Jen Fulkerson

I forgot a very important step with bare-root, and maybe even potted plants. Prune them. The bare-root peach trees I planted had a very small amount of roots, and a bunch of branches. By removing some of the branches, and pruning the rest it gives the tree a better chance to sustain itself.

I do a lot of what has been said with a strange addition. First I put my bare root trees in water while I prep the hole, so maybe 30ish minutes. I can't for the life of me dig a square hole, so I cut chunks out of the sides so it ends up kind of star shape. I dig the hole wider and deeper than recommended. At the bottom I put a large piece of wood. If any of my critters has died it goes in, or if we've had rotisserie chicken the bones go in. Then I will add some alfalfa pellets, then native soil then I will do layers of native soil, organic compost, and organic soil. Kind of mixing so it doesn't have distinctive layers. Just before I get to the level the tree will go in I put a healthy amount of organic fertilizer ( it varies for what I have, usually blood meal, bone meal, azamite, green sand, kelp, bio-live, maybe an all purpose organic fertilizer. It really just depends on what I have) then more of the same soil mix. A sprinkle of the organic fertilizer mix, compost and top off with 8" to 12" of wood chips, making sure not to touch the trunk with wood chips.  If it's very dry I water several times during the process. If the ground and soil I'm using are damp then just a good soaking when I'm done.  
I know this is strange, but it works very well for me. Where I live we have long very hot, very dry summers.   I'm not great at watering my trees, (I'm really trying to get better) my theory is the wood at the bottom will soak up the excess water holding a little reserve for the tree. It's low enough so hopefully it doesn't rob nitrogen from the tree (the alfalfa pellets are also to help with this).
It's a strange method I know, but before I started it the trees would either die, or just never really thrive. Since I started doing this method I haven't lost a tree, and they are growing well.

Clay that's great 😃 I've seen something similar for potatoes, but never thought of it for anything else.I imagine if you wanted to do it outside it could be wrapped in a heavy plastic ( just can't seem to eliminate plastic). Very cool thanks for sharing

Ok here it goes. I made 8 pots. It wasn't hard, or time consuming. I never realized the paper is perforated. So we'll see if they stay together. Since the paper is long and narrow the folding method won't work. I used an empty soup can to roll the paper. Pushed the bottom around the bottom edge. I folded the top twice because one time didn't feel secure. I haven't filled them yet. Time will tell. I hope it works.

This is great timing to come across this post. I hate using plastic, but I enjoy sharing my extra seedlings. I didn't have very good luck with large soil blocks, and it makes them difficult to share. Paper pots seem to be time consuming, but maybe if I do them in the evening watching TV, or YouTube it wouldn't be so bad. I don't have news paper, but I do have a lot of the brown packing paper that comes in the Amazon boxes ( my son is addicted to Amazon). I like the fact that it doesn't have any ink. I don't think it's big enough to do the fancy fold method, but I'll figure something out.
Thanks

Planting lots and lots of veggies, fruit, herbs and flowers. I added 3 bare-root peach trees, and a bare-root elderberry. Planted a new covered strawberry bed. I want to get some raspberry, blackberries, and blueberries.
My kids plan to plant several rows of corn, I will probably add some beans, squash and melons. I have no idea if we will get anything. I've stopped planting in the unprotected ground because of a major gopher problem, so we'll see.
Grow grow grow, that's the plan.

I fight Bermuda grass and morning glorious, so I put cardboard down and try for 8 to 12" of wood chips. When I want to plant in this area I would pull back the wood chips in a cone or cylinder shape. I fill up the hole I made with organic compost, and plant. I have had very good luck using this method. The only downside is I had to add wood chips every year. I can't plant this way anymore because gophers eat everything.
Good luck to you.

This is one of those things I'm constantly changing my mind about. Probably because I haven't found a great option.
I think I have the first part down. For seeds I start inside I like to use 3/4" soil blocks.
As soon as the seed sprouts I up pot the seedlings into a 2" pot usually 3 to 5 seedlings. This part is working well, but I do wish I could eliminate it. Potting up once the seedlings get 2 sets of true leaves is a pain. But I do it because I can start a lot of seedlings in a small space.
Next is the part I'm really struggling with.  I bought a kit from epic gardening. It's 8 deep 4 packs, and a shallow bottom tray. I think this is going to be great for the plants I intend to keep. It seems sturdy, and seems like enough soil, without taking up to much space. But even on sale it was not something I could afford to buy several of. And I enjoy growing and giving away extra tomatoes and peppers, and a few other things. It definitely won't work for that. I bought sturdy 3" pots, but they are kind of short, and again the cost was not to bad, but more than I can just give away. So it's the 12 for 1.25 pots that are terribly thin and no way they will last more than a year. The party cups. I have tried large and medium size. If you don't leave these in the sun you can get more than one year out of them, and they are pretty cheap, but I hate the bottom is smaller than the top because they fall over very easy. If you fill them they take a good amount of soil.
I've tried a larger soil block, but I'm just not a fan no matter how much I want to be.  Peat pots don't break down in our climate so they aren't a good option. Cow pots work pretty good, but again on the expensive side. I'm thinking about paper pots. My son is addicted to Amazon, so we get lots of plain brown paper. The hard part with this one is how time consuming it will be. I would love to get away from plastic. This year is a mix of using the dollar tree pots I already had, and using the dreaded cups I'm sure to be frustrated with soon.
If you have any tip, tricks, or out of the box ideas, or even if you don't, I look forward to hearing what you use.

First I need to confess a good deal of these results more than likely have a lot to do with the lack of care. I was excited to buy seeds, but I just haven't been into the process. Normally it's on of my favorite parts, but this year I'm doing it because I bought the seeds, and I want the veggie, but it's more a chore.
Normally I check them every day, do they need water? Should I adjust the light? This year I turn the light on and off every day, but it's more like when did I water? Oops the light is touching the plants.
Today I noticed the tomatoes inside aren't looking very good. The leaves are turning yellow. They are planted in 50% organic compost, and 50% organic soil. Odds are it's not a nutrient deficiency, so it's water, to much or to little. Or light to much, or not enough. I don't think it's to much water, I just haven't been watering very much. It could be not enough, but though the pots aren't heavy, the soil doesn't feel particularly dry. The lights are not very expensive, they are grow lights, and worked well last year. Also it's an old drafty house, and not that warm.
My process is I start seeds with a heat mat and a humidity dome in 3/4"soil blocks. Once the plants sprout 3 to 5 get planted in a 2" pot. Once they have 2 sets of true leaves they go into their own pot (this year it's a cup, or 3" pot I'm still searching for what works best) now 1 of each will stay in the house, and the rest go in the greenhouse. The funny thing is I consider the house insurance because the greenhouse doesn't have heat or a fan, so it can get cold at night and quite warm during the day. Last year this worked well. Inside and outside grew well until mid spring when it was just to hot in the greenhouse.
This year even with the constant weather change (last week it was high 70 making it high 90, it was 102 on afternoon. This week the temp has plummeted. In the 50s during the day it was 65 in the greenhouse. Mid 40 at night. ) the tomatoes in the greenhouse look so much better. I have been adding a tiny bit of organic fish emulsion, and a tiny bit of big bloom an organic fertilizer. Every other water. It smells too bad to use in the house. All the pictures are the same tomato, planted at the same time, some soil, same pot.
I really need to pot up the peppers, so I don't have pictures of them yet, but though the few that are in the greenhouse look healthy the same ones in the house do seem larger, they seem to be growing faster.

Thanks Nina I hope it will keep everything out but the pollinators.  I like the black wire because it's a strange optical illusion, you can easily see what's growing in the bed
Thanks