While there, I spent several hours with Jack in 45* temps and horizontal rain. We talked about the collection & each tree's (all of those pictured above and a few more) history at length, and then went to look at the 30-40 trees that were in the collection, but usually out of the public's view. We then went to his home & spent a considerable amount of time reviewing his trees and looking at his indoor set-up where he grows MANY temperate trees you're not supposed to be able to grow indoors. We toured the grounds with the guy from DC in a covered 'limousine' golf cart with side curtains. Everyone was really hurried about their business because there was a sense of urgency to get out of the rain, so I never got the chance to ask the question. I asked Jack, but I didn't get anything definitive from him. I haven't forgotten about it though. I had composed a letter/message yesterday articulating the question in such a way that I would get a technical answer, but as I was correcting the message I hit a 'wrong key' and lost the whole thing. Frustrated, I abandoned the idea for the day. ;o) More when I DO find something out. Al

The perched water table happens no matter what is in the soil mix unless all the particles are uniformly large I disagree. Watering most soil mixes when they are very dry results in only a limited amount of water being retained. With a second watering after a few minutes, more water will be retained. You can demonstrate this very easily by watering a completely dry pot of soil in a saucer until the saucer is full and then leaving it for an hour. Chance are the saucer will be partially or completely emptied when you come back. Exact results depend on your soil mix but it happens to some extent in any dry soil. What happens with that first watering is that some water is retained around some particles, saturated at the bottom by some definitions since water drains through, but that doesn't mean zero air. The water them migrates over the following minutes or maybe hours into small pores in the coarse material and into the layer structure of clay material, or into the internal structure of organic materials like peat and bark, even moves to higher levels in the soil as they suck in the water. All of the sudden there is no perched water table, you could add more water to the soil without it draining through. I have never seen any experimental work published on this but it certainly occurs and is easy to verify, I just don't know whether it means we usually do or usually don't have perched water tables in our succulent pots. In some summer-growing succulents which are heavily watered and not allowed to completely dry there almost certainly is a perched water table at some times, but again I don't agree that this means zero air in the soil mixes which are often used. Presumably this is part of the reason why we stick so much grit in our soils. Winter growing mesembs I almost never water to the point of runoff. Or maybe cacti don't mind a perched water table. Possible reasons would be that they area adapted to saturated soils for relatively short periods, some certainly experience periodic flooding in habitat. Or the structure of a "good" cactus mix may be such that sufficient air remains in the mix even in the area of the perched water table to prevent the kind of root rots which would occur in an anoxic soil. Or maybe we use watering practices which only create a perched water table when the plant is thirsty enough to drain it, or weather conditions will evaporate it. I absolutely use top dressings. I don't allow the bodies of succulents like Lithops to be in contact with the proper soil, that's death in my climate. Not being able to see the soil is something I just have to live with. But top dressings vary a lot. Some wick up water much more than others although obviously all retain a high proportion of air spaces. Some types of top dressing seem to increase evaporation. Experiment with fine clay granules on the surface of the soil, they continually wick up water and remain moist until the soil mix is completely dry. I also use loam based soils. They do degrade over time. The most obvious thing is that the initial fertiliser load runs out after a few months or maybe a couple of years depending on the plant and how you water it. The soils also do compact down over weeks or months. It is easy to see the soil level drop if you don't compact it down when you pot the plant, less obvious if you squashed it down to start with. Lastly, over a period of years the clay component of the soil washes out. Unpot a Lithops after ten or twenty years in the same pot and there will be just be sand and gravel, it won't be like soil at all. Although I use a loam-based soil, the make-up of that soil includes something like 20% organic material and in practice that is usually peat. Add in an equal amount of aggregate and I have a soil mix that is 10% peat. At these levels the soil does not behave like an organic soil but it does provide for better retention of nutrients, as if I needed it with the clay in the loam and the baked clay granules! Salt buildup can occur regardless of how you fertilise, simply from minerals in the water. For most of us, the vast majority of the water we put on our succulents simply evaporates, any fertiliser or minerals in hard water are just left in the soil. I have quite soft water and the soil I use has a decent initial fertiliser load so I don't fertilise much either. I have never experienced salt buildup, even with the non-flushing watering that I use on most mesembs most of them time. While completely dry soil may mean root death, after a sufficient length of time anyway, this is almost inevitable in my climate and just something I have to deal with. It is simply not practical to provide water every few weeks to most cacti over winter, and certainly not to Lithops. Lithops lose their fine roots and regrow them in the spring, they seem to be very good at it. Many cacti deal with it well, some don't. Some species don't seem to be adapted to going completely dry for months at a time. When people talk about cacti that "lost their roots" over winter, they are usually talking just about the ones which rotted because they didn't grow their roots back in spring :)

Hello Robin and John, Robin, those aren't our actual items to sell, but cheese and wine sound good, yes? Add chocolate and you've got a traffic stopper, LOL. John, I agree about the complexity of the farm name. I don't want to post it here as I enjoy using this forum and do not wish to break the rules, but here is a made-up name which is, other than the products, just like ours will be: GREEN ACRES Peanut & Flower Gardens Unless it would be better to simply post the name, hours and phone number only, then rely on the side signs for detail? The traffic speed, while it is SUPPOSED to be 35, ranges from 45-55 illegally because no one patrols out here. We even have a speed limit sign well within view from way down the road. The thing is, those who live further up the road have to go up a hill, so they drive as fast as they can so they can get an extra push up the hill. Idiots, I know, but they do it. We're also located smack in the middle of one of the few straight-a-ways on this winding road. As you round the corner, our sign is right in view, you can't miss it, a good distance down the road, so it catches your attention way back and you have that much time to read it, as well as keep an eye on the road. ;-) I have a few temporary signs out in the road, and many have slowed or stopped to read them all, as there is not a consistent flow of traffic. In other words, it would be slightly unusual for a car to be directly behind someone as they slowed to read. Sadly, there is no parking or place to park until you drive past our gardens and home. Thanks for the support on the side bar idea. I really need that one, as our supply changes throughout the season. One month it may be local honey, the next it could be tomatoes. Then come green chilies, etc. I am even dabbling in garden art, so we'll see how that goes, too. Re: lettering for the sign, I found the perfect font which is quite legible but still decorative without being one of those obnoxious fonts you can't quite make out until you study it. :-) Thanks for your input, I truly appreciate it!

I only used the term 'Lurker' because that is what Texasporch used about herself. I think of the term lurker the same way as reader, internet speaking. There isn't any difference in my mind. Stalker is different. I've been stalked on the internet and have received police involved death threats. That is a whole other situation that involves the ($$) work I do. Here, we can be more flexible on terms used, right? But the readers/lurkers just think they have nothing to contribute. In reality, they can change up everything (for the better). Just sayin'. UDKM is the perfect example. There must be more of you out there, so chime in! We need new blood.