My own vinegar bottles actually said 6%. I don't like to use rain water on small seedlings because boiling doesn't kill all spores. I'm just careful, maybe too much. Distilled water sounds expensive. I have an almost unlimited supply of purified water, which I use for seedlings, so I have never needed to worry about that. (I have an almost unlimited supply of rain water too ... 14 sun hours in November) Maybe you can acidify your tap water and then dilute it with some distilled water to reduce the salt content? Depends on how many seedlings you have. The fluoride levels in tap water are too low to be harmful to plants. Not much anthropogenic chemicals either, and they are more of concern to us and animals than to our houseplants. No need to buy pure water for that reason, but salt buildup is of course greatly reduced compared to using your tap water. It is also reduced by acidifying the water.

Today January 2, I dug up Comte de Chambord, grafted of Multiflora rootstock. Bluegirl had it for a few years in her alkaline Texas, didn't bloom well so she gave to me, since I have more rain. As multiflora-rootstock, Comte bloomed OK in spring but stingy afterwards, while my 2 other Comte as OWN-ROOT bloom profusely with 4 flushes until snow hit. I have Comte-on-multiflora for 2 years. It's so stingy in the summer I moved it next to the rain-spout in July. Its root was the same size as my marigold !! It became even stingier, despite my using the entire bag of coarse sand to make my clay fluffy. So I dug up Comte grafted on multiflora today, Jan 2, and IT WAS THE MOST PATHETIC multiflora rootstock that I had ever seen in my 3 decades of growing roses !! I already posted the study that showed Fortuniana-rootstock produces more blooms than Dr. Huey, and Dr. Huey produces more blooms than multiflora-rootstock. Left side is Comte de Chambord grafted on multiflora rootstock, right side is a snapdragon annual flower root (sown from seed !!). The snapdragon-flower root is actually larger than the multiflora-rootstock. This 4+ year-old Multiflora-rootstock actually SHRANK in my alkaline clay, despite tons of acidic rain. And it REFUSED to give me own-roots at the side like Dr. Huey-rootstock. Picture taken today, Jan 2 at 39 F or 4 C. Re-post info. from Oct. 2016: Comparing Dr. Huey-rootstock, Multiflora-rootstock, and Fortuniana-rootstock from below link, worth reading: http://roses4az-mevrs.org/wp-content/uploads/An-Overview-of-Fortuniana.pdf Here in the Desert Southwest, with our generally alkaline soils and extreme temperatures, we find that r. multiflora has a shorter life span, losing its vigor after five years. While fortuniana bushes had superior root systems, they had difficulty with the harsh & cold English climate. In a study over several years, Dr. McFadden budded two hybrid tea varieties, Queen Elizabeth and Tiffany, onto three different rootstocks. After counting the number of blooms produced over many growing seasons, the varieties budded onto fortuniana produced significantly more blooms. The fortuniana plants produced about THREE TIMES the number of blooms as those on multiflora and TWICE as many as on Dr. Huey. Additional benefits of Fortuniana include increased resistance to gall, stem dieback, and root disease, such as Phytophtora and Pythium. Bushes planted over 40 years ago in Florida are still thriving. On this rootstock, plants are heavier feeders, as they have five times the feeder roots of more common varieties." http://roses4az-mevrs.org/wp-content/uploads/An-Overview-of-Fortuniana.pdf

Leaf size varies during the life of a perennial or annual. Basal stem leaves increase in size as the first, small true leaves appear and maximize by the time the plant reaches maturity. Further up the stem, leaves segue into bracts, which on some sages becomes an interesting process just below the flowers.. Most of the time, this change is quick, but when flowering conditions reverse because of weather effects, one can see foliage halfway intermediate between ordinary leaves and bracts.

"Why?? Who cares if anyone responds to an older thread?" Because ultimately it degrades the quality of discourse. In cases where they are NOT actually make a substantive contribution, which is true of most bumpers of very old threads. In this case, the post that triggered it though, was apparently deleted or flagged as spam. If a spammer or quasi-spammer gets to bump an old thread, it creates a legitimacy to what they are doing. If someone is forced to create a whole new thread "Monrovia makes the best wholesale plants, rah rah rah", we would just be flagging that whole thread as spam, getting it removed, and not having it clog the gardenweb universe with more unnecessary threads or posts. I agree they have other priorities, but there is no harm in them being aware of the issue!