If you want to grow Mesembs well, you have to remember they are absolutely NOT houseplants. They need fresh air, real sunshine, and daily temperature fluctuations to be healthy. Those 3 things are virtually impossible to duplicate indoors next to a window without a great deal of effort. Growing them in peat-based mixes is also a bad idea, which combined with the poor indoor environment makes it even less likely that they will be healthy. Unless you have the ability to grow them outdoors for most of the growing season (April to November), then you will find it exceedingly difficult to maintain their health long term. They will hang on and survive for a while because they are tolerant of neglect, but not forever. Stores like to sell them because they are small and cute, not because they will last indoors for any considerable length of time. x

Hi Sandy, "...an inbreeder must self pollinate (pollinates itself based on other flowers on the same plant)..." It's not so much that the inbreeder must self pollinate, it is just that the design of the inbreeder's flower causes its own pollen to touch the stigma of the flower before any pollen from another flower, even one on the same plant, gets a chance. The process of fertilization of an egg cell by pollination is pretty much a case of "first come, first served". "Do inbreeders not use pollen from other plants of the same variety as well?" In many cases, inbreeders could use pollen from other plants of the same variety, but the structure of their flowers is such that their own pollen gets the first chance, which means that the arrival of other pollen is too late. "I understand that tomatoes are a natural inbreeder and corn is an natural outbreeder. Is my thinking correct? " Yes. ZM

Hi again guys, I'm learning quite a lot from all of you. I've gone over the bottle and labels and I'm pretty confused about one thing. The Micro is 5-0-1, the Bloom is 0-5-4, but there are other nutes in some of it that don't make sense to me. I will start with the Bloom (I was wrong before) Available Phosphate (5%) Soluble Potassium (4%) Soluble Magnesium (3%) Soluble Sulfur (5%) This is what it says on the label. What is the purpose of all this Sulfur?? On the Micro there's 5.5% Ca. So, let me get this straight, the Ca ups the pH? Someone told me that C. Annuum don't need much Nitrogen at all, and to get it below 50 if possible. When I do this by using the Micro, I suppose there isn't enough Ca to help with the pH, right? See, I never had this problem before, it was only when the plant got older, which I guess is expected as they're bigger and get more hungry. Here are the readings from my system, both newly calibrated pH and PPM meters 3 days ago, over the last 3 days. pH 5.83 - PPM 472 pH 5.77 - PPM 433 pH 5.61 - PPM 362 Todays reading is.... pH 4.92 - PPM 498 What on earth could be causing a drop in pH and raise in PPM so vigorously in 24 hours? I haven't even touched the system other than check visually quickly. You see, I dare not increase the nutrient amount or they take more damage? So am I starving them or overfeeding them? I have attached a link to some pictures of how bad it looks. They don't look too good :( Link at the bottom of page. Plus the amount of floral abortion (I think that's the name used) is insane. I thought it could be a pollination issue but nothing I do matters, it'll flower, then drop off from the stalk. Hmmm.... Probably every day I see 10 dropped flowers :( Any further help? I'll definitely be changing the solution again today. Just, are you sure putting so much Nitrogen is ok at this stage? Here is a link that might be useful: My sick Chili plants :(

I suppose you could just grow Trilliums and other plants whose natural lifespans are 40+ years. That way you wouldn't have to worry about genetic diversity. I think one of the reasons you might not be getting the kinds of answers that you may be hoping for is personality/psychology related rather than plant ecology related. Most of the gardeners I know are putterers - we like to mess around in our gardens, adding things, moving things, etc. You've described the opposite of that. Also, most gardeners I know appreciate the dynamic aspect of nature. Most of our property is woodland, and my family enjoys the natural progression - trees fall and rot, small trees grow larger, etc. We have fond feelings for the oaks out front that now shade the only possible place for a veggie garden enough we won't be able to grow tomatoes much longer. Because we enjoy watching things change, I can't imagine managing nature so closely we'd be worried about genetic diversity. But because you sound sincere, I've been trying to think about your idea. Climate change is an issue. To have healthy plants 4 decades from now, I wouldn't plant anything for which zone 7 is the hotter end of its range - who knows what zone you'll be in 40 years from now. Other factors that might cause change include your neighbors - our closest neighbor clear cut their yard a few years back. Fortunately, they left a small section of trees on the side facing us, or they would have even more significantly changed the light in a part of our woodland close to our house. Pests also can cause big changes. The Emerald Ash Borer and other pests are getting closer and closer to my area. Future problems with invasive non-native pests aren't something you can predict. Also, not all plants are good at naturalizing, or self-sowing. Are you planning to collect seed and grow specimens to replace ones that die? If you're not planning on helping things along, you're going to have to make sure you plant only good self-sowers. I don't know what kind of landscape you're envisioning, but some of those kinds of plants are good at getting seedlings pretty far away from the parent plant. You could move errant seedlings, but it sounds like you want to stay away from "hands on management." If you are planning on helping, and for the 10% area if you do plan to use cuttings and vegetative propagation, you'll need a nursery area. I also don't understand why you wouldn't have more than one of a species even if the population won't be enough to sustain itself? Look at any landscaping book - people tend to like the look of groups of plants, not single specimens. Unless these singletons are trees or shrubs, it might be harder to make things look good. Whups, no matter how hard I try, I seem to be thinking of reasons why your idea is a problem rather than ideas to help you, sorry! Why not be curious and just try it and see what happens? Surely you'll find that some of your 10% species work for your plan. Some won't, and you can replace those along the way. It's not like you'll be on a spaceship to Mars - it'll be possible to get different plants in 20 years. If you do go ahead with your idea, it would certainly make a unique article in a gardening magazine 20 or 30 years from now. Good luck! And I wasn't joking about Trillium - plants with longer lifespans would help your proposition work.