, I would have been told the answer. And I'd accept it, even if it didn't make sense. "Because you wore blue to my kindergaren graduation." Huh? Ok. I don't think I'd argue. I can't imagine arguing with an adult child. They are an adult. I barely argue with them now. My parents didn't argue with me, I never saw them argue with their parents. My aunts and uncles on both sides didn't argue with either their adult children or their parents. It's just not done. I can't imagine it. There are differences of opinion and hurt feelings and misunderstandings and on rare occasions, conflict between adult members of my extended family. Of course there is. But everyone seems to understand a basic rule. I live my life and you live yours, and I can offer my opinion and it's fair if you don't follow it. The person who's business it is, gets the final say. The person who has the most responsibility gets to decide. The person who takes the biggest risk chooses. We are none of us perfect people; but we don't squabble and manipulate and gang up on each other and form one alliance and then another to force family members to do what we want. And we don't stab each other in the back. That's such a bizarre concept to me. And we are very close--without melodrama. There's not a lot of conflict. So if a child told me, "I don't want contact from you because you wouldn't let me go to Aruba on spring break." I'd respect that. I'd figure sooner or later they'd understand. Or if not, sooner or later it wouldn't matter any more. I would absolutely believe that eventually they'd come back. Not the way they were, it wouldn't be the same relationship, but had we stayed close, it wouldn't be the same relationship at 30 as it was at 20 or 10. Would I miss them and be hurt. You bet. But I'd be comforted that I would see them again and focus on the other blessings of my life while I waited. I truly believe that if you love something you let it go, and if it loves you, it will come back. And if it doesn't come back, you never had it to begin with. If after 10 or 20 years there was still no contact, I'd have to face the fact that it's probably for the best. We didn't have the relationship I thought we had; I didn't know them, and we obviously weren't a match even if they have half my DNA. Do I hope to have close, intimate relationships with the families of my adult children? Of course. But I will be happy with any non exploitive relationship my children feel comfortable with. I may want more contact or less, depending on the personalities, but perfection doesn't happen in relationships; it's like tension between togetherness and individuality that has to be worked out in a marriage. When your children are adults with families, you renegotiate your relationship, and if it REALLY doesn't work for someone, you might have to walk away. Sad, painful, but realistic. I have a coworker who is retiring and moving to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren. They are delighted to have her. On a recent house hunting trip she was dismayed that her daughter seemed to expect/demand a lot of babysitting from her. She's not moving there to take on the responsibility of babysitting her grandchildren, altho she does hope to see a lot of them and participate in their lives. Things were tense as she attempted to come to understanding with her daughter. She came back and asked if things don't work out in the other state, can she have her job back. I sometimes in the past had wondered if she's a meddling MIL so much does she talk about her grandchildren. But I see now she's got a life outside them and is not exploiting her daughter's family to fill the emptiness (if any) in her own life. And she's not going to allow herself to be exploited by her daughter however much she loves her family. She sees her standing up for herself may result in a cut off; and I respect her handling of this delicate situation. I'm sure it will all work out, but I can see myself in her place; in any relationship, there's always the possibility that you or the other person will walk away for whatever reason. You may think, oh yeah, you are so philosophical, just wait until it happens to you. Well, like anything, what choices do you have: you either accept with grace or you don't. How does not accepting with grace help anything? The ends don't justify the means. Bullying, manipulating, harassing, yelling...none of that is going to help. If you accept with grace, while you are waiting for the problem to resolve itself enough so the child talks to you again with a willingness to compromise, at least you can still have meaning and pleasure in your life. It also gives you time to reflect as well. It might not be that you did something WRONG, it's just that you don't mesh well. And you can measure in the absence how you and your adult child's family don't mesh and what you are willing to compromise to make the relationship more pleasant for EVERYONE. "Mom, you can never be unsupervised with my kids." "Why?" "Because you are a taurus". Huh? Well, that makes no sense to me. But why jeopardize my supervised visits with my grandchildren which can be wonderful by arguing if being a taurus prevents one from being a good grandma or not. Why fill that time with strife and anger and posturing and demands and righteousness and counter accusations when I can be on the floor playing Candyland and angling for the chocolate swamp or coloring in Barbie coloring books or stacking Lincoln logs as high as the sky. Who cares if DIL is glaring at me when my darling grandson and I are holding our breathes to see if we can make a Pixie Stix teepee? I believe letting them go gracefully gets them back eventually, and if it doesn't, the relationship would have just caused heartache all around anyway, estranged or not.