RQS - Royal Highness

Going under the light at night is really helping..! Royal Highness is now called, Royal Lowness, as it is so short (which isn't a bad thing, really) I'm thinking that at this rate, it will be ok to split it next week or so... This one being a little underdeveloped, it might be wise to leave it a little longer before the chop. Being outside in the breeze, the stems are becoming a little stronger with the agitation. They've been watered once or twice only this week. I think that the roots will be ok. When the roots start to break through the fibre cups, they will be potted into some square, plastic pots. The potting soil is a mix: - The bottom layer is some dug from the garden, with a handful of pebbles - A layer of regular potting soil, a few handfuls, is spread over this - Then a layer of houseplant potting mix, which is good at retaining moisture to seep into the other soil, and also contains some extra nutrients similar to that provided by leaf mulch and other things. - Handfuls are then mixed on top of this, so as to create striations of soil and mulch - Near the top, a handful of blood, bone and fish is mixed in to the layers - Before the final layers, some tree & shrub powder is mixed in as well. This contains some friendly fungus mix to help out :) This recreates the same type of soil that is in the garden, as each year the leaves and flowers mulch and then top-soil is washed over it, plus anything else that dies and decomposes to enrich the soil. Potting into the square plastic pots is useful not only for cramming them into a smaller space under the lights, but the lips are useful for tying stuff down, as well as poking holes in the sides in order to secure any wires or strings. I use these for starting off bonsai plants, before moving them into very shallow ceramic pots once they are a few years old. Royal Highness has been a bit of a slow starter, but it really picks up and starts to look really healthy after getting used to the new environment under the lights :)