Peach and apricot often bear heavily in alternate years. IOW - a heavy crop one year and a light crop the next. If you can detect and identify this habit in your trees, it would be best to root prune while dormant in the spring of the lighter years. That said, for the peach/apricot trees, root pruning shouldn't have much of an impact on yields or fruit size. In fact, root pruning of in-ground trees is making a comeback as a way to tame wild growth and increase yields in for many types of fruit. It is a fact that root pruning is an ESSENTIAL part of long term care of trees in containers, unless the tree's care giver is willing to tolerate the decline and loss of vitality that always accompanies root congestion. So, even if it did have an impact on yields, you'd still be pretty much obligated to do the root work. You probably have seen how growth can come to a virtual standstill due to root congestion. A famous tree biologist pioneer, Dr Alex Shigo, contends, "A tree that isn't growing is dying", and it's true. Trees grow when they create more food/energy (via photosynthesis) than they need to maintain respiring organs and keep their systems orderly, simply because they need a place to store the excess food. Trees stop growing when they make as much as or less food/energy as they use. No organism can sustain itself long term when it uses more energy than it can produce. So literally, as a containerized tree starts to slow down due to root congestion, it will eventually stop growing and start its terminal decline unless the grower intervenes on the tree's behalf. One might think that trees suffering from root congestion in containers regularly die from the fact they are using more energy than they are using, but that seldom occurs. Plants have a 'pecking order' determined by how strong different organs are in terms of their demand for energy. The stronger the energy sink, the more obligate the plant is to deliver energy to that part. Energy is first allocated to respiratory function, i.e. to maintenance of living tissues, then, to production of fine roots, followed by flower and seed/fruit production, then primary growth (extension of both roots and shoots), then secondary growth (thickening), and finally, the synthesis of defensive chemicals. Notice that defensive chemicals are at the end of the list. Most plants in steep decline, regardless of the reason, usually die from insect herbivory or disease pathogens due to the plant's inability to defend itself. You can also see by the pecking order (1 - living tissues, 2 - fine roots) that fine roots get the lion's share of energy outlay when the plant's chemical messengers signal an imbalance between top mass and root mass. So the first thing that will occur is, the plant will start regrowing the the roots you pruned off. That puts a temporary hold on top growth until roots catch up. For dormant tree which have been root-pruned, root pruning puts a temporary hold on bud activation until enough new roots have developed to support more top growth. Let's say you start 2 tree cuttings from the same genetic source in the same size pots. One gets potted up in the spring after you notice the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, while the other gets a full repot based on the same trigger (root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact). After 10 years and all other factors equal, the repotted tree will be many times larger that the tree potted up, it will have far greater vitality, will have produced much more fruit/ nuts/ seed/ ....., and will still be growing in a pot a fraction of the size of the tree that was potted up. Root pruning makes that much difference. Al

Generally, when you buy an organic fertilizer i.e. fish emulsion, bone meal, or whatever, you will be given a number like 5-1-1. Like kimmsr says, those numbers are what is readily available. As far as knowing exactly how much is enough and what is too much goes..... Well, the short answer is that it requires more sophisticated soil testing and then sufficient, yet not excessive, rates can be calculated based on the material being used, plant choices, and the soil chemical/physical properties. Of course, there will always be wild cards such as unexpected rain, but that goes for organic sources as well as synthetic. I'm perfectly comfortable with synthetic, but it is important to think ahead and be responsible with them. With that in mind, and the fact that you've got the manure and slow release in there already, I would scratch the 13-20-7-3 because that would be overloading with phosphate(#2 to nitrate on the list of stuff you don't want leaching into your ground water). I've found through experience that a good rule of thumb is that many plants (roses among them) will do well with approximately 1.5 lbs. of actual N pre-plant per 1000 sq. ft. with maintenance follow-ups of about 1 lb per 1000 sq. ft. applied when color and growth dictate. (The rates above are in the neighborhood of these approximate rates) Again I say 'approximate' and 'about' an awful lot because we're kind of winging it here based on a lot of un-knowns and generalities. A more expensive test could really nail it down though. Phosphorus and potassium pre-plant applications are best based on testing. However maintenance, once at sufficient levels, is generally lower than nitrogen (hence the 16-6-8 and only twice a year). As far as sulfur goes. Keep in mind that it does not easily move through the soil and will only affect the pH as deeply as it is incorporated. For this reason it should be blended with native soil as uniformly as possible to a 6 to 9 inch depth where the majority of feeder roots are. Again, this change will be slow and is only temporary. As far as a sulfur rate goes, that's really tough to say. The three main factors for calculating that rate are 1)pH 2)lime content and 3)half saturation percentage of the soil. We have a sketchy idea of one of those. Let's assume the pH of 7.5. If you were dealing with a sandy loam with a half sat. of 14 and a low lime content, you would need about 1/2 pound per 100 sq. ft. (or 5 per 1000) to get you somewhere in the range of a pH of 7 over time. If you have a clay or clay loam with a half sat. of 35 and high lime content, you're looking at about 4 times that. That's a call you'll have to make based primarily on estimated texture and the pH that you derived from the home test kit (unless you have the soil tested by a lab). More sand = less sulfur. More silt and clay = more sulfur. I'd go low to start because sulfur tends to burn roots if over-used.

Much less than the manufacturers suggest. As almost every plant no matter how large has roots no deeper than 300mm (or 12") when there is a lot of extra depth under this I fill it with anything---old buckets, bricks, rubbish soil, plant pots etc. The pots need to be wrapped to stop soil entering via the drainage holes also both these and buckets must of course be upside down. Don't use anything that would rot down. Second tip; why only partly fill pots? You have enslaved them to a life of a smaller amount of soil width, there is always settling and no, they don't need a deep recess "for water". Mine are always planted level with the pot rim. ANY water running from the bottom of pots or hanging baskets has a similar effect to rinsing dirt from washing.

Martin , yes it is a very broad leaf at the end and the tip looks obovate to emarginate like that picture yiu posted only a little fatter at the bottom but still tall like that one. I only have leaves on one of the small branches right now, the other two fell off when I repotted the plant they were on the main stem. I want a new one so I can chop it on top and bottom to try and get new roots and a fatter plant. the one I have right now I don't want to hurt. here's a current pic. it's only been in this pot for 3 days. unfortunately I did not get a picture of the root system when I repotted it. It is a nice swollen root system and I probably could have raised it more but I want it to bounce back as fast as possible and didn't want to damage any feeder roots more than I had to. Today I am going to get a few gallons of distilled water and bottled water I am going to flush all my plants in terracotta. I am realizing my dorstenia gigas is probably suffering from buildup. I haven't done a good, all the way through watering with it since the winter started and leaves are turning yellow toward the bottom and falling off, almost like a nitrogen deficient plant. it's in terra cotta and a perlite soil mix. after I flush it real good would it be okay for me to go ahead and add a little 14-14-14 slow release fert on top for the watering thereafter just incase it's nitrogen deficient? thanks again for all your help. not having them outside this winter made it hard for me to water my plants thoroughly.