Yes, when I mentioned topsoil I wasn't meaning that you should replace the dirt with store-bought stuff! You really need to acclimate your seedlings to the local soil by only adding a small amount to the area right around the tree's planting site, just to give them a kick-start. Soils that drain too well (being sandy and rocky) just cant hold enough water to make plants happy, which is why I mentioned the clay and the artificial snow (bio-degradable stuff, it's a man-made non-reactive acrylic that simply absorbs water). The pearlite is again non-reactive expanded volcanic glass to help the roots take in nitrogen by aerating the soil, just to help kickstart the growth of your trees. I suppose if the trees have grown in a little too much already, you could just dig around them 2 - 3 feet and replace the top 3 inches or so with the mix I recommended or something similar, but the best results would be to get that clay and pearlite in and around the roots. As I mentioned in my first post, my area has the opposite problem, being primarily rock and red clay ... it holds too much water and my trees keep dying. :( Solution for me is ... build up berms made of store-bought topsoil mixed with the local dirt (60% topsoil, 30% local clay) and mix pearlite and fertilizers in as the last 10%. This will let the soil mix retain the proper moisture for the trees so that they can get established without drowning, and the excess water will run off the berms and down the hill. The problem with it is, it's going to be expensive and I dont have the money yet ... The even more expensive option for me would be to build up my yard to be 2 - 3 feet higher than all my neighbors with my chosen topsoil mix... If I dig DOWN .... all the water will run off their yards into my back-yard MUDHOLE and everything will die. I want oak trees (to transplant to my uncle's land out of town), apple trees (some to keep, some to transplant), and cherry trees (those I'm keeping! :P )

I was going to try the wire basket idea - I have a couple from an old refrigerator that stopped working that I can use. I will have to look at the dollar store for wire waste baskets, never saw those. I have found some wire hanging basket frames, but the tiny ones start at $3 here, and the larger ones run even more. Seems like the plants will outgrow them pretty quickly, so I definitely don't want to spend much money on them. Also, I need to try to stay somewhat uniform and not huge and unsightly; I live in a subdivision with HOA rules. As long as the garden doesn't become an eyesore, I don't think my neighbors will complain, especially since I share a lot, and they know that I donate all extras to our local food panty. People feel pretty bad making a fuss when you are sharing fresh produce with people who are having trouble feeding their families in this economy and rarely have fresh produce. They kinda feel like they're taking fresh food out of the mouths of children. My one neighbor directly behind has no interest in my produce, hasn't accepted a single tomato and thinks people using the food pantry should get jobs, and she is a complainer - she turned someone in for having a patio table & chairs & grill in their driveway out front, rather than in the back (this was before the yard was sodded and it was a mud pit, early in the development with few houses finished). I have a brand new neighbor on the garden side, and I don't know them well, so I don't know how they will react. I'm hoping that being friendly, and sharing will make them think positively about it. The garden and composters were already in place when they bought the lot, so it won't be a surprise. The builder never complained to me about it, so I doubt potential buyers ever sited my garden as a reason they were not buying. The clear bottles I think will be fairly unnoticed from a distance - won't show much above the sides of the bed, short and clear. If I start with an assortment of various sized wire contraptions, that may attract some extra unwanted attention. Is blood meal a pest deterrent? I just thought it was a fertilizer. Thanks for the input. Sherri

Hi JP, I can't specifically answer your question, but here are a few things to consider / try; put a small airstone in the bottom of the bottles of water to aerate the solution. Alternatively, you could just replace the water once a week. add a small amount of soluble fertilizer to the water so the plants have something to grow with. top the plants to promote root development and stronger stems. If you're going to plant them in dirt anyway, go ahead and put them in some potting soil now. The plants will appear to be growing fine, but they are in fact trying to find a food source. eventually the plants will get leggy, pale, and all around sickly as they use up their energy reserves searching for a new food source. best to not let them look too long.

Some folks plant out their seedlings when they have their first set of true leaves; others wait a bit longer. I would suppose that you'd have to offer some protection from critters, but generally WS seedlings should be strong enough to survive at that point. You could use the hunk-o-seedlings (HOS) method to plant them out. You can leave them in the containers until you feel better about their size - just water and maybe give them a weak feeding. Or you can separate the seedlings into different containers until you are ready to plant out into your garden. The method you choose might depend on the type of plants you have growing. I do container gardening, and usually wait until the plants have several sets of true leaves before planting them where they will live on. Whatever you choose, good luck! PV