I sowed the annual kind but will do perennials next year, guess I could start them now. It said to soak in warm water (I didn't make mine too warm) for 2 hours. I'm going to plant mine right in the ground. If I don't have a soaker hose like where I planted the annuals, I'm going to do either one of two things. Screw in a pepsi bottle w/bottom cut out over it w/cap off. Moisture will show in the bottle. Water right over and around the bottle when the soil looks like it is drying out or you see no moisture in the bottle. Or I have some irrigation spikes I could put where the seeds are, they screw onto 2-liter bottles, I cut the bottoms out w/hot knife so I can fill with hose. Obviously if you are planting a lot, my ideas will be more work. But starting them inside, you have to harden them off, and starting outside you don't have to. You could try a couple both ways. The annual seeds I planted, older like yours, not kept in fridge, were big enough to space right. Mine didn't get very good germination but took about 2 weeks; if I get just a few plants for now, that will be fine. I planted mine where there is a soaker hose which worked well; rain did the rest.

I am using jars that were my Grandmas, If she were alive today she would be 111 & I don't know how long she had used them. I always check for any nicks on the rim also do a visual to see if there are any cracks in the body of the jar. I don't worry about the older jars as much as I do the newer ones because they are thicker. The new ones are thinner & to me more fragile. My grandma even used the old glass jar that had coffee in them, a wide mouth lid fits them perfectly, granted she did not use them in a Pressure cooker. but used them to can her fruits, which she used the open kettle method. We still have a few jars with stuff in them stilled sealed tight. The stuff in them maybe mush but I still like to keep a few of them because of my grandma. I wash my jars in the dishwasher as I empty them, may sure they are dry put the flat & ring back on them to keep them clean till next time. That way all I have to do is rinse them out with hot water. Just so you know my Grandma done all her cooking and canning on a wood cookstove. She had one in the house & one outside so she wouldn't heat up the house in the summer.

I have canning directions from a number of universities, Ball, Kerr, Presto, etc., dating back for over 20 years to the present. There have been many changes to the recommendations given by the various sources over the years. Example: pressure canning tomato juice in "Presto Cooker Canner, Directions and Recipes, 1978" lists no requirement for adding lemon juice or other acidification, and a recommended processing time for both pints and quarts is given as 15 lbs - 0 minutes. We've used that recipe over the years with no problems, but have since changed to other processing methods (processing time, acidification, pounds of pressure). It was only until a few years ago that we could find an "approved" method for preparing and canning vegetable tomato juice (V8?), but we've been canning quarts and 1/2 gallon jars of our own "V8", using our own directions which I've published here a number of years ago, for over 30 years! Jeez, did I get the nasty comments after posting that. And, the person that posted that the large canneries monitor the temperatures of each container in a batch, and conduct lab tests on products from each batch has certainly observed canneries other than the 10 or so I've visited. Getting back to recipes for half gallon jar recipes, I know it would be no big deal for a University that routinely conducts food safety testing and publishes "safe" recipes to conduct tests and provide recommendations for canning at least a limited number of recipes they standardize as to type and amount of each ingredient, etc. Heck, I can't believe that a great number of grad students haven't wanted to do just that!

Another question for hc mcdole. Something strange is going on with one of my cuttings. The leaf died, but the cut end is still growing roots like crazy... And now small green things that definitely look like leaves are growing out of the cut end... UNDER WATER. I am so confused. On all the other cuttings, new growth sprouted from the petiole. Tried to get photos from a few different angles to show you. I'm not really sure what to do with it. Cut the original dead leaf off and bury the roots, leaves and all, in some soil? It seems odd to bury leaves but you can see from the way it's growing that I don't think its possible to bury the roots without burying the leaves. Or should I wait till a rhizome forms under water before touching it? Has this ever happened to you?