Hi naikii, The mix that you just made looks wonderful! I have been following this thread with great interest as well. Most of my trees ( tropicals) and C&S are in the Gritty Mix or the 5-1-1 and are all doing great! This mix has really helped with all of my tropicals trees growing to their maximum potential and I am always amazed at the amount of beautiful blooms that I have now that I have changed their mix from a "bagged" mix to this more aerated mix that has shown me the difference in the root system which in turn delivers me the maximum bloom production during the summer with my Plumeria and Adeniums. I have learned that this mix makes my roots happy and not have any issues with the perched water so they are not rotting as in the past using other soil. The key to a happy and healthy plant starts at the roots... I am always looking for another alternative for the Fir Bark that I use. could you tell me the name brand of the last pic of your Pine Bark that you are using? Looking back up thread, I couldn't tell what the brand was. It looks great to me and if I can find it here in my area that would be helpful! Thanks for taking the time to post all of your information... Great thread! Take care, Laura

Here's some info from Wiki: Fertilizers Urine has applications in gardening and agriculture as a fertilizer. Gardeners often recommend a dilution of 10-20 parts water to one of urine for application to pot plants and flower beds during the growing season; pure urine can chemically burn the roots of some species. Urine typically contains more than 50% of the nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium content of whole sewage, and is widely considered as good as or better than commercially-available chemical fertilisers or stabilised sludge from sewage plants. Urine is also used in composting to increase the nitrogen content of the mulch, accelerating the composting process and increasing its final nutrient values. Urine is also being actively considered as a fertilizer for use in food-crop agriculture in developed countries. Studies into its feasibility and safety usually indicate that it is an acceptable alternative to chemical fertilisers and stabilised sludge. However, the technology to implement its use on a large scale has not been developed, and is considered too expensive. There are also concerns over its safety regarding the potential for transmitting infectious disease and refluxing xenobiotic compounds (associated with toilet-cleaning products and prescribed drugs expelled in urine) in the human food chain. Proponents of adopting urine for this use usually claim the risks to be negligible or acceptable, and point out that sewage causes more environmental problems when it is treated and disposed of compared with when it is used as a resource. Critics generally agree that more research is needed into how the resource is to be collected, processed and handled. A few people use urine as a crop fertilizer. These include organic farming cooperatives and eco-villages where special urine-diverting toilets with collecting tanks are installed. Many of these also employ concepts such as greywater irrigation and the composting of fecal matter. Many are the subject on ongoing feasibility studies sanctioned by governments and private organisations. These people generally reject safety concerns over its use on food crops provided that it is used with common sense. For example, application to fruit trees is considered safer than to bushes and especially root crops. It is also considered sensible to cease application at a safe interval before harvesting. However, the use of urine for this purpose is even rarer than its use on ornamental gardens. In developing countries, the application of pure urine to crops is also rare. However, whole, untreated sewage, termed night soil, is often applied to crops and is considered essential. It is worth noting that this practice is not new and has been applied, along with crop rotation schemes, for thousands of years. In Japan, urine used to be sold to farmers who would process it into fertilizers.

weed n feed application was right up to the side of the bed but not near the plants. Also they're on a hill so runoff would not flow into the bed. I'm definitely open to the possibility that weed and feed is responsible, but if that's true, why would some bushes be doing great and others poorly? Maybe to reframe the question: if they are alive, will they put on new leaves this season, or will I have to wait until next spring to figure out if they need to be replaced?

According to the book i read. Flowerbuds usually form on the tip of last year's growth during Autumn. If you're not seeing any flowerbuds by early winter, something is wrong - that the plant didn't have enough carbohydrates for flowerbuds development, which is unlikely in your case since your plant looks very healthy and showing a lot of green leaves for photosythysis. Have you been fertilising them? Potassium encourages flower development and fruiting. If your plants aren't growing much over the years, chances are, the roots aren't growing or expanding much either. Speaking from personal experience. Early Januray this year, I planted 5 sunshine blues in the garden bed since this variety can tolerate a higher soil ph than other cultivars - and my garden soil has a ph of 6. The plants grew a lot of new healthy green leaves at first but they didn't grow any taller. By early April, some of the newer leaves were showing minor signs of iron chlorosis, while my other variety 'blueberry burst' which I kept in a pot, grew like weed and almost triple in size compared to the ones in the garden bed. I dug up all the sunshine blues from the garden bed and I noticed the roots didn't expand of grow much at all over the past 4 months, they were still in the confinement of the potting mix that I put in at the time of planting, the roots didn't go beyond the potting mix and integrate with the garden soil. 2 of the plant's rootballs were infested with beetle grubs - eating away half of the root mass. Anyway, I potted them up and they started flowering very heavily in the beginning of May. I pulled off all the flowers 3 weeks ago and now a lot of new flowerbuds are breaking again. I'm not suggesting that you go and dig up your plant to check the roots, maybe try watering it with ammonium sulfate and see if it'll grow any taller. See this thread. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1462273/one-and-7-yr-blueberry-growth-with-pictures Just to be safe, maybe try watering it with half the dose of ammonium sulfate first and see how it goes.