Sounds like they were probably root bound and stunted from not having enough room or nutrients to grow. They should have been potted up at some point. You were doing fine until the 3 months in a tiny tray... When you're not ready to plant out, you can always put them in larger pots. My April starts all got potted up at least once before I transplanted them. How is your soil? Lots of compost? Fertilizer?

This is the first post from a Gardenweb thread titled What Kind Or Range/Cooktop/Oven Is Safest For Little Children? johnliu wrote, "I have toddlers, so I need a high wall oven". "Because of my babies, I won't consider a gas range". "I'm getting induction because I care about my childrens' safety." Does any of this sound familiar? I see these sentiments occasionally here on KF. They are expressed by younger parents who have very young children, or are planning to start families. Oddly enough, I seldom (actually, can't specifically recall ever) hear these concerns from older parents who have actually raised children. Humans learn from experience, so you'd expect the loudest warnings against ranges and gas burners to come from those with . . . experience. Why don't we? I decided to go looking for data. Here is an interesting article, "Kitchen Scalds and Thermal Burns in Children Five Years and Younger", that was published in Pediatrics, Jan 2005. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/115/1/10 The scientists examined the records of all kitchen thermal burns that resulted in a child's visit to a statistical sample of 100 emergency departments nationwide, over a period of five years, 1997-2002. They looked at all cooking-related thermal injuries, excluding accidents where a child pulled on an electrical appliance's cord and was injured by the toaster, coffee maker, etc and/or its contents. The main findings were: - Scalds from hot liquid were the main cause of burns serious enough for an ER room visit (was 2/3rd of the cases), and are the dominant cause of hospitalizations. - Burns from touching hot pots or other surfaces were less common (was 1/3rd of the cases), and seldom resulted in hospitalization. Most burns were from touching a hot pot. - There were 7 total injury patterns: (1) reached up and pulled down pot from stove or other elevated surface; (2) grabbed, overturned, or spilled pot onto self; (3) collided with pot or with person holding pot; (4) put hands into pot; (5) pot contents splashed onto child; (6) other; and (7) unknown. (1) (2) and (5) were the most common, accounting for about 50% of all the injuries. (6) and (7) were less than 10%. - Boys were more likely to climb up on counters and spill pots on themselves. Girls were more likely to have hot liquids splashed on them. Note what was not a significant pattern of injury requiring a hospital visit: chidren touching a hot oven door, chidren holding their hands in a gas flame, children turning on a gas burner and blowing themselves up. I can't say these accidents never happen, but if they do, it is so rare as to not show up in the data. Here's my take on this. Your concern for the safety of your children, both born and unborn, should have essentially nothing to do with what kind of range, cooktop, or wall oven you choose. Whether the pot is on a gas flame or an induction hob really makes no difference to your child's risk of being scalded or burned, whether the knobs are on the front or the top makes no difference, and whether the pan is in a range oven or a wall oven also makes no difference. It isn't the appliance! that is the threat to your child. They all do the same thing: get pots and pans, and their contents, very hot. The threat is the pots and pans and the food in them. Take care to keep pots on the back burners, handles turned in. Have landing space to set hot pots away from counter edges. Design your kitchen so you don't have to criss-cross the room carrying pots of hot liquid (unlike a couple of kitchens recently discussed here). Supervise your children and watch where you're walking. That is what is important, not your appliance selection. From a father whose two kids have reached 11 y/o and 14 y/o without any kitchen accidents, despite having grown up in some awfully dodgy kitchens! Here is a link that might be useful: What Kind Or Range/Cooktop/Oven Is Safest For Little Children?

As someone who root prunes EVERYTHING (except mayyyybe edibles, but that depends) if it's been in a pot for more than a year or two, I think your plant will be fine. If you take off that much of the bottom and leave the whole top, some suffering is to be expected. :) When I first joined GW, it took me a couple of WEEKS to understand what Al was talking about lol. But then I did, and then I seriously repotted every single one of my plants into GM OR 5-1-1 over the course of a couple of days with no regard for weather or season, haha. A few plants did what yours is doing...."OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO ME," and others shined from minute one, but I didn't lose a single plant to the business. I had one croton that quite literally flopped over immediately that Al had me bag (since it was small), to increase the humidity to and even that came back. And don't be hard on yourself. I had been gardening for years when I first came on board with GM so it wasn't like I didn't have "experience," and had no idea I was doing anything wrong; just thought a 50% survival rate was normal, lol. I expected and hoped for slightly better but it's basically 100% success at this point with anything I put into a gritty mix of some sort. I can't quite say the same for things I still use regular mix for, like veggies, but it is really up there in that case, too(say, 85% lol), just because I understand more about a plant and the root system, though water movement is still not checked off solely because there is too much to read, haha. Here was my first foray into gritty mix. Hope it helps! http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1378652/taking-on-gritty-mix

Hi there, I am new to gardening and would be very grateful for some advice. To keep our garden low maintenance (and child friendly), we made a lawn in our garden with a simple wooden planter at the back. This planter is about 1m deep by 1m high by 5m wide (1m = 3.3 foot). The garden is south west facing. Would anyone have any recommendations on what would be best to plant in this planter? (It is south west facing in a moderate climate ) How many plants do you think would work best? Many thanks! Clueless of The Hague