Aggressive... yes. I guess I am. Perhaps I should mention that prior to my current newbie attempts to turn a sterile acre of weed infested grass into a garden with interest and character, my entire experience of growing trees from saplings was with bonsai. I'm absolutely okay with a multi-trunked river birch. My neighbour across the road has a gorgeous specimen, that's about 15 years old. I'm just unsure of whether this little sapling has the potential to be a good multi-trunked tree or if it'd be better off with a single trunk. The tree itself came from Shooting Star in KY and was $12 plus shipping (I got some other trees at the same time). I'm more than happy to take some additional pictures. The tot just went down for his nap and it's nice and clouded out there, so now would probably be a good time. As for planting depth, that's how it arrived. Maybe the nursery repotted it just prior to sending it to me? Certainly the soil it was potted in was very loose. I will concede that maybe some fell off as I was putting in the hole but I didn't pull any soil off it. :) (No offense taken, just explaining what I did.)

Lithops seedlings grow fastest with consistent warmth and moisture with fairly high humidity. This works well for the first couple of months to put on a lot of growth quickly. Eventually, certainly once the first true leaves come through, you'll need to give them strong light, lower humidity, and more temperature variation, or they will just bloat up so badly they will die. Lithops seedlings are also quite happy in the sun, even very strong sun, but they must not be allowed to overheat. On a cool day or when there is a reasonable breeze, full sun is fine. On hot still days in summer you will definitely need to shade them. Lithops will colour up strongly even before the first true leaves appear, this is normal. L. aucampiae will go a dark reddish brown. Any sign of bleaching is a warning that they are overheating. A boiled Lithops will go completely white or transparent, it is then effectively dead. In the sun you will need to water quite frequently during the first summer. Don't allow the pots to completely dry through until winter is approaching. Although regular water is needed, you probably still want to protect the little Lithops from torrential rains or long continuous periods of rain. Faucaria seedlings will grow under more or less the same conditions. Definitely don't allow them to dry out completely. Most cactus seedlings, your Echinopsis for sure, will not like full sun at this size. Try some morning sun when they get a little bigger. Watch the colour carefully, dark green is good, some brownish shades like yours is OK, strong red is too much light, crimson or pink is damaged by the light. Pale green or yellow usually means they need more light but be careful since it could also indicate overwatering, too cold, or nutrient problems. Cactus seedlings will grow successfully for the first year or two with constant high humidity. I keep seedlings in a propagator for at least two or three months. In the open air they should be watered regularly and not allowed to dry out completely until cooler weather arrives in autumn.

Well, it appears they are not entirely dead, but they are pretty scrawny. I'm not sure if I damaged them, or if they weren't well established before winter and had a lot of winter kill, or if they usually have a bit of winter kill normally. Anyway, I just snipped off all the truly dead wood, which was probably about 1/2 to 2/3 of the plant, and just left the branches that had some new growth (tiny green leaves). They look a little better without all the dead brown branches, but still under the weather. The foliage right now is very meager, just teeny-tiny little green leaves. I normally don't water at all in the spring because it's pretty damp here April - June near Cleveland. We get regular rain, and some heavy rains. I'm not sure if there is something I could do to help revive my poor shrubs. I'm considering getting either some food/fertilizer or compost to work in around them, but I'm not sure if they are beyond saving. I was hoping I could salvage them rather than have to dig them out and start over. If anyone has some suggestions, I am open to anything. Thanks, Sherri

Amazing how someone brand new to these forums decides to come in and attempt to regulate what can or can't be said here! First, this is not intended to be a "help" forum but rather one for discussion of professional topics of interest to green industry professionals. So someone - a nonprofessional - came in to ask advice of a professional and that advice was generously given. What is objectionable is the way that advice was summarily dismissed by the OP as "bad" - and rather rudely so - based on other information they subsequently discovered. Neither advice is bad. Sure the OP could bolt together the torn branch if they wanted to.......it was only pointed out that this was unlikely to be as easy or as successful - based on the extensive amount of damage and the time delay - as the video alluded. It has nothing to with egos but everything to do with common courtesy and politeness. I feel no need to exercise any 'humility' with regards to offering advice I have spent dozens of years accumulating working as a horticultural professional. If the OP didn't like the advice, he didn't have to follow it - his choice. But to come back and rudely and incorrectly state the advice was "bad" and pretty much imply that I didn't know what I was talking about based on his a viewing a single video, then claim - based on this extremely limited knowledge - that the video was the only "right" way was offensive.