I'm vacillating about your choice as well, primarily from my experience with them. I've planted them twice and both were failures and I'm not one to often fail with trees. The first one was in full sun, planted young and purchased as container stock. It just took forever to put on any height at all and basically was the same size three years later as when I planted it. I side/planted it with a witch hazel (I often will plant a second tree next to one I suspect will need to be replaced) who cranked so fast it left the katsura in a trail of dust and I whacked the katsura off at ground level to allow the witch hazel to grow unimpeded. I tried it again in a semi-shaded area I thought would have better moisture retention, but good drainage. It grew in an uninspired manner as an understory tree for a few years and frankly I have so many trees now that I forgot about it. I went looking for it this spring and didn't see it. I dunno if the partner who does almost all of the tree maintenance just took it out or not. I also love the appearance of katsura, and have seen some lovely ones in the circumstances similar to what you have in mind. They are cheap enough to give it a try that you won't be out much monetarily if it doesn't work, but you might sacrifice years in waiting to see if it does, and then replanting a different tree and waiting until it sizes.

Thanks everyone for contributing and sharing your preferences and experiences of using ESCS and coconut products. Im soliciting contexual user feedback and reviews because although I like what I read about the high air-and-water-holding capacity, free draining, structural stable and inert characteristics of light weight ESCS aggregates and coir and coco husk chips and would like to use both, I have not used either one them. Long-term potting or short-term costs are not first considerations to me as long as they are relatively within my means. I figure itÂs my responsibility with the horticultural method chosen to learn from the plants I adopted in supplying and meeting the horticultural requirements necessary to maximize their beauty, health, productivity, and longevity which would include any repotting that is needed. Moreover, any monetary expenditure would be win-win both for a plant and a gardener and would still be economy as long as the horticultural success is reproducible with reduced intervention and labor and that the expenses or costs can be recovered within a reasonable time. I grow many different species of plants but mostly ornamentals. I grow some leafy vegetables, bulbs, lilies, and strawberries (which require good to perfect drainage), ornamentals such as roses and gardenias, annuals and perennials, and fruit trees such as lemons and avocado. Happy to report that my gardening knowledge and successes are both growing :) Though I am fairly satisfied with making my own soilless potting mixes and soil fertility and plant nutritional management, I hope to make another leap this coming year and with your help by building on your successes and failures. My soilless mixes are similar to what many of you are familiar with or are using. My required lightweight soilless mixes are made up a high ratio of composted bark fines (landscape conditioner) and perlite with varying amounts of needed chemical CRF, inorganic and organic amendments, greenwaste compost, or soluble fertilizers as I am gardening high on a balcony and intensively (in area unit) with the least amount of labor for highest quality and yields. Most ESCS suppliers and associated commissioned scientists advertise or claim that ES is pH neutral or that it can be easily adjusted, so if you research and read some of the actual manufacturer specs and MSDS or independent lab test results on ESCS, the stabilized pH range for the aggregates is consistent above neutral and very much higher - 100 to 1000 plus above neutral as the pH scale is logarithmic. IÂm not entirely concerned with such characteristic high pH of ESCS since I know something about fertilizers and plant nutrient management and can always look things up to pH down the growing medium if need be perhaps even at pH 9-10. However, at a highly alkaline ESCS-based root medium, the maintenance of a specific acidic range needed and desired by most plants and especially for acid loving plants like gardenias and strawberries may or may not be feasible or when other alternatives exist. In a short-term horticultural experiment on ESCS and with mixed results, John Sloan of Texas Agricultural Experiment Station suggested a high pH of ESCS may be a contributory variable or cause for the observed reduced growth in certain plant species in the experiment. On the other hand, it sounds like ESCSÂs characteristic high pH has not posed a problem in your experiences. Because both coir and CHC (coconut husk chips) are used in greenhouse productions of orchids, roses, lilies, and gerbera daisies and because coco products tested in greenhouse conditions lasted 2-3 times longer than bark, peat, and sawdust and often with exceptional root growth and yields by comparison in many plant species and in various growing medium comparison trials (not all), I was initially intending to use 50% -80% ESCS and coco husk chips/coir to replace using composted bark fines altogether especially since there can be some good amount of shrinkage even with my high perlite bark fines mix. Moreover, using ESCS, coir, and perlite would eliminate the hated chores of recycling, pasteurizing, separating, and composting old bark fines and perlite and carrying multiple big bags of bark fines as tall and as heavy as I am up several flights of stairs yearly. However, given the tested readings on salinity (ECE) and Na+ on expanded shale and both are not the best and higher than pumice, its likely high pH, and the cumulative weight wet and dry (on my large balcony), I am questioning whether I should use it at all in containers or just use it as a mulch around and over the bulbs. Pumice is a possible alternative and by comparison has a lower ECE and pH profile, but the pH range is still at 8 (or 10x above neutral). Pumice seems heavier than ESCS, and its cumulative weight of pumice in containers (dry or wet) would be an issue for my balcony and for someone who weighs less than 100 lbs to move just one small bag. Perlite and coir/CHC may have to be the backbone of my mix instead of ESCS. You think they will produce comparable success and yields?

We planted an okrung mango tree last October that is a little less than 6 feet in height. I was curious to know how fast these trees grow provided that they are healthy. Back in October, the nursery where I bought the tree informed me that I should see a significant growth in a year. I wanted to see how accurate this is. Thank you in advance for any information.

I have 3 peach trees. Contender which came grafted from a nursery, and two Indian Freestone peach trees. All 3 of my trees, I think are in their 4th year, this year. I had one peach last year -- just one on Contender. Here is a photo of one of the Indian Freestone trees from April 20. I grew the Indian Freestone trees from pits. By reputation they reproduce reliably, by seed. There is supposed to be enough genetic diversity that 2 such trees planted from seed near each other will cross-pollinate . . . Indian Free is one of the few peaches that requires a pollinator. The next one is Contender. The tree is more substantial as it was already grafted tree from a nursery planted in same year, but its flowers are not nearly as pretty. The fruit is good, though. I didn't see any honeybees this year. I see some fruit on the trees today less than the size of a pea, but some of the Indian Freestone buds are just dropping. I expect to get some fruit, just not nearly as many are setting as there were flowers. Less culling, but I'd rather cull fruit that are too plentiful than have sparse fruit.