Mark, the modified mix Al recommends is a good place to start, but are you planning on covering the container and relying upon a strip of fertilizer on the surface to feed the plants? This is critical because if you will use the cover/fert strip you really need a fast wicking potting mix and this means peat and vermiculite. What I often tell people getting started with Earthboxes where a cover and fertilizer strip will be used is that the system was designed with peat based mixes and it works very well with them so give that a try for a year. It will give you a good frame of reference for tinkering in subsequent years. Assuming you do not wish to do this then: I would encourage you to make a mix and set it outside to see if it will keep the surface moist for a couple days before committing. This is if you will use the cover and fertilizer strip. If you won't use either then Al's mix (original or modified) will work fine. Keep in mind my experience is in Wisconsin, somebody in a hotter/drier/windier climate might need to modify a bit. Even with the cover on, the wind gets under it from the holes we must cut for the plants. This wind may not seem like much, but it can quickly dry the surface. You really do need to test though, that's the best approach. Just do it outside. I say this because I made the mistake of evaluating how well various materials wicked *inside* (I was going through an endless winter and wanted a gardening 'project'). How something wicks indoors is waaaay different than how it wicks outside due to temp, wind, humidity etc. Again though, you really only need to modify Al's mix with fast wickers like vermiculite or peat if you want to use the cover and fert strip. One last tip, if you find that the very surface goes and stays dry, but an inch down it's moist you can simply bury the fertilizer strip an inch under the surface. This gives more latitude in compromising between a coarse mix that drains well and one that can wick fast enough to keep that fert strip working. Happy growing.

You don't need 4 in 1 sweet cherries these days. You can grow Stella, Lapins, and a few other self pollinating varieties that should be hardy enough for your area. The biggest problem, as with anywhere in the east, is fruit that cracks from rain. A near ripe cherry will split with even a light rain. You can get a 4 in 1 if that is what you want, but you don't need it if all you want are sweet cherries.

Your welcome Daisy. My Rose Cherry experience was sort of comical. I bought it as a 6 inch rooted cutting (some sort of special at the T&T seeds garden centre). I planted it in one corner and moved it, due to building a fence. Then, the next spring I decided to move it to the right corner of the yard (where it's stayed since). I nearly removed it one spring after a rabbit ate it down to the ground but decided to give it a chance to come back. With it's established root system it really came back quick (up to 4 feet high that season). You are right, it's quite attractive with it's glossy leaves at the very least. Glen

I've always heard that apple seedlings are very unlikely to produce reasonably good quality fruit, so if you're more interested in fruit than long-shot breeding experiments you may want to graft your tree to a chosen cultivar sometime in the next two or three years. You could eventually graft more than one cultivar into the same tree if you wanted it to pollinate itself or even leave a branch below the graft from the seedling (i.e. for one part to pollinate the other and vice versa). Assuming you haven't done any grafting before, apples would be a good (higher beginner success rate) species with which to start, and people on this list could point you to online tutorials, give you advice, and supply you with scion wood if you need a source. Just an idea.