Mark, the trees generally grow to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4', plus or minus a foot, depending upon the weather that year. Irrigation is not really an issue... in fact, excessive rainfall is my most persistent problem. Moringa does not like wet feet, and my heavy soil drains poorly. If the soil becomes waterlogged, many of the plants will yellow & die. I learned early on that I should not plant them adjacent to plants which are water hogs, for that reason. Last year I put some plants in the garden, and some in large outdoor pots; the potted plants - which were better drained - were a foot taller at season's end. The number of trees I plant is limited by the fact that they must be started indoors, and the growing space - while fairly large - is shared by hundreds of other seedlings. There is also the issue of germination rates; commercial seed (from multiple sources) typically has only 50-60% germination, 70% is the best I have had. That rate drops off rapidly after the first year, so I need to order fresh seed each year. I should also note that while I can transfer peppers & tomatoes into a solar greenhouse while nights are still in the upper 40's, such temperatures will weaken and/or kill some of the Moringa seedlings... so they need to stay indoors longer. I am tentatively planning to use 12" spacing between plants next year, in double rows. That will leave enough room to weed easily. Until now, I have always planted a 32-cell tray, but I'll squeeze another tray full in somewhere.

Thank all for the helpful advise. Martin, Thank you for confirming that my fig tree yellow leaves issue is not heat related, which allow me to narrow down to possible individual tree caring problem. It looks like that you are living in the same area as I do, I remember you have helped me in the past thread on how to winterize the trees. What type of mulch works the best according to your own experience? Frank, I will add some lime into the soil next spring, Thanks for remind me of this. In zone5, fig is not popular grown in ground. There are same people grow fig in the pots but still is not very popular plant except few people like members in this forum who really like to grow figs. John, Vinnie, Thanks for confirming the growing enviroment of the fig trees. You both are right. Hardy Chicago originally came from sicily Italy where is an island, growing climate should be very humid. It naturally should be able to take moist air without developing disease. I am looking into the overwater issue and on the caution side, spayed the fungicide which I try to use as seldom as possible. Currently, it appears the problem has stopped developing after few yellowed leave fell off. foolishpleasure, Thank you for the Spectracide info. I do have a small vegetable garden and occasionally have blosom rot on those large heirloom tomatoes.

I'm not finding the thread now where I wondered whether I should prune a particular branch on my 18-month-old Alphonso mango or not, just as a flush of growth was winding down during the summer--but I did prune it. I had pruned the rest of the tree awhile earlier and it was growing like crazy, a little too much so in this one spot--it was just one solitary branch going almost to the ground. And then it just sat there looking stumped. In October (!) the tree finally responded to that pruning with a flush of tender new growth, there and in one other random spot; slower than summer, but still, five new branches, and now there's budding. So cool. (Is it normal for it to be budding in November?) But why I most wanted to come back was to thank Stanofh for his help. For the advice that my Alphonso mango needed to be kept warmer than I'd been doing in order for it to bloom. This is a warmer fall than last year's, which helps, but I've been putting my two frost cover layers over the tree right at sundown rather than waiting for the temps to get down into the fifties--what I'd read previously was that it just had to stay above 40 for the inflorescence and that cold prompts it to start budding. That appears to have been incomplete information at best. And I reset the temp control attached to the incandescent Christmas lights to click on sooner. I went looking again for a book, any book, on how to grow them and found one by Lee Reich that had a short entry on mangoes. He said they have to stay above 55 consistently to flower. Which is pretty much what Stanofh had said. So I guess there's cold and there's its idea of what cold is supposed to mean. Stanofh, when I taste my first homegrown mango I will be thanking you for it.

Thank you, Khalid, for a wonderful show of roses blooming in hot temp. I like your dark-color roses: McCartney rose, Ebb tide, H.Z, Doris.T., and Oklahoma. Alec's Red is known as partial shade rose. Old Garden Roses are usually sold as own-roots here in America. In my experience, floribundas are better as own-root. Floribundas such as Ebb Tide, Bolero, French Lace are very good in acid-phosphatase (producing acid to break down minerals for blooming) .. thus they can root easily & be able to go deep into my hard-clay for winter-survival. I have to give high pH dolomitic lime to my FLORIBUNDA roses: Bolero, Old Port with dark green leaves. The exception is my Kordes Floribunda Deep Purple (ultra-wimpy as own-root) .. some Kordes roses are bred to secrete LESS acid, to prevent blackspots, and folks in alkaline clay California complained that some Kordes roses don't bloom well. My hunch is: if a rose blooms easily, it means roots can secrete acid to utilize minerals in soil, which means it will root easily, and does well as own-root. Per Khalid question: Do you think it will be safe to remove soil from the roots (in the evening), dunk the roots in a bucket of water for some time and plant it at a new place in temps ranging between 90-100*F during day but 80 to 90*F at the time when the rose is being shifted (evening time)? Answer: Yes, it's safe to remove soil from a GRAFTED-rose (Dr.Huey rootstock or Centifolia), dunk that in a bucket of water to get rid of termites, but NOT safe to plant at that high temp., unless you are in wet-season with frequent rain. I dug up roses at 90 F, bare-rooted in a bucket of water, and had to water it 3 times a day, otherwise the leaves droop. I bare-rooted Bluegirl (Dr.Huey-rootstock), then planted in another location. I had to water it daily for 2 months .. before it sprouted new leaves. Thank God it didn't lose leaves being dug up at 80 to 90 F, but it's a pain to water it daily for 2 months. I had seen Dr.Huey rootstock being wrapped in wet-sawdust, with a plastic outer-cover, sitting inside the store for 4 months, yet sprouted green leaves. If you don't have wet sawdust, anything damp & soft like cloth can sub. and the roots can be stored inside for weeks, then plant later when you have time or the temp. goes down.