Hey Nila, thanks! That weird looking tomato is a Blush, kinda like a roma, really tasty and made for eating right off the vine. I don't really cook with tomatoes, just eat them straight. Definitely going to try those veggies for winter! Terrene, seems like whenever i look at tomato seeds or advice about toms it's always 8 hours or more. The white poly film I have up really helps, makes the grow area feel more like a greenhouse. If bright sunlight is between 30,000 and 100,000 lumens, I'm guessing I'm getting 5,000-15,000 of indirect light for most of the day, which is comparable with indoor grow lights. The grow bags are reusable and look like they'll last a number of years. The Root Pouch ones are much thicker than the Smart Pots and have better handles. I get them locally for $4.50 for a 5 gal. I'd like to have a raised bed but there's just no way to do it. My entire space is 4x10 feet with a little walkway in the middle. Total I have 4-6 pots on each side. And I reuse the soil, mix it in with some mulch and water it when I'm not using it to keep the organic bacteria alive. Here's today's harvest from 3 plants. Not huge, but this would probably go for $4 at a grocery store:

Hi Pinar, I'm also in northern California just north of Santa Rosa. In my previous home, we had a Podocarpus between us and the neighbor and it only gave so-so privacy. We then planted a red oak that was fast growing and had very large leaves, but the squirrels wouldn't stop girdling it and we had to remove the top 30 feet that had died. I'm now in another house in the same town, and have a privacy problem with a two story addition going up next door, so I'm planting two Chinese lace bark elms. We researched for four months looking for the ideal tree, and found and there's no tree that will check all the boxes, but the Chinese lace bark elms came the closest; the only negative for us was the maximum size which can reach 50 feet tall. It's fast growing, tolerates short periods of boggy soil, is drought resistant once established, isn't picky about your type of soil and has few pest issues. I see that you're looking for an evergreen and the Chinese lace bark elm may or may not lose its leaves depending on your climate. There's one in my town that must be 60+ years old and in January it still has most of its leaves. Several of these trees were planted in the Kaiser parking lot in Santa Rosa a few years ago and they quickly grew to provide shade with dense growth of narrow leaves that flutter in the breeze. They're beautiful.

Please help me. I received my Meyers lemon tree in February two years ago. The first year I had 30 lemons and because there were so many lemons, most of my branches broke (I did try to support them). After that my tree never seemed to come back to its beauty. Several times all the leaves dropped off. Finally I cut it back to try and start fresh. Now I have new growth, some beautiful and some (on the old branches) very small; those are not growing and the leaves are curled. I love one bloom and no evidence of future blooms. I have truly enjoyed my tree but now find myself very frustrated. Do I need perlite in my soil? Should I cut down on the water (I have two of the "bulb" watering glasses? I leave in Tidewater Virginia. Help. (MeyersMike feel free to call me 757-289-8899 with any and all advice. Thank you everyone for sharing advice.

Sooo, what your all saying is, that if a Y blooming brug was going to Y at 3' as it had before, it wouldn't matter how many main stalks it had, it will still bloom at 3'. In which case, if I only had one, if only for it's first year it would certainly grow faster than 3 stalks and I'd get an earlier Y'ing and therefore more bloom flushes over the season. -------------------- Oxmyx - I'm glad your into the biology of the plant. Big grin. If it's going to Y at 3' then pushing nitrogen might do the trick, as you will force it into foliage growth, and not flowers, which is what nitrogen does. But what of the consequences to the flowering plants system. You might end up depriving/inhibiting and/or delaying it of it's ability to change into a blooming system. That change they make to utilize the phosphates/carbohydrates and whatever other enzyme(s)/mineral(s) it uses to convert it's nutrients for a blooming system. We already established that in many brugs the Y signifies that change in it's ability to utilize the phosphates for blooming. And we also know that branches that include a Y and rooted below the juncture on these brugs come complete with the established blooming system ...therefore the bush. So it's not necessarily the height alone. This also means that something has to develop in the main stalk(s) over time to establish the blooming system. What we need to know is what mineral/enzyme does the plant use for the uptake and utilization of phosphates. Whatever it is, the brug signifies it can do so, only when a Y is formed. Which means it had to develop the ability to utilize phosphates and once created, it passes the ability on to the rest of the plant. We need to help the brug develop the ability faster or for when we personally want it to turn on. Which would also mean to inhibit the chemical mechanism as well as turn it on. I'm doing some research on plant genes/biology and nutrient uptake. I'm sure they've been working on just this kind of thing for fruits, veggies and nuts. If anybody else wants to help. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=plant+genes+nutrient+uptake&btnG=Search&meta= -------------------- More queries. I know that if you start a brug cutting's root system below the Y juncture you will get a bush type with early flowering which is nice with it's drawbacks of coarse. And has anybody had a branch grow below the 2 branches that form a Y? Did they grow as a tree stalk or with a flowering system? And what would happen if the roots started above the Y juncture and down. Would we get 2 main stalks for trees? Anybody ever bury a Y? I don't think you could change the bush form if you already rooted ONLY below the Y first, I'm thinking that it already took up it's ability to utilize phosphates by not allowing the 2 upper Y'd branches to root.