Orin Raichart wrote:Wow, funny how each plant has its own rate of growth....how did you decide which root to point downwards as the tap root?
We just dug a hole as best we could and let the roots dangle down into the hole as best they could. And hoped for the best.
Their roots are virtually bare as all the potting
compost fell off by the time I'd managed to cut the pots free of the roots.
We have five seedlings to play with and yesterday we planted out the two with the most vigourous roots that had escaped their pots and had needed to be cut free. We planted this one right down by the little stream that runs pretty well dry over the summer but does get any overflow from the water-mines above, in the hope that it will send roots down far
enough so that it might be able to survive with no real aftercare.
It doesn't have very good access to it, but if it survives I'll be OK with that. I know they grow wild in this part of Portugal, but I've struggled with them and this is one of the shadiest and moistest spots on the property that is actually accessible at all. There's also a ravine with awful access that I might send my son down on a rope or something to try planting one of the others down, but that's a job for another day.
The other one we planted yesterday was in a less ideal location, but at the end of the little terrace that is destined to be my garden, where I'll be able to give it a bit more love, and
water.
The soil was a bit more shallow than I'd like, but I'm hoping that with roots as vigourous as these they'll be able to cope, or maybe find their way between rocks to deeper soil.
I'm going to keep one of the remaining elders in a pot, as I think there might be a few more seedlings growing in there, along with some welsh
nettles and violets which I'd rather like to keep. Then if I do happen to lose all the ones I plant out I can try again
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