SU2
Omono
There's such myriad growing-situations that things can be all over the place and people find themselves "breaking the norms" for their particular use-cases, anyways I was hoping to get people's specific "divergences from norm" just to get an idea of things, thank you!!!!
For me, some things I do that I feel are pretty unique are:
- I basically *never* wire something into a pot, I just re-potted a ~4' tall BC and the idea of wiring it in never crossed my mind, in years of this approach I've only had a few circumstances where wiring-in may've been advantageous, and that's when something's knocked-off the bench (always a smaller specimen), the tree & substrate all fall-out but I figure if they were tied-in then much more would stay, though this benefit just doesn't seem worth the time of wiring-in every tree as-practice! I do wire sometimes but it's exclusively in situations wherein the tree simply won't sit properly at the soil-line w/o some form of anchoring (and I'll wire it in here OR do something like using rocks to support/stabilize it and/or zip-ties to get it snug!)
- zip-ties are virtually indispensable to me, I love wiring and wish I had more time to wire more-often, but while many zip-ties in my garden are simply used instead of wiring to save time (often I'm just trying to set-shape on the first few inches of a branch, not wire the whole thing, as most trees are in early-development), I actually find zip-ties **superior to wire** for lots of scenarios, for instance things like heavy-bends, the ability to use the small, incremental tightening of a zip-ties is just so much easier to dial-in the branch's orientation in a way I just cannot do with wire (often this is in-tandem with wiring and/or hanging a large/heavy rock from the branch)
- I've begun using, and loving, styrofoam as both an aggregate and as containers, the former because after processing you have a ~0% WHC / CEC, fluffy media that weighs next-to-nothing, am using it at as high as 50%+ in the bottom 1/3-->1/2 of a container when re-potting, and recently I did my first re-pot of something that'd already gone half a season in the stuff and I was incredibly impressed with its roots (I suspect that, when talking of an aggregate's physical properties that there's an attribute never-ever mentioned and that is "how flexible is the media?" and, while I can only guess/theorize on it, something tells me a squishier media is better, the roots can compress/squeeze the pieces a bit as they grow and 'squeeze' it w/o any significant changes to overall soil-structure, and so far as using them as planters I am just in-love with them, they're both rigid & lightweight, and their soft nature lets you create *whatever* level of drainage-holes or perched-table-holes you'd like!!)
I've got so many more but figured those were good to helpfully get the ball rolling, thanks a ton for any replies!!!!
For me, some things I do that I feel are pretty unique are:
- I basically *never* wire something into a pot, I just re-potted a ~4' tall BC and the idea of wiring it in never crossed my mind, in years of this approach I've only had a few circumstances where wiring-in may've been advantageous, and that's when something's knocked-off the bench (always a smaller specimen), the tree & substrate all fall-out but I figure if they were tied-in then much more would stay, though this benefit just doesn't seem worth the time of wiring-in every tree as-practice! I do wire sometimes but it's exclusively in situations wherein the tree simply won't sit properly at the soil-line w/o some form of anchoring (and I'll wire it in here OR do something like using rocks to support/stabilize it and/or zip-ties to get it snug!)
- zip-ties are virtually indispensable to me, I love wiring and wish I had more time to wire more-often, but while many zip-ties in my garden are simply used instead of wiring to save time (often I'm just trying to set-shape on the first few inches of a branch, not wire the whole thing, as most trees are in early-development), I actually find zip-ties **superior to wire** for lots of scenarios, for instance things like heavy-bends, the ability to use the small, incremental tightening of a zip-ties is just so much easier to dial-in the branch's orientation in a way I just cannot do with wire (often this is in-tandem with wiring and/or hanging a large/heavy rock from the branch)
- I've begun using, and loving, styrofoam as both an aggregate and as containers, the former because after processing you have a ~0% WHC / CEC, fluffy media that weighs next-to-nothing, am using it at as high as 50%+ in the bottom 1/3-->1/2 of a container when re-potting, and recently I did my first re-pot of something that'd already gone half a season in the stuff and I was incredibly impressed with its roots (I suspect that, when talking of an aggregate's physical properties that there's an attribute never-ever mentioned and that is "how flexible is the media?" and, while I can only guess/theorize on it, something tells me a squishier media is better, the roots can compress/squeeze the pieces a bit as they grow and 'squeeze' it w/o any significant changes to overall soil-structure, and so far as using them as planters I am just in-love with them, they're both rigid & lightweight, and their soft nature lets you create *whatever* level of drainage-holes or perched-table-holes you'd like!!)
I've got so many more but figured those were good to helpfully get the ball rolling, thanks a ton for any replies!!!!
