First part of the question: waiting for the compost delivery won't hurt the Weeping Siberian Spruce. It's got a very slow growth rate (6-10" per year) so it won't get much more potbound than it is now. Wrap the black nursery pot with something white, so the sun doesn't overheat it, and keep it well watered. You say the soil doesn't retain moisture. Does than mean it drains quickly, or that it runs off on the surface? Dig a hole and fill it half way with water. Time how long it takes to drain. If it drains quickly, then use the compost to amend the backfill, but don't include any peat moss. This tree likes moist well-drained soil. The existing soil, mixed with compost will hold enough moisture to satisfy it, and as long as it drains quickly, the tree should be happy. Since you'll be installing the tree several weeks after using the RoundUp, it won't be a concern. It'll all be gone (probably already is).

Thanks for the great thoughts. Yes, I do have plants on my balcony....two blueberry shrubs (first year shrubs though, so no berries this year. I know birds LOVE them, no? ;-) All the rest are flowering plants or herbs....though no flowers out at this time, but surely I have greenery. And in the Fall I understand my blueberry plants will turn color and my Wisteria I think as well? Anyway that's a good idea to just set some seed and water out though....I have 6' open weave (very open in fact) trellises all along the balcony railings, so there's really no place to 'set' seed or water right now, except on top of a table or on the balcony floor. That might be next to impossible for getting the birds' attention. My initial plan was to get feeders etc that can be affixed to the railing and/or by utilizing hangers affixed to the railings, and then suspending the feeders from those. Anyway, I DO also have some wire pot holders that hang from the side of the balcony and so they face outwards. Maybe I could remove the pots from the holders, and put some kind of dish or receptacle in there to see if the birds come. Course, the receptables will have to be sorta narrow...the pot holders are only about 8" wide....but maybe a plastic soup container filled with peanuts in the shell would be the best best. Bluejays (which I HAVE heard in the area) should easily be able to pluck out some peanuts from that. And if I see that works, then I can augment my collection, since once one bird comes (esp loud Jays), the others will follow. I've also heard cardinals in the area.... Tx!

One nice alternative if you want but can't have an instant hot is an electric kettle---we got one a few months before our remodel, and have been using it for all sorts of things. It boils far faster than our kettle did on the gas stove, and I also love the auto shutoff. No more trying to remember if I turned the stove off after I'm at work! It will have its own space in the new kitchen, and will be the primary source for hot water. We are also in the extreme minority in GW land and only have one water source in the kitchen---not even a fridge line! (Okay, technically it's split for the d/w, so I guess that's 1.5...) It's what we had before and we liked it, so we kept it that way. Works for us. I like the idea of an instant hot, but we have a small kitchen and the under-sink real estate was too valuable to put one in. I contemplated a pot filler, but our stove is close enough to the sink that we wouldn't gain that much. Friends who have one that is very close to the sink still love it because it allows them to fill pots with a child in one arm. You still have to put the child down to empty it, of course, but makes it a little easier! We have a hot water dispenser at work, which I do use, but I do find the water is not quite hot enough for tea. I use it anyway for that since I'm lazy, though. :) (You also may be able to change the settings; no clue how it works, exactly.) I've seen steamers (someone around here who posted a finished kitchen recently has one, I think) and they're very cool, but really only logical to have if you steam things virtually every night or if you have a really large kitchen with space that isn't needed for other things.

My POV based on my experiences and years of interacting with innumerable growers on the topic of container media: 1. It's about impossible to tell if a failing plant is getting too much or too little water- even with Al's help (too little is very common). If a failing plant is in a well-made gritty mix and is collapsing due to a watering issue, it's almost certainly due to not watering frequently enough. You actually have to work quite hard to over-water plants in a medium that holds little or no perched water. There are some plants that can be overwatered because their nature is to not tolerate much water in the soil at ALL (cacti, quiescent mesembs, .....), but for the overwhelming majority of plants discussed on this forum, it would be difficult to over-water. Any plant will fail if you don't water it, regardless of the medium it's in. It's a fact that plants in the gritty mix will need to be watered more often than plants in Miracle Grow and others similar. If someone doesn't want to water more often than these soils require watering, don't use the gritty mix - simple. 2. In dry or hot weather, it can be extremely difficult to provide enough water. Until the entire pot is colonized with roots, you might need to water daily, or even more often. Many of the plants I grow would be considered large houseplants in very small pots, so my plant mass to soil volume requires much closer attention to watering than someone growing in larger pots that would hold 2-4 times the amount of soil relative to plant mass. I pretty much use the 1:1:1 ratio for all those plants normally grown indoors. In winter, under lights I have no problem keeping plants hydrated for 4 or 5 days, and in summer when houseplants are outdoors, I water daily or every other day, depending on the weather (primarily sun, temps, and wind). When a plant is newly planted in the gritty mix, it's necessary to retain a mental image of where the roots are and make sure you water frequently enough that the medium surrounding the roots doesn't grow dry. Generally speaking, these newly repotted plants should be in shade and out of wind to minimize transpirational water loss. I can't remember the last time I lost a plant due to the roots drying out after a repot. If you don't feel as though you want to nurse your plants through the just repotted stage - don't use the gritty mix - simple. 3. Grit doesn't anchor a plant until the entire pot is filled with roots, so tall plants topple over, and hanging plants fall out. At least until the roots have filled the entire pot, you need to devise something to anchor your plants in their pots: bungee cords, tape, chicken wire, zip ties, etc. All else equal, the gritty mix provides more shear strength than peat-based mediums. So, while a recently root pruned plant potted in the gritty mix might need support, the need for supporting the same plant in soils like MG would actually be greater. Whenever we root prune or bare root, especially top-heavy plants like trees, no matter what the medium used - they should be supported. This is not an issue unique to the gritty mix by any means. 4. Special watering devices and methods are needed for some plants. Unlike soil that absorbs and spreads water, grit lets it run directly through, so you must water the entire surface of the grit, or dip the entire pot in water to wet it through. you can't water a plant from a corner, or around the edges. I have to use a laboratory squeeze bottle to water several of my plants because I need to direct a narrow stream of water between dense leaves that completely cover the surface of the pot. It's a pain, but my other choice is to submerge the pots, which means I have to carry them and a bucket of water around several times a week, which increases the risk of them being dropped or spilled. I think that if a person chooses to submerge the pots when they can envision so many potential catastrophes associated with that method, another method is probably a good idea. It is true that water quickly runs through the gritty mix, so you need to try to wet the entire surface of the soil as you water. This is also not a problem unique to the gritty mix. The gritty mix won't become hydrophobic, like peat based soils, unless you have a lot of dry algae growing on the soil surface (but then you have a larger problem), VERY often, problems arise when peat-based soils dry down to their hydrophobic stage, at which point only a tiny fraction of the water applied is absorbed, while all the rest runs down between the soil mass & pot wall. At least if you cover the entire surface of the gritty mix with water until it flows out of the drain hole, you can be pretty certain you're wetting the soil mass & not just throwing water at it. I use some very sophisticated watering tools: The tool above is a very simple water brake. You can buy one for the hose end for a couple of bucks. That's ALL you'll need to water anything in the gritty mix outdoors. I use it in combination with a hose-end shut-off that allows me to control flow volume. The sophisticated tool below is what I use to water all my indoor plants during the winter. I have 2 growing tables in the basement that are 4ft by 8 ft. I have about 100 plants packed onto the two tables, so the plants in the middle are 2 ft from the edge. I water ALL of those plants with this watering can and never once empty a drainage saucer (I use white plastic plates to catch the water that runs through, and it evaporates in a day or 2) or move a plant. I took the rose (nozzle) it came with off and slipped a nozzle from a tube of caulking over the spout. It gives me pinpoint accuracy so I can cover the entire soil surface - simple. 5. It is easy to overwater with soil, but it's even easier to underwater in grit. There is little margin for error. If a plant wilts one day, it'll likely be dead 24 hours later if it's not watered. You can't put it off to the next day. It's easy to underwater in any medium if the grower doesn't hold up his half of the bargain. Under-watering is another issue not unique to the gritty mix, and to say there is little margin for error is deceiving. Any plant that is wilting in any mix is likely to be just as dead next day in whatever medium it's in. The gritty mix does require more frequent waterings, but that doesn't mean the chance of under-watering is increased. One either waters on time or doesn't. The consequences are the same regardless of the medium used. Where fast draining soils shine is in the area that produces the most problems - OVER-watering. As already mentioned, you'd have to work hard at over-watering media like the gritty mix, while excess water retention is an inherent problem in almost all peat-based media. 6. You end up a slave to watering schedules. You can't really have a friend or neighbor water your plants when you go out of town for a week. Every plant ends up on a different schedule, and you can't just stick a finger in to see if it's damp. It's too complicated and confusing to most people. A slave? Different schedules for every plant? In summer, I make the watering rounds daily, but my situation is a little unique. I have lots of bonsai in very small soil volumes, some of which DO require watering daily. Those plants I'm growing pots the same size others might use are watered every 3-4 days, 2-3 days when it's really hot. I water almost EVERYTHING (other than bonsai) on the same schedule. In the winter, every plant except 1 large Fockea edulis and about 4 very small bonsai gets watered every 4 days. The F edulis gets watered every 8 days & the tiny bonsai every 2 days - not hard at all to keep track of. In summer, I have a number of bonsai that get watered daily. The rest of the plants get watered every 2-3 days, depending on weather. Soils that hold little to no perched water ALLOW you to water on a schedule, which is MUCH easier than trying to figure out when 200 plants in a peat mix might or might not need water - nothing complicated or confusing about it - simple. 7. Grit is extremely heavy and clumsy. A five-gallon potted tree that you might've easily moved outside during the day, and back in each night becomes a chore that needs to be set on wheels. Because the pot's depth plays into how much water it holds in relation to the soil volume, there is no way to be exactly precise in measuring the weight of the gritty mix vs a peat mix. In 1-3 gallon containers, the gritty mix weights about 2-3 times what a peat-based mixture weighs when both are dry. When both are saturated in the same size container, the gritty mix weighs about 25-33% more than the peat-based soils. I grow some pretty big plants, and don't think twice about the weight. The term clumsy to describe a soil wouldn't have crossed my mind. When spring temps are erratic and my numerous plants need to be moved in and out to avoid chill-related injury. I put them on nursery carts and move 50 plants in and out in 5 minutes - simple. 8. It wastes a lot of water (and expensive fertilizer). I have to go around dumping drip trays after every watering. In a dry climate, of if you have heat on indoors to dry the air, it might not be an issue, but we're right around 100% humidity indoors and out here. As noted, I've never dumped a drip tray - they do evaporate indoors long before the next watering is required. Outdoors, it's a non-issue for me. Again - not an issue unique to the gritty mix. If you're watering correctly and flushing the soil when you water, you have water in the collection saucer. If you don't, you're promoting salt build-up in the soil, which comes with its own set of problems. 9. Self-watering pots and devices won't work with grit. Completely true ...... by design. The gritty mix is purposely designed so it doesn't support the perched water SWCs depend on to supply water to the plant. Even the 5:1:1 mix isn't suited well to SWCs. Most growers that prefer bark-based media and the convenience of SWCs add additional peat to the 5:1:1 mix so they end up with something like a 5:3:1 mixed of bark:peat:perlite Growing is all about compromise. Growers that want the convenience of week-long intervals between waterings aren't going to get it w/o sacrificing a measure of their plants' potential. When we depend on water-filled pores between soil particles to extend watering intervals, we also accept the fact that roots occupying the saturated portion of the media are functioning very poorly and dying from a lack of oxygen. This is very expensive in terms of energy outlay, and robs the plant of energy that might have been applied to something other than regenerating lost rootage. It's up to the individual to decide what best allows them to order their priorities as they choose. Blaming failures on the mix w/o some feel for what else might have gone wrong is very unfair. Very often, we discover that in their haste to 'get the mix made', it was made with ingredients that shouldn't have been used (too large). Often, too, growers go forward with root pruning that's poorly timed and before the undertaking is well-understood before repotting into the gritty mix. When a plant is doomed before the repotting session is completed, it's hardly reasonable to blame the medium. I repeat over and over that I'm not selling recipes, I'm selling a concept and encouraging people to understand what drives the concept so they can make use of it to avoid the issues that bring 90% of the growers to this forum seeking remedial advice for problems ultimately related to poor root health. This thread is a perfect example. I extolled the virtues of fast draining soils and never mentioned a recipe or any particular soil until the topic was broached in a fashion biased enough that I felt an alternate view would be appropriate. YMMV - just trying to keep it real. Al