Chemical (synthetic) fertilizers aren't unavoidable in containers, I think many of us just see no point to them (though many of us do use organics for our in ground gardens). You described the problem of using organic solids such as manure/compost in that it will clog up the spaces between particles as it breaks down. This isn't a huge issue if you already have a mix with superior drainage and the amount of organic matter is kept low (let's say 10% of the total volume), BUT, the nutrient benefit isn't going to be reliable or significant. The soil food web is definitely another potential problem in a container. It isn't that you can't have bacteria, worms etc, it is that it is difficult for most to maintain a working population due to rapid environmental fluctuations in containers. pH, moisture, temperature all swing wildly in containers. If you think about how the soil food web are built up in soil we add organic matter and often mulch the area to make the environmental fluctuations less drastic. Many have hopped on to the no till bandwagon so as to not disturb the critters in the soil. Even if you did build a potent soil food web in the container, think about what they are going to do. They will attack every organic component of the mix including the bark and peat and thus the soil will structurally collapse before it needs to. There are those who grow organicly in containers, some post here from time to time. I have not read any of them to say it's particularly easy to do well and I recall one person who assembles a mind boggling number of ingredients to make a good mix and then tosses it in the garden each year due to it's collapsing too much to reuse. You certainly can do containers organic if you wish though. Blood meal isn't something I would use in a container because a little goes a very long way and it all becomes active nearly immediately. The risk of over fertilization would be high. Bone meal I also wouldn't use because it takes a long time to release nutrients and would likely have been flushed out of the container before that happens. If you wish to use teas I see no problem with that, but if you are willing to use diluted urea why not just use Miracle Grow or any other liquid fert with urea in it? I don't see the difference between organic/synthetic in this case. Just my thoughts. You can always do a few containers in a purely 'synthetic' way and some others in a purely organic way and see which you prefer. No harm in a little experimentation ;)

I've always grown tomatoes in 5 gallon containers. my opinion is it could be 1 of a few things. 1) pot bound when the soil is dry, grab the stem and lift the root-ball to inspect the roots, it the soil ball comes up very easily and you can see roots covering the surface, it's time for a transplant. if the plant doesn't come out very easy don't force it and cause more damage. just check the holes in the bottom of the pot, if they are showing roots it's time to transplant. 2) a salt buildup how often do you water between feedings. if salt is built up in the plant the lower leaves will die until the entire plant is dead. the salt comes from fertilizer that is not rinsed from the soil with pure water and builds up in the roots restricting nutrient uptake by the plant. to remedy this you would water with nothing but water for 2 weeks every time the soil goes dry. tis will flush out any built up salt in the soil. check your water as well becuz city water is sometimes too acidic for plants and will effect growth dramatically. 3) Watering Time watering in the morning before 11 AM or after 5 PM helps any plant keep cool during the hottest days. the hotter parts of the day are between 11 AM and 5PM so watering during these times of the day are best avoided to prevent steaming the roots. IMO i would say it is most likely the root bound issue.

There is a clear delineation between repotting and potting up. A full repotting should be done in the spring before buds move and includes first removing a portion of the lower root mass (usually 1/3 - 1/2), all the soil from the roots, then selectively removing some of the largest remaining roots, then, replanting the tree into a fresh soil that drains well. Potting up can be undertaken any time with no ill effects & is simply putting the plant in a larger pot with more soil. Repotting guarantees that your plant has an opportunity to grow at or very near its genetic potential. Potting up guarantees that it will not. Copy/pasted in 2 parts from another thread I started on the Container Gardening Forum, so if it's a little off topic ..... Part 1: I have spent literally thousands of hours digging around in root-balls of tropical/sub-tropical trees (let's allow that trees means any woody plant material with tree-like roots), temperate trees collected from the wild, temperate nursery stock bonsai candidates, and trees that have already had some root work in preparation for bonsai training. The collected trees are a challenge, usually for their lack of roots, and have stories of their own. The nursery stock is probably the closest examples to what most of your trees are like below the soil line, so I'll offer my thoughts for you to consider or discard as you find fitting. I've purchased many trees from nurseries that have been containerized for long periods. Our bonsai club, just this summer, invited a visiting artist to conduct a workshop on Mugo pines. The nursery (a huge operation) where we have our meetings happened to have purchased several thousand of the Mugos somewhere around 10 - 12 years ago and they had been potted-up into continually larger containers ever since. Why relate these uninteresting snippets? In the cases of material that has been progressively potted-up only, large perennial roots occupied nearly the entire volume of the container, plant vitality was in severe decline, and soil in the original root-ball had become so hard that in some cases a chisel was required to remove it. In plants that are potted-up, rootage becomes entangled. As root diameters increase, portions of roots constrict flow of water and nutrients through other roots, much the same as in the case of girdling or encircling roots on trees grown in-ground. The ratio of fine, feeder roots to more lignified and perennial roots becomes skewed to favor the larger, and practically speaking, useless roots. Initial symptoms of poor root conditions are progressive diminishing of branch extension and lessened vitality. As rootage becomes continually compressed and restricted, branch extension stops and individual branches die as water/nutrient translocation is further compromised. Foliage quality may not (important to understand) indicate the tree is struggling until the condition is severe, but if you observe your trees carefully, you will find them increasingly unable to cope with stressful conditions - too much/little water, heat, sun, etc. Trees that are operating under conditions of stress that has progressed to strain, will usually be diagnosed in the end as suffering from attack by insects or other bio-agents while the underlying cause goes unnoticed. Potting-up temporarily offers room for fine rootage to do the necessary work of water/nutrient uptake, but these roots also soon lignify while rootage in the old root mass continues to grow and become increasingly restricted. The larger and larger containers required for potting-up & the difficulty in handling them also makes us increasingly reluctant to undertake even potting-up, let alone the now increasingly difficult root-pruning. I haven't yet mentioned that the dissimilar characteristics of the old soil as compared to the new soil when potting-up are also a recipe for trouble. With a compacted soil in the old roots and a fresh batch of soil surrounding the roots of a freshly potted-up tree, it's impossible to establish a watering regimen that doesn't keep the differing soils either too wet or too dry, both conditions occurring concurrently being the rule rather than the exception. Most who read this would have great difficulty showing me a containerized tree that's more than 10 years old and vigorous, that hasn't been root-pruned at repotting time (Trees in extremely large containers excepted. Growing in very large containers is similar to growing in situ). I can show you hundreds of trees 20 years to 200 years old and older that are in perfect health. All have been root-pruned and given a fresh footing in in new soil at regular and frequent intervals. Deciduous trees are some of the most forgiving of trees when it comes to root pruning. The process is quite simple and the long term benefits include best opportunities for plants to grow at or near their potential genetic vigor, and stronger plants that are able to resist the day to day perils that bring down weaker plants. Root-pruning is a procedure that might be considered borrowed from bonsai culture, but bonsai culture is nothing more than refined container culture, and to restrict the practice of root-pruning to bonsai only, is an injustice to those of us who simply enjoy growing trees in containers. I didn't mean for this to be so long. I haven't even touched on the methodology of the process yet, but I'll get to it soon, if I've presented my case adequately and there is interest. I'll follow with the short version of how to root-prune & repot. If not - I had a good time writing this anyway. Part 2: Previously, I made the case for why it is important to do a full repot (not to be confused with potting-up) and prune the roots of your containerized trees - regularly. Root-pruning is the systematic removal of the largest roots in the container with emphasis on removal of rootage growing directly under the trunk and at the perimeter of the root mass. The following is written primarily to offer some direction in the root-pruning of a high % of deciduous material, but with some very minor adaptations, it can be applied to conifers and evergreens. Root pruning can start immediately with year-old seedlings by removing the taproot just below the basal flare of dormant material, repotting, and treating the plant as a cutting. This will produce a plant with flat rootage that radiates outward from the base and that will be easy to care for in the future. Young trees (under 10 yrs old) are nearly all dynamic mass and will tolerate root-pruning well. Most deciduous trees are extremely tolerant of root work. Acer buergerianum (trident maple) is routinely reduced to a main trunk with roots pruned all the way back to the basal flare and responds to the treatment with a fresh growth of fine, fibrous roots and a fresh flush of foliage each spring. The point here is, you don't need to be concerned about the pruning if you follow a few simple guidelines. First, undertake the root-pruning and repot while the plant is quiescent (this is the period after the tree has met its chill requirement and has been released from dormancy, but has not begun to grow yet because of low soil temps). The ideal time is immediately before buds move (swell) in spring - next best time is at the onset of budswell - next best time is anytime late in the quiescent period. For deciduous plants that have not been root-pruned before: With a pruning saw, saw off the bottom 1/3 to 1/2 of the root ball. With a hand-rake (like you use for scratching in the garden soil) or a wooden chopstick, remove all the loose soil. Using a jet of water from the hose and the chopstick, remove the remaining soil - ALL of it. This should be done out of sun and wind to prevent the fine roots from drying. 5 minutes in the sun or wind can kill fine roots & set the tree back a week or more, so keep roots moist as you work. After the soil is removed, remove about 1/2 of the remaining mass of roots with a sharp pruning tool, taking the largest roots and those roots growing directly under the trunk. Stop your pruning cuts just beyond where a smaller root branches toward the outside, off the root you are pruning. Be sure to remove any J-roots, encircling roots, or others with abnormal growth. Before you begin the pruning operation, be sure you have the soil & new container ready to go (drain screens in place, etc). The tree should fit loosely inside the walls of the container. Fill the container with soil to the desired ht, mounded in the center, & place tree on the mound. Add soil to cover roots & with the chopstick, work soil into all voids in the roots, eliminating the air pockets and adding soil to the bottom of the basal root-flare. Temporarily securing the tree to the container with twine or small rope, even staking, against movement from wind or being jostled will speed recovery time by preventing breakage of newly forming fine rootage. Place the tree in shade & out of wind until it leafs out and re-establishes in the container. The first time you root-prune a tree will be the most difficult & will likely take up to an hour from start to finish, unless the tree is in larger than a 5 gallon container. When you're satisfied with the work, repot into a soil that you are certain will retain its structure until the next root-pruning/repot. Tree (genetic) vigor will dictate the length of time between repots. The slow growing, less vigorous species will likely go 5 years between repots. For these slow growing trees, it is extremely important that soils retain aeration. For these trees, a soil of 2/3 inorganic parts and 1/3 organic (I prefer pine or fir bark) is a good choice. The more vigorous plants that will only go 2 years between repots can be planted in a soil with a higher organic component if you wish, but would still benefit from the 2/3 inorganic mix. Most trees treated this way will fully recover within about 4 weeks after the spring flush. By the end of 8 weeks, they will normally have caught & passed in both development and in vitality, a similar root-bound plant that was allowed to remain in its old soil and container. When root-pruning a quiescent plant, you needn't worry much about "balancing" top growth with rootage removed. The plant will tend to only "activate" the buds it can supply with water. It is, however, the optimum time to undertake any pruning you may wish to attend to. This is how I treat all my deciduous material. Though I have many growing in bonsai pots, more of my plants are in nursery containers or terra-cotta and look very much like your trees, as they await the beginning of training. With a little effort at developing a soil from what's available to you and some knowledge and application of root-pruning and repotting techniques, I'm absolutely sure that a good % of those nurturing trees in containers could look forward to results they can be very pleased with. This is the repotting technique described that allows bonsai trees to live for hundreds of years & be passed from generation to generation while other containerized trees that have not had their roots tended to, and have only been potted-up, are likely to be in severe decline or compost well before they're old enough to vote. ;o) I hope you're bold enough to make it a part of your containerized tree maintenance, and I hope what I've written makes sense - it's well past a prudent bedtime for me. Al

Thanks, Dave. Yes, they have been hardened off. I was thinking that they would need some acclimation to our weather, since they came from a shade house and were accustomed to warmer temperatures. I would rather plant them, but I was worried about our erratic temps as of late. Highs are running upper 50's, and lows went into low 30's, but averaging around 38-40. We're going to move up to highs in the 70's this weekend before cooling back off into the mid 60's, which is still warmer than what we've had, and getting more rain. (my yard is saturated!) Low's staying consistently around low 40's. Not sure of my soil temp, but I'll check those tomorrow in the various beds...it's still pouring out there today. I'm outside of San Diego about 2K feet up in the local mountains, so we get a bit cooler here at night, but warmer than the coastal areas in the day. I'll give it a go and see what happens. I have so many plants, seedling, and seeds waiting to come up, that it's a bit like running an experiment at this point. I'm recording what I've done with each one, so I can determine what worked (and didn't) for the next go around.