Plant Production in Containers II ~ Carl E. Whitcomb, Ph.D Water, Media, and Nutrition for Greenhouse Crops ~ edited by David Wm. Reed Growing Media for Ornamental Plants & Turf ~ K. Handreck and N Black You'll also want a good basic book that goes into some detail about how plants work (physiology). I can't recommend what basically amounts to an 'entry level' text, but if you want something that goes into a considerable amount of depth re the intricacies (university level texts), you might try: Plant Physiology (4th edition) ~ L. Taiz & E. Zeiger or Plant Physiology ~ H. Mohr & P. Schopfer The first 3 books cover media, nutrition, - basically cultural influences, and are fairly easy to digest, the later 2 are tomes, and cover the day to day workings of the plant. For those, some science in your background is pretty much a necessity, unless you are REALLY willing to commit to learning what's in the books, no mater the time investment required. Let me know if you need the ISBN #s. Al

Review the archives of this forum for countless discussions on callery pears (or by various cultivar name). And search Google for additional comments. Overplanted, with a poor structure and weak limbs and a growing propensity for becoming invasive throughout a wide portion of the country. As esh says, there are better trees to choose from. MUCH better.

"Certain other trees (that have similar looking foliage to juniper) can also harbor the fungus." That is not correct. Only junipers are hosts to the various Rosaceae plants affected by this fungal issue. But they are not limited to just the eastern red "cedar" or Juniperus virginiana that gave the disease its name - various other juniper species can be hosts as well, many of them common landscape plants. This tends not to be a big issue here in the PNW. What does tend to be somewhat more common is pear trellis rust, Gymnosporangium sabinae. It tends to be rather common on pear leaves but appears much later in the season - like midsummer rather than spring - than does the very common cedar-apple rusts. And far less disfiguring to the fruit. There is also a distinctly different but somewhat related disease, Pacific Coast pear rust/ aka cedar broom rust. It DOES have a non-juniper host, Calocedrus decurrens or incense cedar. These are native to the west coast and also pretty unique to this area. But no mistaking them for a juniper - these get to be huge trees of 40-60' or more!! This is far less common as incense cedars are not nearly as commonly or as widely planted as are junipers.

Happy Saturday! I’m back again with a question regarding this type of leaf curl. The past 2 weeks the weather has been harsh: high 80s-90s, sunny, or heavy downpours with high winds (NYC area). Still humid. Is the lemon tree curling because of excess water or sun? They were more curled after the tropical storm, then flattened out a bit, before more rain yesterday. I’ve been trying to move it into shade during hot midday sun. Help! Thank you!