Green, will you have a place prepared before October to plant? The reason I ask is that Dan gave me several minifloras last year about the third week of October which he dug out of his bed while I was at his house looking at his gardens. I brought them home, dug each of them a nice deep hole, and covered them up to their ears with soil. Guess what? Come spring, I didn't lose a single one of them. They were the first to leaf out and have been very vigorous and healthy. I'm really rethinking the whole bit about not planting roses in the fall. The grafted bareroot that Hortico sent me by mistake in November also pulled through just fine also...I completely buried it and dug it up in the spring. -terry

Quick return to this thread (I'm trying to get in a flurry of replies, been short on time): Al, you said As far as root-pruning goes, you will likely only undertake it every 3-4 years. Those plants that you have buried will be easy. Depot, saw the bottom 1/3 - 1/2 of the roots off, clean the roots & prune the fat ones. Then - right back in same container. You will likely see a diminished crop in years that you root-prune, but subsequent crops should be greater as a result of improved vitality. Does this mean, though, that as Herman had mentioned, whenever I root-prune yearly to unclog the bottom of the container, that I'll have a diminished crop from the pruning? it didn't sound like that was everyone's experience necessarily, so I want to understand the relationship between the degree of pruning and the lack of productivity, when it sounds like it might be the inverse from some of Herman's recommends. Also, with my figs being so young, I'll just mention that I don't need a saw, only a scissors to prune them at this point! (on a tangential note, I ended up pruning more than roots last night, when de-potting one of my figs: I found a rather large, slightly-slumbering arachnid of a copper-red shade lurking in the roots as I untangled them with my fingers - ICK! the scissors came in handy, rapidly, and now shredded spider parts are a component of that last batch of soil 8-p ) Again, from Al: With regard to your soil choice: A plant that is grown in a container that is not in contact with the soil will benefit more from the gritty mix than those you sink, container & all, in the ground. The reason is simple: there will be no perched water table in the containers that are in the ground. The surrounding soil will act as a giant wick & drain the water. So are you saying that ones being sunk into the dirt will have more wicking action and need a *more* moisture-retentive soil mix used? and that the ones above ground will need the better aeration qualities to avoid a PWC making the bottom portion of the container too soggy for roots to colonize effectively? just trying to clarify my understanding (I do appreciate having grasped the entire PWC concept, that's helped me strategize how I re-pot and mix my soil combos). And a flag to Herman, I don't know if you saw my query? (see above in the thread): Herman, do you trim your container figs to any particular size or shape? (Some of mine were pruned to single stem by the nursery; some seem to grow upright with less branching as a natural habit, others want to branch a *lot*.) I have quite a few single-stem cuttings that are little (24" or less) and have hardly any branchings - I don't want to pinch out the top growing tip on these this spring to make them branch, do I? this is an area I'm not familiar with, is how to prune and *when*, to encourage the fruit. I checked the archives in this forum and saw things about pinching back growing tips, but how big do you let the figs get first before touching them? Thanks for help, everyone! (still looking for Leon to chime back in about his grandfather's fig and any pruning that might've been done when unearthing it in the spring) Sherry (counting down with 15+ figs to re-pot)

Steve, thanks for taking the time and making the effort to respond to my questions. I may not perceive risk in the same manner that you do but I do respect your opinions and your right to hold views that might differ from my own. AND I love your sense of humour. Having said that, I did read the material on HVX at the AHS (including the summary report based on Dr. Lockhart's research) several times BEFORE I expressed my opinions above, just to be sure I had my facts straight. I've done a bit more research and I understand that your concerns stem from theories that are not yet confirmed as fact by scientific studies: "AREAS THAT WARRANT FURTHER INVESTIGATION â¨ïÂÂRoot/soil contamination issues. We found that clean plants could be contaminated BY SOIL and INFECTED DEBRIS. We need to study what occurs and why." I don't want to belittle your concerns and remember an age when cigarette smoke was not deemed to be a danger to one's health, but I'm of an age now where if I have hostas with confirmed HVX, they may outlive me. Bernd, this is what I said in my posts above and I'm sorry if they were misleading: "I had 3 recently planted Krossa Regal that showed signs of HVX. I removed them and removed more soil than the hostas could have contaminated and planted 3 more KRs. I have also used newspaper to kill grass in new planting beds and have been amazed at how long it takes to decompose the layers. Decomposition depends on the number of layers of newsprint used." The three holes with the 3 new Krossa Regals were not lined with newspaper. I just dug out more soil than the newly planted infected KRs could have contaminated. I did use several layers of newspaper to kill grass for a hosta bed extension in 2010. Animals are digging here all the time. Even today I found newspaper dug up by animals that hasn't decomposed yet in my extended hosta bed. I just wanted to clarify what I said and my position on risk management. My views as stated above have not been changed.

That's what I do. Use plastic 4-inch pots from store-bought plants. They are the right size and, unlike many plastic cups, have stiff walls that protect growing roots when the pot is handled and squeezed. Those have always been well-sized to get plants to a transplantable size, without having confined roots. Cubes of soil holding a seedling slip out very cleanly from these, without squeezing them. Peat pots are some kind of commercial joke. You pay good money to have your roots permanently walled in. It's just peat, right? Peat is good, right? So we should make pots out of them, right? You can put your plant in the ground without even getting your hand dirty! By the same reasoning, we should be making pots out of diatomaceous earth and compost. Yes, peat pots are "biodegadable" but, in my experience, generally not on the timescale of a growing season.