Thank you. You all have been so helpful. I have gleaned new and useful information. I have 7 bands that are potted in the local nursery's organic potting soil with the ingredients listed above. The next 8 bands will be potted this evening in the Miracle Gro with moisture control. These bands have been received anywhere from 5 - 8 days apart. I am really curious to see what the difference will be between the bands that arrived last week to those arriving this week. The ones planted in organic planting soil will receive a very weak dose of fish emulsion every Sunday. The M.G. plants will receive water. Roseseek, thank you for the information and the images:) Again, Thank you all:) Lynn This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Fri, Jul 19, 13 at 19:26

Next time you go to buy a tree, pull it out of the pot before you buy it. At least in a normal pot, you should see fine roots around the outer surface of the rootball. You may even see a few that are a little larger, but they should not be so big that you cannot either straighten them out (when you are planting the tree) or prune them away (without worrying about hurting the plant). At planting, you really don't want any roots circling around the rootball or kinked in knots. Your tree's roots will grow larger and larger as the tree grows, so picture the rootball as all those roots grow many times their current size. If all the roots are locked into a tight ball (or pot-shaped cylinder), the trees root system will not be sufficient to support the tree or supply water and nutrients. Even if some roots are able to grow out away from the tree, a potbound rootball will become more congested with age, and failure will become more and more likely. Some people even recommend complete removal of all potting material during the planting process. They believe that poor root system structure is so important, that the extra shock, brought on by bare rooting, is worth it. Personally, I prefer a more modest approach. I remove a lot of the excess potting material, but leave all that I can while still being able to ensure that all the roots are straightened out and growing away from the tree. Usually, I form a cone at the base of the plant that allows the roots to radiate away from the base of the tree and slightly down into the soil. If you have questions about this, please let me know. Sometimes describing things like this in few words is not easy. Also, see the link below for what I hope are very helpful instructions about how to plant a tree or shrub. Here is a link that might be useful: Planting a Tree or Shrub

You can use a clay pot or orchid pot (with side slits) if you like (breathe better but dry out quicker). (I use basic plastic.) I definitely suggest a soil consisting mostly of sphagnum moss, peat, and wood chips. If you lived in Florida you could grow it on wood, but Calif. is way too dry for that. You could use loose orchid mixes but I would work a significant bit of sphagnum/peat into the mix. It would benefit from a summer outside in filtered sun, mist often. They're easy ferns!:)

i rehydrated bromeliads and orchids successfully to get over the initial wilt by floating them in warm water for 30-60 min with a bit of unsulphered molasses like Granma's (1tb per gallon of water) . Staghorn is epiphytic too - so perhaps you can float your wilted strand too? - at least 15-20 min, it can't hurt - just sponge it gently somewhat dry with paper towel afterwords. this is what i found: Large platycerium can be easily divided into smaller plants, and even small "chunks" that include a leaf and a bit of root ball can be potted individually. Make sure new divisions are kept warm and moist until they are growing independently. Don't get discouraged if newly cut divisions take a little time to root. --- the way i see it you don't have much to loose at this point...so try this: desinfect the brown root stub by dipping it for a minute or so in peroxide solution: like a few drops of 3% peroxide per half-cup of water - to kill the rot if it's present. then gently dry it with paper-towel. then lay the fronds flat on a table on slightly dampened paper towel. If you have a little bit of long-fibre sphagnum moss - wet it and squeeze dry and put it losely around that fuzzy root-stub that you still have attached to leaves. do not spray the sphag, just the green leaves and just a little only. the sphag should be just barely misted to remain just barely soft to touch. it has antifungal properties. the sphag should remain very loose around the stub. since it's untidy to keep just loose sphag on the table, you can use one of those strawberry-baskets - just plastic netting or a netted-bag from onions to contain sphag loosely in one place. if you don't have sphag - perhaps you can use spanish moss for the same purpose - to increase humidity around the stub to regrow roots.