Hi, Rachel!

What size pots will you be using? If you can use larger pots, you won't have to water as often. I find that 5-gallon nursery containers need to be watered every 2 - 4 days during the Summer; 10-gallon pots can go longer, obviously.

I have a Weeping Willow and various conifers - Pine, Spruce, Redwood, Cypress, Calocedrus, and Cryptomeria - in mixes based upon the 5-1-1 (local ingredients used for substitutions in some cases). All of my trees do very well.

Try a 5-1-1 with half a part of peat and half a part of Turface (to equal the one whole part of peat). Mix thoroughly and moisten while you work - get that bark and peat wet. Then, fill a container and give it a watering. Place the container somewhere on the deck and observe how it dries. You can poke a skewer into the pot and use it to determine the moisture in the bottom of the pot. Of course, a plant will draw moisture out of the mix, too, but this will give you a general idea and help you become familiar with how the mix behaves.

When you water, you water the entire mix slowly until fully saturated. In many cases, folks having trouble with the mix drying out quickly aren't always wetting the mix properly in the first place.

Josh

Thanks so much, Josh!

So, do you plant all the trees you listed in this recipe?

I have to let it sit for a couple of weeks before planting, and after soaking, right?

What's your micro climate like, just to give me a reference?

Thanks, again!
Rachel

This post was edited by gretadoreen on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 0:36