What kind of tree? If it's a fruit tree then keep the soil on the lean side. This will encourage fruit set instead of tree growth. If it's an ornamental tree then by all means mix leaf mold with soil and compost to encourage growth. Instead of staking the tree, try an old Norwegian trick. Put heavy rocks on top of the root ball to prevent it from moving. This will allow the fine roots that go from the root ball into the new soil from breaking as the stem moves back and forth in the wind. This allows the stem to grow strong with wind movement. The rocks also work as mulch. In Norway, rocks are plentiful and cheap.

I have read all of your post, very interesting. I don't even think that everyone make the same thing in the other way. I make sauce in this way: 1) soaking mushrooms in water for about the day before using (you can soak mushrooms in milk, then they will keep aroma and flavour and the milk form saoking you can add to the soup or sauce too if you prefer "white soup" of course, besides if you saok in milk mushrooms have the better texture --> to barnmom's post) 2) you should stew mushrooms in salted water in addition soaking water too (it keep flavour) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil 3) add chopped onion, pepper and a little marjoram and simmer 4) when onion and mushrooms will be soft, dust everything with flour (the cream can be added too). Be careful after adding flour - the dish like to stock to the bottom of pan! Bon Apetit!

i store.. dry.. unused media for upwards of a decade ... lol.. i buy a lot and apparently dont use it up fast ... when one speaks of OLD media .... i would presume they are talking about USED ... most old media... starts losing its predictability after a few years ... and when it loses such... water management MIGHT become a problem ... and secondarily.. salt buildup ... that crust often found on old potted plants ... when you start thinking about it as MEDIA... as compared to mother earth.. aka SOIL ... then you might take the next step in your learning curve ... i do NOT fertilize in the dark of winter .... i would start fert ... near the end of winter ... when the sun starts getting stronger.. and your plants should start growing a bit more vigorously ... do not treat them as children.. who need to be fert'd on some schedule of yours ... think about the yearly cycles of the plants and fert accordingly ... you do not name the plants we are talking about... so its near impossible to give anything beyond grand generalities ... as al notes.. a media that dries is not a bad thing ... avoids a lot of problems like gnats ... but if the plant is so root bound.. that there is no media left in the pot... then repotting is needed ... i have to re-root spider plants every summer... because there is no media left in the pot of a 2 year old plant.. and that makes it near impossible to water the pot.. in winter.. indoors... in MI.. so though al says its a good thing.. perhaps it is.. perhaps it isnt.. depending on what is going on.. in the pot ... good luck ken

I’m just guessing The word exotic was used to be an attention getter and it certainly was. I believe what the what the composer of that text was truly talking about was the addition of certain items which I have used. Some Bing kelp meal, bonemeal blood meal, green sand, (can’t remember any more, but there were about 4 more) some powdered minerals from rocks. All of this was added to Pete moss, Vermiculite my home brown compost no animal waste compost such as, newer or chicken manure. It was strictly grass clippings and leaves and whatever else I can throw in it it wouldn’t attract ants. It was very expensive to put together I was so excited. I emptied all my pots and refilled all of them with my wonderful new body style and put my new plants back in it. It’s been three months now they’re not growing or looking lush and green and wonderful; they are living. Finally I started putting miracle grow on them and now they’re beautiful but that would’ve happened with the quality soil I bought from Lowe’s. I also believe that would be referred to as an “exotic potting soil”. I also believe that, that’s what the person meant that used the expression “exotic potting soil“for the first time and all of these comments or something similar give or take a few additives. I got my exotic potting mix recipe from savvy gardeningI got my exotic potting mix recipe from savvygardening.comI got my exotic potting mix recipe from savvygardening.com on the Internet. The owner of this website lives in Canada. I live in coastal Louisiana, Baton Rouge. I tried and tried to get her to ask if she thought this recipe would work in the deep South. You never can get her, she doesn’t respond. I just figured since it was such an intricate recipe she would have taken into account a drainage issue that all states share, since I couldn’t get her. The The only worry that I had was that the drainage would be wrong because I had never worked with that much Pete Moss, but it did have almost equal vermiculite so I figured it would probably drain really well. I was right; it drained beautifully thank goodness. Louisiana is a third rainiest state in all of our United States. We are right behind Florida and Hawaii. I now have a very large city garbage cans filled with Pete Mas vermiculite vermiculite and my compost plus a very long list of additives so next time I make the recipe( b cause I got to get rid of this stuff) that I will cut back a bit on the amount of vermiculite.