You are right on target. The lead bud is sometimes called the dominant bud. Your technique is the standard practice in a nursery to get plants to bush out. Also, fertilizing in the spring and before mid summer will help. Fertilizing after midsummer may cause growth that is too tender to make it through the winter. The name of your plant is Rhododendron maximum, or just maximum. Most people don't use the term "maxi". There is a maximum cross called 'Maxi Rose'. R. maximum is a native plant to the Eastern US. R. maximum, the Great Laurel, is a large elepidote rhododendron found from Nova Scotia to Georgia and west to Alabama and Ohio in dense forests. This tall straggly plant has pinkish-white flowers. Its long slightly narrow leaves have a thin indumentum on the underside. It is a large hardy plant with small trusses.

Umm, that's "big" not "bit." I'm reminded by the other thread... what is the direction of prevailing winds in your area? When trees do go down, which direction do they tend to fall? It might be kind of random in a hurricane. But in a normal storm? That's the kind of question you can ask a local arborist. Some of them think they work for the tree and not for you, so beware those. And Tom, I'm amazed you're duped by a photo that looks good from one direction. You've seen the ones that show that the main trunk has a substantial lean on it and that the upright part is a subservient branch that ended up growing upright, probably when the leader went rogue for some reason. And that crack is still there even though it doesn't show in the picture. You know trees keep growing and putting mass on at the top no matter how big they get. By the way... sewers: tree roots don't usually heave them up but rather infiltrate and plug them. They are after the water in them, so have no interest in going underneath. Similarly, roots go under sidewalks in part because moisture reliably accumulates under there, especially right on the underside of the concrete or stone - that's why they heave them rather than delving into the dirt under them. So you wouldn't have a sewer failure in the yard; you'd just need to rout it out. When we had a willow growing this close to our sewer line, we had to rent the rotorooter about once a year; sometimes got away with 18 months. This was with a new PVC pipe in place, but the junction to the city sewer was obviously vulnerable, because we always had to go that far to clear the blockage. So what is vulnerable is not the new pipe, but where it is connected, potentially to old clay pipe exiting the house, or at the connection to the city line. Be alert for drainage slow-downs on various fixtures in the house. Our first hint was always the downstairs toilet glugging when bath upstairs was being drained. Your tree is not as bad as a willow in this regard, but any tree that will heave a sidewalk like that IS a moisture-chaser. Anyway Eric I'll shut up now. Not stalking, really :-) Karin L

I have been calling around/visiting several plant nurseries near where I live in search for pine bark fines for the 5-1-1 mix. So far, no luck. The nurseries all tell me that they have pine bark mulch and/or a potting bark mixture. Would an alternative for pine bark fines work with the 5-1-1 mix, and if so, what should I look for? From what I have read, I need to let the mix sit for roughly 2 weeks prior to planting my tree to let the lime do its thing. I have obviously been able to fine pine bark fines online around $10 per quart, but wanted to find something and make my mix right away before the season changes. Would this just be the better option? Also, how long should I keep my tree barerooted for?

Question 1 - I was really blown away by how deep and big the taproot is growing on these trees. It's like most of the energy is going to create this big root. It's thicker than the trunks in every case, and the roots are easily twice to sometimes 3x as long as the seedling itself. So on on of them, I cut back the taproot a little bit... I took about a half an inch. I had read Al mentioning that slowly cutting back a taproot over time can help spur the tree to grow more roots higher up. I hope I didn't take it out of context. The first day the lowest leaf of that seedling, which has started to go brown on the rim, became pale and collapsed on one side of the leaf. Then yesterday it went dry. Today there has been no further progress of the leaf's collapse and no further signs of stress. The seedling seems strong... Was I wrong to try and trim it back just a little bit? Or did I do alright? Is this seedling out of the woods for now do you think? Young plants are nearly all dynamic mass, and as such, have a very strong "will to live". If your plant is currently doing well, there is no reason it will take a turn unless something cultural forces a change in course. Bonsai practitioners have learned that lifting seedlings as soon as the first set of true leaves emerge and removing the seed radicle immediately below the root to shoot transition zone and treating the top as a cutting eliminated taproot issues entirely in most plants. In stubborn plants with a hard tendency toward vertical roots, you'll need to regularly remove all first order roots (attached to main stem) growing downward from the root to shoot transition zone as well as all second order roots growing up or down off the first order roots. Question 2 - related to question 1, regarding the other seedling I root pruned a little. This one I took a little more off of because of root rot. I know I had to take it off, and I also took off a bit of taproot for this one too. The seedling itself seems fine. The uppermost leaf - which is fairly new and thin yet - went limp the first day, but has become stronger and greener these last two days. I know I had to take off the bad roots, but I was worried I went too far. I'm hoping I'm seeing indications that I didn't? Only way to tell is by putting a waiting period behind you during which the plant retains its turgidity throughout the daylight hours. Stomata close at night and slow water loss, so unhealthy plants have opportunity to recover from low internal water pressure and wilting. No wilt during the day is a good indication to bet on full recovery. Question 3 - When I was done, I investigated the 5 'dead' seedlings. Two of them looked like some of Al's bare-root pictures. The main part of the taproot was healthy, seemed alive, and had small alive roots still growing from it. but the end of the root was truncated in mush, much of which fell off into the soil. I washed them as clean as I could in a mist spray and cut off the mushy end to clean root. Then I potted those in 5:1:1 too. I'm hoping against hope that I might be able to save them. The top id dead back to the twiggy stump... Any thoughts if they might come back? Anything special I might do for them to give them the best shot - for instance a special fertilizer or watering strategy? Withhold fertilizer until the plant recovers. DAMP or MOIST are the operative words. If the fungal infection has gummed up the plumbing such that a vascular connection between roots and shoots isn't in the offing, it's a goner. If the infection isn't systemic, the possibility of retaining viability is still on the table. What kills cuttings is the inability to make that plumbing connection due to rot, or the cutting having an inadequate energy reserve. If the plant/cutting/seedling runs out of reserve energy while it still a net user of energy instead of a net producer of energy, it's over. 4: I have 5 I have not yet repotted. They seem to be okay... though 3 aren't doing much of anything, they're just existing and may have some first sign of browning on lowest leaves, but I might be looking too hard too... One is finishing it's fall flush of leaves, and one is start starting it's fall flush... I'm not sure if I should repot them so close to winter or if I should let them be until spring, since they seem okay right now. I especially am not sure I should mess with the one putting out new leaves. But on the other hand, what if I really am seeing some warning signs and some suddenly start taking a down turn in the next week or month? Wouldn't it be better to do it early, now, rather than later? The only reason I re-potted the ones I did was because I was sure they wouldn't make it through winter... I am not sure on these ones. If they were your plants, what would you do? A dearth of mobile nutrients, over-watering, root congestion, soil compaction, can all lead to loss of lower leaves. I'll ask you to spare me from having to do the research by telling me if these plants would normally enter a predictive dormancy during the fall to winter transition? If yes, then waiot until spring but guard against over-watering. If no, repot only if you suspect strongly that the plants will no longer be viable come late spring (June). 5: Fungus gnats. =( I manage to get rid of them for a while, but they always come back. Of course, I was always using compost mixes, particularly organic ones, and they're usually lousy with them no matter how much a brand claims they pasteurize/sterilize for pests. Do non-mineral soil media mixes have the same ability to attract and support these and other soil-borne pests? If yes, which ones to watch for? If you don't already have a good understanding of what constitutes the comparative degrees of container media (as in unusable, practically unusable, just plain poor, ok, better, and the variations of better from 'sort of better' to 'really a whole lot better'), making that a priority will almost certainly propel your advancement farther/faster than anything else you might apply yourself to in the near term. If you need the info that can tie soils up into a neat little conceptualization, I'll be really glad to help, but I think trying to do it in a thread that covers so many topics isn't the best format. Are you familiar with and understand the concept discussed here? Which brings my follow-up: If it can support pests that spent part or all of their life cycle in soil, then it should be able to support their predators too, right? I prefer to combat pests with their predators, like nematodes, predatory mites, aphid lions, etc. Would this be doable if needed? How about we work toward providing a home for roots that doesn't provide creature comforts? In the immediate, mosquito dunks and a restrained hand on the watering can are potential remedies. 6: For the future of these little babies of mine, what would a good strategy be for keeping them happy growing in a container? You'll find an outline here that will provide a plan for maintaining woody material in containers and in good health indefinitely. I know I need to keep them smaller than if they were in the landscape, and that means eventually removing the taproot. I also understand that taproot removal usually starts after a year. But these trees don't actually seem to have much besides taproot... smaller roots branch off of it, and a few have some smaller roots that come from the trunk matrix but not most from what I've seen. Would the best bet be to gradually prune the tap root back over a few years in an attempt to get the trees to put out more roots higher up? Or should I go for broke and just cut it way back and defoliate? Or is it possible that the poor media I have been growing in so far as not encouraged growth at the higher and mid root range and drove the roots downwards looking for air? I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures to share to give you a better idea. If I end up re-potting any of the others, I will take some. I think I covered these questions above, but if not, ask again. Al