I mist with a little neem oil with a drop of soap in water solution every couple of weeks and the leaves stay very clean and shiny. before i discovered neem oil, i used to wipe or wash the leaves with little soap and water. However, with my non-orchid plants i used to get spider mites or aphids in the winter. since using the neem oil, those pests seem to be under control so far. sue

Newgen: I've done dozens of bareroots and had good luck for the most part, with only some losing quite a bit of foliage (none lost *all*). But it seems bad luck has hit me this year as I'm 0 for 3 on gritty mix bareroots (all 3 have lost significant foliage). It's depressing and frustrating. However, the worst loser of the bunch has already re-grown quite a bit of the foliage, which is an excellent sign if yours is already doing so a few weeks afterward. I was *sure* I had done well with that worst loser and thought it wouldn't even notice I had bare-rooted 'er. I was wrong. I decided to build some 511 and just refresh the outer few inches of the additional trees targeted for gritty. I'll just wait until Spring to do them -- now THEY didn't miss a beat when I did not bare root and put into 511. I do the majority of the work underwater and/or late at night and sometimes things still go wrong. After repot I relocate to spots only receiving direct morning light with the container itself always protected from direct light. Here in our climate, even 11am direct sunlight is harsh on a recovering citrus when ambient is already 90F by then. If I don't do used these methods, my experience has shown the tree struggling immediately afterward. But again, I've never totally lost one on a bare-root for gritty mix. I've only lost one when I tried to do root pruning simultaneously and another that had root loss from winter freezing. Just a general note to anyone else who may also have struggling citrus after bare-root into gritty: Be sure not to over-fert and especially excess Nitrogen can force the tree to regrow lots of foliage it cannot support -- it will then drop those same leaves and take some of the limbs, too. Just small amounts until a few weeks have passed and you know it's in the clear (no signs of stress). If there is lots of immediate loss, then again stay with a bit lower than normal N until it stops with the loss and settles or even puts out it's first leaf. I'm thinking closer to a 1-1-1 ratio vs. a 3-1-2 or 5-1-3 for normal healthy conditions. Good luck! Chris

Thanks! We are planning to store small(ish) kitchen electrics there (rice cooker, blender, etc.). We don't use them super frequently, but much more than once a year, certainly. I hadn't thought of doing the 36" cabinet with a fixed shelf and skipping the pullout all together, but that's not a bad idea---we actually really like the two blind corners in our vintage kitchen now, but I realized at one point that they work because the adjacent counters are only 15" deep, so effectively they're 48" cabinets with two 15" doors and 15" of blind corner, with fixed half shelves inside. Very easy to get into, but no way are we having 15" deep counters ever again! :)

Yesterday I finally made it up to Trader Joe's. I went armed with a list compiled from the huge thread here of TJ favorites. Of the five or six "must haves" on my list, they were out of three---Rosemary ham, cooked lentils and scallion pancakes. I did get a tarte d'alsace for DH, organic tomato and roasted red pepper soup, and orange champagne vinegar from my list. I also purchased chicken and apple sausages, which we will have for dinner tonight with pasta, various crackers and other items. I forgot my cold food carrier so I bought one of their zippered, insulated totes which I will definitely use a lot for other purposes. When the checker asked why I was buying it and I told her I lived pretty far away and had never been there before, I became an instant celebrity. She rang a bell, welcomed me to the store, gave me a beachy patterned carryall for my groceries, a bag of plantain chips which she said was her favorite TJ snack, and a bouquet of flowers! We've tried the plantain chips and have sampled the roast beef, olive and fig crackers, some other kind of round pale yellow seasoned cracker., hummus and various other foods. They were all good except for the "organic vine ripened tomatoes," which were as hard as rocks, mealy, and did not taste anything like a tomato, and the plantain chips, which taste like I imagine chicken feed would taste. We've yet to try most of the things I bought, but except from the lovely warm welcome I was underwhelmed by the experience. On the up side, I now feel a bit less like I am missing out on a great culinary treasure trove living so far from civilization and I see that nothing can touch the home grown produce I am so lucky to be able to buy from pickup trucks that park around the courthouse on Saturdays. If anything we've bought proves a must have for me I will enlist my daughter to pick it up and bring it down, but I won't be making any more special trips.