2nd pic

I know that some of the leaves look brownish...but the plant,overall, seems healthy. So I hate to pull out the bottom newbies unless its necessary
Thanks for any comments.

You can always remove them, but it's hard to put them back after you cut them off. It looks like you still have a central leader, yes? The side shoots are feeding that leader, making it grow thicker and stronger. If you want a standard plant with a straight stem, remove them later, after they have done their job lending strength to the trunk. If you want a nice full plant,
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prune the main stem so it compliments (blends with?) the ht of the side shoots you're thinking about removing.

Your plant would rather be a little on the dry side if there is an error to be made. It would tolerate that better than it being too wet. What are you fertilizing with?

Al

thanks Al... I'm fertilizing with something called: Golden Harvest (natural fertilizer) Nitrogen...4.25 %
Phosphate 5.25 "
potash K20 3.0"
Iron 2.0"
Hydrolized fish protein, cold process seaweed,humacid,
vit.C, comfrey, cane sugar,alfaite,nettles, yucca, equisteum,and yarrow.

thanks Al... I'm fertilizing with something called: Golden Harvest (natural fertilizer) Nitrogen...4.25 %
Phosphate 5.25 "
potash K20 3.0"
Iron 2.0"
Hydrolized fish protein, cold process seaweed,humacid,
vit.C, comfrey, cane sugar,alfaite,nettles, yucca, equisteum,and yarrow.

I think container gardeners are best served when they work toward ensuring that all the nutrients plants normally secure from the soil are in the soil solution at all times, in a form the plant can easily assimilate, in the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrients, and at a concentration high enough to ensure no deficiencies yet low enough to ensure the plant isn't impeded in its ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water.

The question is, are you limited to using an organic fertilizer supplementation program by a particular ideology, or would you have interest in a program that allows to meet the standard described above?

Al

Al, I'm open to all new (to me) ideas. Thanks for whatever you can share.
Roksee

Organic fertilizers largely furnish material in powdered or granular form, with each small particle consisting of innumerable hydrocarbon chains in which the nutrients these fertilizers furnish are locked. These molecules are much too large for plants to absorb in the form in which they are furnished. The hydrocarbon chains must be cleaved (broken down) by soil organisms for the nutrients to be available in an elemental ionic form your plants can absorb.

In mineral soils, soil biotic life populations are relatively stable in comparison to bio populations in containers, where they accurately described as transitioning between boom and bust. IOW, you really can't depend on the soil life in container media to 'be there' for your plants whenever they need nutrients. There might be plenty of NPK locked in hydrocarbon chains, but if there is an insufficient amount of soil life to 'process' the nutrients, they remain unavailable to your plant. You have little control over what your plant gets, how much it gets, or when it gets it.

Plants make their own food, but if fertilizer was plant food, we could say that a plants diet consists of salt. Ions. Plants don't care if they get their ions from a dead fish, compost, or a hose-end-sprayer, and in the end, the ions that come from compost and a dead fish are exactly the same as those that come from a jug of Miracle Grow.

The advantage that synthetic fertilizers have when used in container culture is in the control they offer the grower. If you use a soil you can regularly flush when you water, it's monkey easy to achieve the goal I spelled out a couple of posts upthread with almost complete reliability. You can be sure your plant is getting all the elements it needs, in a favorable ratio, at the proper concentration - all from 1 source. You can't say that about organic forms of nutritional supplements.

Al

Got it.... I'll try some synthetics... and be watchful.
thanks so much