Thanks, Brad, for the advice on transitioning my Yang Mei to the real world. Since I have four plants that look like they have a chance of making that journey (2 Biqi females, one Biqi male and one An Ha female) I will probably be needing more of that Aluminet shade cloth than you can spare but I really appreciate your offer. If my male Biqi survives, you are welcome to some scion wood from it. At the moment, it is the only one pushing actually branchy things (yeah, I know there must be a real word for that but this is the 3rd time I’ve tried to post this before someone else posts and erases everything I’ve written so I’m going fast)
At the moment I have some cheapo Amazon 70% shade cloth tossed over half of my greenhouse with another 30% cloth on the west wall where the sun can get incredibly intense in the afternoon. I cut a square out of the 30% and tossed it over my rootstock that pushed some tiny leaves out in the front yard, but now I realize I probably should be using a square of the 70% until November. Anyhow, thanks so much for giving me a roadmap, and hope.
And Simon, thanks so much for the advice on tapering off on the humidifier. I have been agonizing over how much I should be catering to my moribund trees at the expense of the ones that have managed to leaf out. So I finally went out today and determined that four of my trees are dead as little doornails, two from the January buy and two from the March buy. I wrapped everything else up in Buddy tape and will start tapering. Strangely my Late Growing from the January buy is one of those that still shows green when I snip a bit off the top and yet it has not swollen a single bud. Likewise my other female An Ha from the March buy seems alive but asleep. It is in sterile potting mix whereas my An Ha in peat-based mix was the first to leaf out. On the other hand, my leafed-out Biqis from this buy are in sterile mix and the comatose Late Growing is in peat mix, so I can’t draw any big conclusions.
BTW, while I was moving my leafed-out pots farther from the humidifer, I discovered that my March female Biqi was growing leaves from its rootstock. I dithered for a while about keeping them alive for future grafts, but then decided not to risk the graft that was already working, and knocked off the volunteers. For the peace of mind of those still worried about whether they actually have males vs failed grafts, I will say that the leaves on the rootstock were quite different from those on my male Biqi, and less different but still not identical to the ones on the female. See what you think.
