1. Couple of rough tests for shifting. Gently try to lift the plant by the stem. If the plant starts to pull loose, it is not ready. If you can lift container and all, it may be ready for a shift. Another sign with some containers is if the plant lifts out of the container but the entire soil ball holds together... Shift. In general, the sooner the shift, the sooner that plant gets a jump on any competition. 2.The "4 inch rule" applies to most plants... A shift once a year does a pretty good job of maintaining that growth momentum. For larger trees, say 3 inch diameter and up, the "inch rule" probably inches to 6 or more inches per shift. Hope that helps!

So far, this setup seems to be working OK. I filled the reservoir and the mix stays moist up to just below the surface. I also tied 3 of the wicks out of the way for a couple of days and the mix was definitely drier. I dropped them back into the reservoir and it was back to the same moisture within a day. I'm playing around with some different ways to 'retract' the wicks. JaG's mix wicks perfectly well with this setup, but I suspect that finer mixes may require fewer wicks. I've found snow peas difficult to germinate, so I only have 3 in this container so far. I threw a couple of radish seeds in the middle, and some had difficulty getting a hold in this loose mix, twisting themselves out on more than one occasion. The middle is wet because I top watered with a bit of weak Foliage Pro solution just before taking this pic yesterday. The outer edge is what the top of the mix usually looks like, but just under the surface it remains moist.

I am looking for input as to what type of containers to grow midwestern native prairie type plants in. I have several hundred echinacea, liatris, prairie dropseed etc, that are in flats now and need to be stepped up. I am considering ray leach conetainers, and some air root pruning style pots as well as traditional types. I will leave the plants in containers for a couple years and wonder how deep would be the optimum depth? have you had any experiences good or bad that might help me choose what to get?

I think that this issue bothers me more than most because of the area I am in. The majority of people here don't have enough dispensible income to buy plants and it is a difficult climate to grow a lot of different plants, so most people don't even care about plants. The nurseries around here have the same attitude and seem to not really care of the quality of their plants. It is very difficult to find plants that don't have problems. It's probably a 50/50 chance trying to find a plant that has a problem. In fact, I worked at a landscaping business here and I have heard my boss talk about plants that have been in the same 5 gallon container for their 4th year. The large nursery I worked for was in Oregon and it was much different there than here. People had the money, they had more knowledge, and there was also much more competition. Repotting was a problem at that nursery but the majority of our plants were excellent quality. Also because people were more educated about plants, any plants that weren't up to quality weren't bought. The plants that weren't up to quality just didn't sell. Like I said, I can't speak for every nursery but I know at this nursery I worked out, we had a large enough staff but there were problems w/ organization that even the owner would admit. I was able to visit many nurseries while I was in Oregon and I noticed that the most organized nurseries seemed to have the least amount of problems. I don't pull the plant out of the container either for the same reason you don't. What I have had luck with though is I have found a nursery where basically any plant I pick is going to be perfect. The only problem is, its two hours away but its worth it to me in the end. I agree with you about the label on plants also AND how some nurseries don't have the label or price on a SINGLE plant. You have to talk to someone at the front desk, then they have to look it up for every single plant!