Mary: Don't worry about the rototilling, concrete, or any disease issues either soil or airborne between veggies and fruit trees. The road salt might be a problem but probably not. So that leaves spacing which can be pretty close. With proper pruning you can hold a peach pretty small. Apples are even easier on M9 or M26 rootstock. I've grown both peaches and apples in 15 gallon pots. So even if you prune a lot of roots with the rototiller, you will still have 10 to 100 times more soil volume. The Fruitnut

thanks! Those numbers are exactly what I was guessing. None are climbers...just beds put against the fence. It is hard to guess at some of their mature sizes since for instance the DA's get bigger here than the listed size. Thanks again. Sunni

Mesquite can send a tap root down something like 190' at least for one tree some university dug up to see. Caliche can be anywhere say in the 1' to 10' range and be thin to foot or two thick. In general caliche is not a continuous unbroken surface. I would never worry about caliche unless it's a known issue. Let the tree earn its keep and let it find the cracks it can send roots through. It's kind of like the drainage issue...if there's standing water the tree won't grow roots in that area and keep roots higher. As long as we're not talking about a bog the tree will probably find a way. A lot of these rules for planting stuff are the absolute best possible environment. But plants, like people, can handle a less than perfect world. I may have mentioned in another thread, this year I grew Mesquites from seed in a bucket with no drainage, watered everyday, so it was sitting in water. If you asked a 100 gardeners 99.9 of them would say that's impossible. Most of what you hear is just repeated from person to person, there's little actual testing or knowledge. A bit of common sense goes a long way when listening to advice.

Hello nepenthesfreak_2007, What types of light do you have, how many, and do you have the plants in pots sitting in the terrarium or in soil directly in the terrarium? If you can't bring the plant closer to the light directly, then you can make more light or invest in some really good reflectors along the sides of the terrarium and light to direct as much in to your plants as possible. I have my Nepenthes 5-6 inches from four 40 watt cool white flourescent tubes (12000 lumens) for 16 hour of photoperiod and no terrarium. Maybe you can add another light to your setup to increase the intensity or place it near a window that receives some indirect sun so it does not overheat yet gets that extra amount of light. With the setup I described, this N. sanguinea pitchers continuously from every new leaf and it's newest leaves and pitchers are growing much larger and more quickly. No fertilizer and only household humidity present. (In your case, the terrarium is necessary for those highlanders with humidity and temperature requirements). This pitcher is still not opening, however, is swelling larger than the last 3 1/2 inch pitcher and developing it's mottled red coloring. As you noticed with your light, the intensity drops off rather quickly with every inch the plants are from the bulb. The only thing to do is place more bulbs or bring the plants closer or add reflectors where possible so far as I can think of. Good growing with those highlanders.