$109 for seeds? Packets cost $2 or so. That's a ton of seed, or is it $9 with $100 for shipping? I can't see how that would make sense to me if I was shopping on Ebay, even late at night. Sorry you got scammed, I went with the closest reputable company for my mail orders and have been quite pleased. Glad to see you're garden is growing regardless! My seedlings are just starting their journey toward harvest. Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

I have seed of fenugreek from 1997 and mung beans, probably the same age, from when I ate sprouts as a semi-vegetarian. I bought a special plastic sprouter for the purpose. Now that I am retired I started doing sprouting again because sprouts are nourishing and good to eat. Seeds for sprouting have become very expensive here so I decided to grow my own. To my surprise almost all the fenugreek and mung beans sprouted. I planted a mung bean in a large pot when it started to sprout and took 2 fenugreek seedlings just after they started to sprout and planted them too. The mung bean is thick and strong in my window facing south. Unfortunately I did not know fenugreek would grow as tall as a metre or more so they are in the small pots I use for presowing seeds and rather thin. Although I have read that fenugreek does not like to be transplanted I have moved 1 to a larger pot. How wide should the pot be? On recommendation by Swedish and Finnish gardening experts I fertilize all my house and garden plants (including orchids) with my own urine diluted with the correct amount of urine except the ones that shun calcium which I fertilize with coffee grounds (for example my blue hydrangea which I do not want to turn pink), and my geraniums (pelargoniums actually) which need low-nitrogen fertilizer and for which I do not know how to make a natural fertilizer yet. Can anyone tell me if urine is a good fertilizer for fenugreek or does it have too much nitrogen? Perhaps coffee grounds would be better as they prefer slightly acidic soil. I wonder if urine diluted with 30 or 40 parts water is low in nitrogen or if the diluting makes no effect on the quantity of nitrogen. I have never had any success with pelargoniums and they are not doing well this year either. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Reimers results from this year: 9 varieties, 6 seeds each all C. baccatum. 2 varieties sprouted 4 seeds each. 1 variety sprouted 3 seeds. That's 11/54X100=20% (about) germination. Now to find out if any are true to type. Shoud know by August.

Amy, I always plant sweet bells in Spring but you probably could plant in mid-summer for fall. I haven't tried that. I'd rather have the sweet bell plants large, mature and ready to explode into a riot of blooms as soon as the Autumn weather cools off to the appropriate level. I've always felt like bells planted at mid-summer might not be as large or bear as heavily as those planted in Spring. Katie, You can make the famous Garden Web/Harvest Forum recipe for "Annie's Salsa" with ReaLemon or ReaLime juice substituted for the vinegar. Sometimes I make it with 1/3 vinegar, 1/3 ReaLemon, 1/3 ReaLime, but you can use either vinegar, ReaLemon or ReaLime or any combination thereof as long as you use the proper amount. It is an approved substitution for that specfic recipe. The reason ReaLemon and ReaLime are specifically listed is because they consistently test at the proper pH for use as a vinegar substitute in canning, while store brands of lemon and lime juice often test at a lower pH that would make them unsafe to use as a vinegar substitute. Here's a thread with the Annie's Salsa recipe that includes Malna's notes, including the note about using bottled lemon or lime juice. I don't remember if this thread has the explanation about ReaLemon or ReaLime being the approved bottled substitute or if that is in another Annie's Salsa recipe thread (as there are many, many threads about this very popular salsa). I can at least 200 jars of Annie's Salsa a year, and never make it with 100% vinegar, now that we know we can use bottle ReaLemon and ReaLime. We give it away as Christmas presents and our friends beg for more of it year-round. Yes, it is that good! Annie's Salsa Recipe and Notes I also roast and freeze tons of peppers, especially jalapenos, to use in cooking in the non-gardening season when I don't have fresh peppers. Rebecca, I grow pimentoes every now and then, but not really often. A few pimentoes go a long way at our house. Dawn