I have the drain at my home here in North Vancouver but can't find my camera cable to upload the pictures. My main man Riccardo and his brother completely demoed the bathroom in Yaletown down to bare concrete and studs, and had the place cleaned up for my inspection in one day - NICE! My clients are thrilled, no dust, no mess and all systems go. The Quick Drain USA channel drain we ordered is going to fit perfect - well it will need a little 'help' but nothing crazy. I plan to rig this drain up to my homes system and determine for myself the maximum flow rate it can handle. I may be able to upgrade the drain line to 3" or tie a 3" drain into a 2" street fitting right at the 4" main stack. A 2" drain is simple to install and if a 2" line can handle all the water we want to throw at it - great. If not we will adjust the pressure on these new supply lines with 3/4" PRV's . The job is in a Yaletown, Vancouver Condo. This condo has it's own internal shutoffs and we are piping for new 3/4" supply lines. Unlike a stand alone home this condo has 3/4" supply of cold and a 3/4" supply of hot. I think we will get more flow from this set up. I'm going to borrow my neighbors hose and mine to see the effects of this much water on a 2" line. We know from the designers in Germany what the fixtures will generate in Litres per second and want to confirm that a 2" drain line will handle the flow rate. The drain is only 3' from the main stack and drops into a 4" stack. These conditions will be easy to recreate as I just finished my plumbing inspection in North Vancouver and have pipe and fittings coming out my ......

1) By volume 2) An entire book could be written about how to water. The best way to water is: Add enough water to ensure the entire soil mass is moist/damp. Wait a few minutes, around 10, and water again so at least 15-20% of the total volume of water applied exits the pot. The pot should not rest in the effluent because this provides a pathway for the salts you flushed from the soil to make their way back into the pot. With a pathway back into the pot, the level of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil solution quickly reaches a state of isotonicity (balance) with the level of dissolved solids in the effluent, negating your efforts to flush the soil. I set my pots up on pieces of plastic channel so they are well above any effluent that drains into the saucer. The water in the collection saucer usually evaporates within a day or two, but how quickly that occurs depends on factors like RH, air movement, and temps. 3) It depends on the plant. Some plants get divided & repotted, but for most plants I like to repot in an appropriate month (usually June) by bare-rooting, root pruning, and transplanting into an appropriate soil. For my own purposes, I consider an appropriate soil to be one I can water to beyond saturation - so I'm flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids (mineral salts) each time I water, w/o my having to worry about root rot or depressed root function over long periods (days) because the soil tends to remain soggy interminably. 4) The worse your soil is, the more advantage pots made of unglazed clay or other gas permeable materials provide. Soils like these already have excellent gas exchange due to meritable air porosity, so the advantage in using gas permeable pots is reduced, but not absent. 5) The 1:1:1 ratio should serve you well indoors/Boston. Because my focus is primarily on bonsai, I grow a lot of plants in small soil volumes. I generally water on a 4 -5 day rotation, but I have a half dozen plants I water lightly after 3 days, then again on the 4th or 5th day. Last week, RH was very high, and the heating system didn't run much, so the interval was stretched to 6 days - same this week, it appears. The fast draining soils are a big help to me in that they allow me to water on a schedule instead of on a plant by plant basis. I enjoy nurturing and doing creative things with plants, but the thought of having to keep track of a watering program on a plant by plant basis isn't appealing to me. I noticed that you're 'following'. I appreciate that - thank you. Al

Well my thought was to leave at least one limb as RD. The issue I have with it is that this tree has taken so much longer to flower than my other trees. The RD tree came from a grocery store (before I knew any better). All my other trees came from reputable tree nurseries. I've seen them flower the same year that I put them in or at the very latest one year after transplant. The RD also has loads of suckers making it more maintenance to prune each year. I've seen a bunch of vids online about grafting onto pre-existing trees and I think I'm going to go with using the tree as a framework (since I've spent seven years pruning it to form) rather than totally lopping off huge limbs. This video is from Stephen Hayes who decided to regraft a existing apple tree using Queen Cox scions. Here's the technique that I think I'll use which uses a tree's existing framework: Since this tree is so old and has so many good limbs to graft on, I was thinking of making a "Frakentree" and maybe starting with 30 different varieties similar to what is seen here: I was thinking of grafting the following varieties: Cider Apples Hewe’s Crab Smokehouse Golden Russet Desert Apples Arkansas Black Baldwin Belle de Boskoop Black Twig Braeburn Claygate Pearmain Cortland Cox Orange Pippin D'Arcy Spice Fuji Goldrush Gravenstein Irish Peach Kidd's Orange Red Macoun Pacific Rose Pink Lady (Cripps Pink) Sturmer Pippin Sweet Sixteen Winesap Zestar! Zuccalmaglio Grimes Golden Calville Blanc d’Hiver "High Quality" Desert Apples Ashmead's Kernel Blue Pearmain Karmijn de Sonnaville King of the Pippins Esposus Spitzenberg Anyone ever tried anything like this or have any thoughts? Seems like a fun project to do for a tree that I was thinking of chopping down just a couple weeks ago.

I will let others advise you as to the timing of the repot... however, as someone who has had her share of back problems, one thing to keep in mind when you do repot is... maybe don't lift it? One approach might be: 1) prepare the new soil mix in advance... whether it is going to be 5-1-1 or gritty... (this is a whole separate issue... what you will put it in ... try to plan so you have the new mix ready 2 weeks ahead if its 5-1-1 ... I always forget this part) ...then 2) spread out a tarp or a layer of plastic bags, then a layer of newspaper, and ... (also, waiting a few days after watering, so it will be even lighter) ... just tip it on its side, very carefully, and slide it out of the pot. (If possible, you might want to drag it onto the balcony before this... but I don't know your situation...) What you'll need to do is, remove the old soil completely and then keep the roots moist and get it into the new soil as soon as you can. I just did this myself a little while ago with a different plant. (And mine's not showing new growth yet... so it's very good you asked first if this is the right time to re-pot. I sure hope I didn't kill it.) I like to put something on the ground under the lower trunk to support it/prop it up off the ground a bit while I de-soil the rootball, so I don't put stress on the trunk. This can get a little tricky but you can also just hold it up with your other hand. If you time it right and have also a new container of whatever size you'll need (which is also something I don't know about) ... with the new mix in it (which probably should be pre-moistened)... then you can just re-plant it right away. If not, keep the roots moist in a bucket of water. You will also need to figure out ahead of time what you are going to do about the drainage holes in the new pot. (I used that drywall tape in one recently, but I used two layers which really messed up my drainage... surprised the heck out of me! now I just use one... I don't know what everyone else uses.) If you're lucky, people will tell you to wait until spring and that will give you plenty of time to read up. I just chimed in bc I too have a hard time with lifting things and this whole process pretty much *is* going to be messy. Probably unavoidable to a certain degree. Nice thing about a bark mix is it will probably be a bit lighter. And this is all just my opinion. I'm sure other people will have better tips about what they do. It's good to have a strategy -- that much I do know!