Plants don't age in the same way we think of people aging. Age in people is a described on a chronological basis, where plants age ontogenetically. This might be framed as, the parts that have taken the most cell divisions to produce are the plant's oldest parts; so strangely, the most recent part of the plant (say, a new branch high on the plant) to grow is the oldest part of the plant. The youngest part of the plant will be found in the root to shoot transition zone. This juvenile part of the plant is also nearly always the most vigorous part of the plant. Plants pass through life stages until they end up at the sexually mature stage. At that point they are capable of blooming/fruiting. Whether they DO or not is complicated and not entirely understood. Blooming and other environmental reactions of most healthy plants are primarily influenced by day length (technically it's night length), but more than a few plants are triggered by other factors, like moisture availability, temperature, predation. Some plants even seem to have an internal 'alarm clock' that acts as a trigger to bloom. There are species of bamboo that bloom as infrequently as every 130 years and when the bloom occurs, all plants of a given genetic origin bloom simultaneously, en masse (all at once), and this occurs regardless of environmental influences. Now, that a plant is capable of blooms/fruit doesn't mean it will produce same, no matter how much we hope. The factors that limit a plant's ability to bloom are as complicated as those that trigger blooming. The plant's internal chemical messengers that limit blooming is first influenced by the plants ontogenetic age, but then by health, stress, stored energy reserves, a significant number of environmental factors, and sometimes seemingly no more than a built-in piqued obstinacy that can be more irritating than Justin Bieber or the Kardashians, if that's even possible. How do I get it to bloom? Keep it healthy and let it do its thing. You can search online - there might be some simple ways to coax it to bloom exactly whenever it feels like it. How old does it have to be? The only age important to plants is what growth phase they're in. They have to be old enough chronologically to have reached sexual maturity. This is also complicated because the (ontogenetic) age of the parent plant from which the propagule (that is now your plant) was taken has to be a part of the equation. Example - a hawthorn tree from seed needs to survive around 20-25 growth cycles to bloom; whereas, a cutting from a blooming hawthorn tree can be counted on blooming within a few years if its state of vitality has been generally good. Al

I am not pleased with my Straight Eight Cukes either, but I seem to have a different problem, they are growing long and skinny to about 12 inches, then filling out unevenly so that I have a fat end and a skinny end. I suspect watering issues has caused the strange growth since we have had an unusually rainy summer here in New England. My first two ended up in the compost bin as they tasted horrible. How do yours taste? Maybe you'll need to harvest them smaller than the expected 8 inches you will get some edible ones? Rachel GrafixMuse's Garden Spot

One of my favorite wags: If you put 100 economist in a row they would all point in different directions. The different direction in this case is directed straight at me. One of the best demonstrations I ever saw about what Al is talking about with water retention was done with a sponge. The person wanted to demonstrate that even pot shape has an influence on water retention so they put a sponge in a bucket of water then held it flat until it stopped dropping water. Next they put the sponge vertical and the sponge started dropping water again until it reached equilibrium. The punch line was not only mix but pot shape can have an effect since a short squat pot can easily be saturated while a tall pot will drain the upper levels of the pot. Not trying to put words in Al's mouth but I read his efforts as making the mix as idiot proof as possible by adjusting the particle size and properties such that you would really have to try hard to kill something in it by over watering. Being no ordinary idiot and pointing in a different direction, I wonder if it might be possible to make something less idiot prone by construction? For instance it is composition-osmosis is my life-, surface tension, height, surface area that controls the height of water retained. I'm probably not the only one who has over watered and spent a couple of minutes trying to shake the excess water out. One thing that may work is just putting something like a cotton rope or twine through the pot and out the bottom. How fast it would drain would depend on the hieght of the string and it would always come to equilibrium below saturation. In practice you could just water the hell out of the plant and the cotton string would 'wick' away the excess. If you wanted to keep it at a high moisture level, you could just pull the string up level with the pot when it got to where you wanted it. Not that anyone besides myself cares about this kind of stuff but I will do a couple of quick experiments since it is so simple. I always look for complicated things that will make my life less complicated. String + any pot + any potting mix, drench with hose, string saves your rear by making water content good is about right for my level of sophistication. Rick

njitgrad: Never had a problem with wilting before in 4 years so I doubt the containers are too hot for the roots. Just because things were fine before doesn't mean they're going to be fine now. Conditions differ every year. If you make your 5-1-1 fresh every year, there could be a difference in the particle size/absorbency of the materials you use, etc. I always water them heavily with each watering. When I say heavily I mean until water seeps out of all sides of the containers including the bottom. Probably about 2 gallons of water per plant. It depends on the rate of watering. If you dump a lot of water quickly, much of it may run off without hydrating the mix properly. Also, if the mix is getting too dry in between waterings, it doesn't matter how much you water when you do water. 5-1-1 is a well-draining mix, so it won't hold onto a lot of water. It's not like growing in-ground. So excess water does nothing, just drains away. The key is enough water at the optimum frequency. A ton of water but not often enough will still lead to drought stress if you're growing in containers with a well-draining mix. I understand that it's frustrating that what you did before is not having the same good results today, but it doesn't really help your plants to reject advice because what you were doing before worked before. It's obviously not working now for some of your plants.