Your plant is quite attractive in this pot; if you want to use it and can get a drill and ceramic bit over the weekend, I would sit the whole project aside in bright diffuse light and dry conditions and wait. Your plant is holding water, it will be fine until Sat. Just set it back in the pot and don't water. I don't know of another way to drill a hole in ceramic. What I've done in the past is: set my pot on the grass (not concrete) and put just enough water down inside it to "just" cover the bottom (helps keep the bit cool) and drill. Others may have better methods for doing this. "but I have a feeling that if those little styrofoam balls...werent there then it would stay formed." Yes, well that shows the importance of the perlite. I would still wash it all off and start over. Schultz (I think, I could be wrong, I don't use pre-made mixes) still has peat in it but at least your mix would be uniform, that's important. If you have a nursery nearby stop in and ask for a good soil with no peat. They will certainly have it. If it doesn't contain enough perlite, add more (but *I* think you would be happier with haydite or decomposed granite so ask about those while at the nursery). Don't worry about the fine roots, they will quickly regenerate. Snip any of those off if they look unhealthy. The soil/peat info on the jade link is, IMHO, solid info for all cactus and succulents, fockea and c. ovata alike. I hope you found it helpful. When planting up your jade, did you clean the nursery soil off the roots? If not, why not go ahead and do both plants at once, using your new soil mix? As my ole granny would say, "best do it right the first time so you can enjoy it instead of worrying each day about what you didn't do". GL - Jo

The kindness in your words is appreciated, Akjl. When you say getting the tree to a point in time where it is to the tree's advantage to re-pot, I'm afraid I'm not sure what that entails...Is that putting the tree outside next summer and fertilizing it, etc.? How will I know when I've reached that state? For a number of reasons, I think it's important to somehow summon the patience to wait to work on your trees until you can step into a rhythm that takes advantages of their strengths and avoids pushing (stressing) them when they're weakest. Mainly, that means understanding the plant is weakest in early spring, but starts gaining strength through the summer before slowing down in fall and REALLY slowing down in winter. Some growers might note that they repot in early spring and they've never had a problem. That's not a good reason to repot in early spring, because no matter how large a problem they didn't have, there is still a better time. That time is when the tree is in the part of the growth cycle when it's to the advantage of the TREE to repot or prune heavy. Once you do step into that rhythm, it's very easy to maintain it, growth cycle after growth cycle. Not only does it make perfect sense, it lends harmony to your relationship with your plants, and it feels better - sort of tike the difference between the guy who trains horses with a whip and cattle prod compared to the guy who understands horses & only has to whisper. Which has more appeal to you and which has the greater potential for reward? If a tree needs repotting, it has to be strong enough to deal with the stress. If you don't think it is, you need to figure out HOW to get it strong enough, or allow the plant to continue to decline. Even if you don't move the tree outdoors or go through much effort to improve it's state of vitality, the best time to repot stays the same. It will always be in June whenever the tree is healthy enough to survive the stress. If this was June and your tree looked like it does in the picture, you'd be fine to repot. It would be to the trees advantage if it was much healthier, but the first step is the hardest. Once you eliminate the limitations of tight roots and maybe a less than ideal soil, your tree will REALLY respond and there should be no question about whether or not it's ready. I'm pretty sure that with what you're learning, your trees state of vitality between now and next July will probably at the lowest point you'll ever see, unless you lose interest or there is some other catastrophe that enters the picture. What happens when you prune is very predictable. To a large degree, WHEN you prune determines how enthusiastically the tree responds ...... so there's a plan for that, too. Usually hard pruning follows repotting by 2-3 weeks. I've been talking to a guy over at the container forum about pruning. You might find the conversation interesting. Click me to review it (Ficus pruning) There is another thread there about F benjamina, too. You'll prolly find some good info in it as well. More about Ficus if you click me, too. Then, there is a thread devoted to The cultural preferences of Ficus b in containers. Those should keep you in reading material for a while. If you get bored and want to get a feel for how important your soil choice is to the amount of reward you get for your effort, try this thread about How Water Behaves in Container Soils. It should do more to enhance your container gardening proficiency than any other single step you can take as a container gardener. Al

"Is it "normal" to cut away that much of the sides of the cabinet to accommodate a sink? Yes. "Can a new sink be mounted to quartz?" Yes. "Do the sides of the cabinets need to be built back up first?" No. Not if you strap and undermount a sink in place. (Hercules Universal Sink Harness from Braxton Bragg or Sink Strap from Regent Stone Products). "Can this current cabinet even support the weight of quartz + a sink + water/pots in a new sink?" Yes, when you strap a sink in place, you are creating a truss. You are replacing the cabinet sides with 9" of stainless steel or Silegranit. I'm undermounting a 22" x 33" Kohler Vault into a granite top on a 27" cabinet for a customer as soon as the sink arrives. I put a 33 1/2" Silegranit into a 33" cabinet last week: Note the top of the cabinet sides have been removed to make way for the sink flange. Those are Sink Straps pictured. The cabinet front will be reinstalled to keep tension on the straps. Minimal clearance between cabinet wall and sink. The installer doesn't need access to tighten the sink in place.

This is our problem as well. Windows ordered late November, and they expected 16-18 weeks, so that's THIS week. Crickets. Builder has proceeded on to interior items (plumbing, insulation, HVAC, electrical) and roof while he waits. Says he can't install siding without windows, which makes sense to me. Our problem is that we couldn't stay in our rental (in a college town, rentals are gone up to a year in advance). Looks like we'll move into inlaws' basement if house isn't done by end of June...