Thanks for the link, Gary. I started down that road a while back, trying to find someone who would do a test for me. Some of the places I found online wouldn't do it because I was not in their zip code. I was like, "Huh???" It didn't make sense to me. I don't know if it was a regional funding thing or what, but geeze, no one would take my dirt. :( I found one place on that list you sent that's at least in my area code, so that's the first place I'll call. Thanks.

For the inquiring minds, the corn meal experiment is ongoing at Texas A&M University at Stephenville. It has been going on since at least 1995 with no official results published. However, the organic folks here in Texas have taken the bull by the horns and have had great success with it. The application rate to kill active disease is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Disease can be prevented with 10 pounds per 1,000 applied every 60 days. It seems to work against most turf diseases as well as powdery mildew on other plants. It does not work against black spot on roses nor rust on turf. It can also be applied as a liquid spray if you make corn tea by soaking corn overnight in water. A handful of corn in a gallon of water works. And now is a good time to use it to prevent snow mold, etc. Look in your grocery store for bulk corn flour where they sell bulk wheat flour.

The math is correct: if you want to get to a 30:1 ratio, you'll need about 127 kg. blood and bone meal. However, in my experience, there is not a need to use so much material. I just mix materials together, trying to get what nitrogen I can, and let it begin to rot. I usually have far more browns than greens, and often am dealing with many hundred pounds of high carbon browns, so I don't want to add too much supplemental nitrogen from fertilizer. Once I mix the materials, and I've let them rot for a few weeks, I sometimes sprinkle some high nitrogen fertilizer on the mix. The nitrogen addition really helps to spur on the decomposition, but I put no where near enough to get to an initial 30:1 ratio. I might put a pound of nitrogen fertilizer on 400-500 pounds of a high brown mix. For me, this is enough to make a quality compost. Renais

Most of those deterrents don't work once the squirrels have "trained" themselves to like your figs. You need to use those methods before they have discovered the figs, that will keep them away. I didn't have squirrel problems on my figs this year but once they found my peaches I could only shoot them - the traps and deterrents were ignored in their lust for peaches. My peaches are pretty much gone now and I caught my first squirrel in a trap today. Anyway for next year you can try to remember to put the deterrents out before the figs ripen, and see how it works. An additional problem is the rains will wash them away and require re-application. Scott