OMG I had the same problem! I purchased 2 white pekins from the same store and raised them both the same way. (get ready for a long story) Jennie, has never had one single issue. Ferdie is another story. First, he developed a vitamin d difficiency. I was adding vitamins to the water and giving them whole crushed hard boiled eggs too. Then I found out it was the medicated feed. Make sure you DO NOT feed your ducks medicated feed. When I switched him from the medicated feed to the game bird starter he got much much better.tho he started acting drunk. He was having trouble preening, he waddled so badly he could hardly run, he was super-clumsy, he would stand and walk with his neck tucked to his chest. I searched all over the web for the symptoms to diagnose this problem, and the closest thing to it was that he hurt his leg. That was the only thing I could find that halfway matched his symptoms. Then about two weeks later, because of his un-coordination, he got stuck in his little swimming pool for hours and hours while I was away from home. The next day he was standing up straighter, walking with a little less trouble, his neck straightened out, he looked like he was improving! I don't know what caused his "drunkeness' but it seems to be going away. I will keep you updated. Let me know if you find something. I find it hard to believe that a slipped tendon made him "drunk".

The bulging out of the eyes actually sounds like a sickness called pop eye. It's an infection of some sort, not sure if it's fungal or bacterial, but the medicine is easy to get from the store. If you've had him for two years and he's been happy up to this point, I'd say you've been doing things right the whole time. If you were doing anything wrong he'd have been sick within the first few months, I'd think. Some filtration wouldn't hurt at all, just get him a really small carbon filter, some of those power filters are very strong and can stress out your betta by creating a current that he and his large, ornamental fins can't swim against. I had one that did that on its lowest setting, I had to buy a different filter that people use in small-fry tanks. All it does is bubble, so there's no current. I just have to change the carbon sponge in it once a month. Good luck, I hope Petey gets better.

Jay, Before you began posting on this forum, we had horrific exceptional drought in Love County and in some other parts of Oklahoma in 2005-2006. Then we had a very rainy year in 2007 and everyone who wasn't a rancher/farmer/gardener assumed the 2007 rains 'fixed' the lingering problems from the 2005-2006 drought. They didn't. Drought returned and hit part of southern OK hard in the summer of 2008. As well as I thought I understood the slow drought recovery process, I still was shocked when I learned that some creeks and ponds that went dry in 2005-2006 still were dry in 2008 BEFORE the drought conditions returned and those former creeks and ponds had been dry since 2005, although they may have had a little runoff in 2007 but it quickly dried up. I'm not sure that all those ponds have recovered yet. Our big pond 'used to be' spring-fed but that spring quit running during the 1999-2000 drought so now it is just a pond that catches rain runoff. We also have a small swamp, but it used to be a big swamp until one of the two springs that fed it dried up in 2005. Sometimes, I wonder if an area ever really and truly recovers from drought. I'm not so sure we're seeing good, long-term drought recovery in the 2000s because the droughts are lasting longer and the wet spells are shortening in duration. Don't you ever stand there and look around you and try to remember how good it looked before your current 4-year drought began? I know that I would and it would be frustrating to remember how good it can look and to wonder if it ever will look that way again. What if the 2000s are going to be a period of very long ongoing droughts like we saw in the 1950s where some areas had 6 to 8 years of drought? (Hey, your part of Kansas is already more than halfway "there".) Split stems are frustrating. I think that most of the time it is a "mechanical" split caused by wind and sometimes by large hail, and then once you have that opening in the tissue, disease gets in quite easily, but that's only a guess based on what I observe here. It truly is a sort of "which came first, the chicken or the egg" type question, isn't it? Split followed by disease or disease-induced split? I do know that if my particular location, stem diseases are very rare and even when I have early blight on leaves, I never see the lesions on stems. (Now, because I said that I'll have it on the stems this year...probably this week!) I'll credit our usual dryness, staking, mulching and a somewhat wind-sheltered location with being the reasons I seldom see stem diseases, but again that's only a guess. How do you ever really know? My plants are like yours, stressed from the moment they leave their sheltered indoor location. I also think that temporary protection can just delay the adaptation process. I suppose I could test it next year by planting two plants of each variety side by side, and by wrapping the cages of 1 plant of each variety with plastic or frost blanket-type row cover. Then, I could see if the protected plants performed better or worse over the course of the season. My plants don't get a lot of wind in the summer, but in February-April, they get the tar beaten out of them. And even thought I hate it, I know it strengthens and thickens their stems and makes them stronger. If I was a happy little tomato plant sitting there in a nursery, greenhouse or store enjoying some wind protection and likely some shadecloth overhead that moderated the intensity of the sunlight and the air temperatures, I'd be weeping after you bought me and put me in your garden. Now, don't you take that personally because I don't mean it that way! I know I'd love your soil, but I'd hate the drought, the incessant wind, and the thrips and other beasties the wind would blow in. Who wouldn't? You know how strongly opposed I am to the overfeeding of nitrogen and you cite another example of how it hurts plants. It sure is hard to get people to stop doing it though! With split stems, I tried different things and I don't think you can fix them. Either the plants overcome it and survive, or disease gets in and the plant declimes. In my experience, the plants tend to decline. Sometimes I can 'hill up' compost over the split and protect it if the split is low enough to allow hilling up, but sometimes a split or broken stem is just the first step in a quick decline. I hope your pepper plants make a quick adjustment, get happy and start producing peppers. My pepper plants are deliriously happy right now because I watered them yesterday and they sure perked up a lot. I have some jalapenos about ready to pick, and I do think it will be a great pepper year. On the other hand, I don't think I ever have a bad pepper year since they practically grow themselves. E, Wilt is a funny tbing because it can be caused by opposing conditions. One form of wilt that is common here is heat-induced wilt where the plants are losing more water to transpiration than they are taking up with their roots, and it is common when we have the sudden onset of high heat. Another form is actually caused by too much moisture. Too much moisture, particularly in slow-draining soils and in containers with poor drainage, clogs the roots with water and that cuts off their oxygen supply and they wilt. So, when you see wilting, first check the soil to see if it is moist. If it is moist, you plants likely don't need more water. They need for the temperatures to cool off and give them a break. If the soil is dry, they do need water of course. One thing to watch for is to see if the plants recover from wilting as the sun sinks low in the sky. They should. If they aren't something else is going on. Also, I don't know what varieties you're growing, but some tomatoes have naturally wilty-looking foliage that comes from a gene dubbed the wilty gene....as if life is not already complicated enough! Opalka is one of the wilty gene tomatoes that comes to mind. Tomato plants need 6 to 8 hours of sunlight to produce to their maximum potential if all the other factors are favorable. If you have plants that get sunlight from sunrise to sunset, they certainly would benefit from partial shading. I like to put shadecloth over the tops of the cages. You can buy shadecloth that lets in sunlight in different percentages. You also can use sheets or something. I just use clothespins to attach the shadecloth to the top of the cages, and since my plants are in double rows in raised beds, one long run of 4' or 6' wide shadecloth provides adequate shading for a double row of plants. I try to position it so they still get enough sunlight to keep them happy. Usually I put up shadecloth in latest June or earliest July, but since we're having late July temperatures in early June, I expect to put it up in the next day or two. Don't give upon getting fruit from your plants. Tomatoes will bloom sporadically even in very hot weather. When you have a little rainy spell or cool spell roll in, any new blossoms on the plants at that time can set fruit. Often, all you need is for the temperatures to drop a couple of degrees to make a difference. I think shading helps in that regard too because it keeps your plants slightly cooler. Dawn

I need help. My momma spiderplant loves direct summer sunlight. I know its weird but she got three times bigger this summer and so so green. She's about 9 years old. I have growing babies also from her. But I brought her in like I always do for winter and put them all under my grow bulb for six hours daily then rest. I put her in a nice large pot with lots of room. Her roots were so congested. But I didnt break up the root base. I never have before either. But now she is sick! First her leaves turned brown and cracked in half. Now they are turning yellow so fast half of her is gone. And bad burns on tips. I only give her purified water now. In summer it was tap and no issues! I fed her a fertilizer stick in her new pot. Now my medium sized babies are yellowing and burning on tips. I changed their soil to an all purpose soil is the only difference other than bringing them in. I didnt change the pot on the medium babies. I've never seen her sick like this. Please tell me what to do! Help!!