What compost pile? I'll bet there are nursing homes, hospitals, schools, lots of places near you that will happily take your nice-looking rejects. Or you could teach a class in AV care at your Adult Ed. or wherever, using extras for students to practice on. Or your local AV club might want some for a sale (as noids, obviously). Or... (Compost pile. Sheesh.) Korina

Well I looked it up and here it is. http://www.flickr.com/cameras/kodak/z740_zoom/ I've never had any different lenses for it. It's a lovely digital that was a replacement for one that broke on Christmas Eve one year. I try to Get the picture I want as centered as I can with the sharpest focus and I really enjoy cropping and playing. I scrapbook a lot and that helped me with contrast, brightness, hue saturation and that sort of thing. Gardening has really made my photography shine though. It's so hard to mess up a pic of a beautiful flower. It's really all about having a critical eye, and a nice balance in your crop. Thank you for the compliments, I do love these.

These abstracts may be informative. CYTOGENETIC STUDY OF INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS BETWEEN VIRIS ROTUNDIFOLIA AND VITIS VINIFERA Authors: X. Xu, J. Lu Muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia Michx.) has a chromosome number of 2n = 40. European bunch grape (Vitis vinifera L.) has a chromosome number 2n = 38. With few exceptions, the chromosome number of hybrids between V. rotundifolia and V. vinifera is 2n = 39. As a result, the hybrids are either completely sterile or highly sterile with some fertility. To understand the variation of hybrid fertility, a study was conducted to investigate the chromosome number and pairings of the interspecific hybrids Jumbo (V. rotundifolia) x ÂThompson Seedless (V. vinifera) in mitosis and meiosis. Interspecific hybrids were obtained from crosses of muscadine grape (female) x V. vinifera (male) and from reciprocal crosses. Chromosome numbers of the hybrids used for this investigation were first confirmed by root tip cells (RTC) in mitosis. Most of them had a chromosome number 2n = 39. Several morphological characteristics also clearly indicated that they are true hybrids of V. rotundifolia x V. vinifera. Microscopy studies at meiosis of pollen mother cells (PMCs) showed a certain degree of chromosome pairing (bivalent) with some multivalent and monovalents. For those hybrids with 2n = 39, chromosome pairs ranged from 13 to 19. The result indicated that the low fertility of the hybrids is mainly due to the lack of chromosome pairings in their meiosis. A GENETIC MAP OF VITIS RUPESTRIS X MUSCADINIA ROTUNDIFOLIA LOCATING RESISTANCE TO XIPHINEMA INDEX, THE DAGGER NEMATODE Michaeleen Callahan , Yimin Jin , Fangyou Gao , Andrew Walker Muscadinia rotundifolia has very strong resistance to a wide range of grape pests. Although this species is generally incompatible with Vitis species, it does make fertile hybrids with V. rupestris. These hybrids form a unique genetic bridge allowing introgression of resistance genes into cultivated grape. Genetic linkage maps of two V. rupestris "A. de Serres" (2n=38) X M. rotundifolia "Cowart" (2n=40) hybrids were constructed using the pseudotestcross strategy. Four hundred eighteen AFLP markers, 32 ISSR markers, 23 RAPD markers, and 18 microsatellites were used in the maps. Markers segregating 1:1 (316) were used to construct framework maps by comparing results from PGRI, MAPMAKER 3.0, and JoinMap 3.0. Each map contained 19 linkage groups (LOD > 4.0) covering 806 cM and 902 cM for the paternal and maternal parents respectively. One hundred seventy-three markers segregating 3:1 were used to align homeologous linkage groups between the maps. Genome length and map coverage will be presented. A locus associated with resistance to Xiphinema index, the dagger nematode vector of grapevine fanleaf virus, was also positioned on the map. "Muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) Subgenus Muscadinia has 2n=40 chromosomes compared to 2n=38 for bunch grapes Very resistant to common grape diseases Do not cross readily with bunch grapes Unique flavor and texture" from http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT414/Grapelecture.html "Dunstan developed a number of Vitis x Muscadinia hybrids that were backcrossed to interspecific Vitis hybrids. The offspring from these difficult to accomplish crosses have many characteristics of both parents and restored fertility (often lost in Vitis x Muscadinia hybrids). " from http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/cgc_reports/grapecgc2001.htm These references: Lu, J., Prins, B. Interspecific hybridization between Euvitis and Muscadinia grape species. (2000). Hortscience 35: 501. Lu, J., Schell, L. Intersubgeneric hybridization between Muscadinia and Euvitis species. (1998). Hortscience 33: 516. Lu, J., Schell, L. Introgressing seedlessness from Vitis vinifera into Vitis rotundifolia. (1999). Hortscience, pp. 523-524. Lu, J., Schell, L., Ramming, D. W. Interspecific hybridization between Vitis rotundifolia and Vitis vinifera and evaluation of the hybrids. (2000). Acta Horticulturae 528: 479-486.

Have you ever tried to just throw a few grape tomatoes into the ground and see what happens. I've done this with different types of tomatoes and have been pretty successful. Probably the best time to do this is in the fall.