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As the season is progressing, and everything botanical moves forwards, it became evident to me in the last week that four out of the six baby grafts I purchased last year are dead, one is probably dead, and one is actually doing kind of well ('Emerald Lace') but might decide to suddenly die.
With that in mind, I contacted the two nurseries that I ordered maples from for this planting season and asked to cancel the maples from my orders. The only exception is that I am still getting a 'Pixie' from Dave's Nursery - with the hope that since it is a two year old I might be able to follow directions this time.
So, I think that I know some of the mistakes that I made, and can share those with people on this board. I have hope that with this knowledge I can be a good mom to the 'Pixie' and the "at least 1/3 is alive" 'Emerald Lace'. Maybe someone who is lurking can read this and not do what I did, so that would be very good for their baby maples!
(1) I overwatered - probably the biggest mistake I made. Each time we had a slight thaw, I watered each baby maple. I took the motto "Keep them evenly moist" to an extreme. I learned just how much I overwatered when one of the pots was knocked over accidentally last week - there was practically standing water in the bottom half of the container, downright soggy, which also brings me to
(2) I did not amend the soil. I used Miracle Grow soil straight from the bag and it did not drain well at all. I purchased a big bag of chicken grit that I plan to mix in with a different soil mix for my other container plants.
(3) I purchased late in the season, so I had no real way to tell how well the grafts were doing when I received them from mail order, because they were already leaf-less.
(4) I think the containers I used were too large, but am not sure. I did not plan well for which maple would go in which container.
(5) I danced with zone hardiness, we had a rough winter, and at least two had pretty severe cold damage, even though they were in a garage.
(6) Lousy air circulation, combined with overwatering, equals mold. The garage was unheated and had poor air circulation - for next winter we're going to have the garage insulated and will run a fan to keep air circulating.
There are just so many things I did wrong, and it took reading posts on here just to realize these. I'm sure there were more things. I feel so embarassed - I know that gardening is a lot of trial and error, but I wish I did not have an almost 100% failure rate for this first year! Sheesh, conifers are so much easier...
A big THANK YOU to the two nurseries who have been wonderful to work with and let me change my orders kind of "last minute" - Dave's Nursery and Klehm Song Sparrow!
Elizabeth
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