I wouldn't blame growing conditions on the previous posters' experiences. This year I grew four orange varieties as well as a rainbow blend. Same bed, same soil, same amount of water, sun exposure, planted at the same time, etc. The orange varieties taste great. The colored carrots (rainbow blend) taste pretty bad, especially the white ones which are inedible and leave a horrible aftertaste. Rodney

Hold on here :0) I am talking about when they were FULL SIZED plants - lush, green, full plants - germination was terrific all winter, and well into spring - beautiful seedlings which grew into FULL plants... BUT.. my post is about what happened to them AFTER they became FULL PLANTS... not seedlings. I think I probably should NEVER have had them in full sun - that is probably why they "disappeared" so to speak - or shriveled up. I know they got enough water, so my thinking is that they can't take the heat - and we did have 100 temps for a few days in a row. My seedlings NOW are fine and will be - unless of course, I have them in really hot sun... (?) Carrie

my echinacea (and some of my rudbeckia) also looked very strange this season. I researched aster yellows deeply and then looked at my plants. although there was some malformed flowers and stems, they didn't look anywhere near as bad as the photos of aster yellows that I saw. I had the same syptoms that you had - the weird colored dark stems and pre-flowers. little tiny buds that came up and never turned into flowers. flowers and stems and bracts all mixed up in a weird looking flower thing. flowers with tumors growing from them. some of the plants were strangely tall and coarse. however some of the flowers on these same plants were 100% fine. so, I decided over the course of the season to let my plants come up in spring and see what happens. maybe it was the weird (really really wet) weather we had this spring. maybe it was a bug of some kind that is prevalent in really really wet weather. however, if they come up malformed again in spring, I will just assume that they are infected with aster yellows and dispose of them. I hate to do it, but it is a very easily transmitted viral disease (vector insect is the aster leafhopper) and incurable. one of the things to look for in aster yellows is something called a 'witches broom'. if I see this in spring I will decide for sure it's aster yellows. aster yellows can infect an entire garden, necessitating disposing of all plants showing symptoms. I don't want to go there. rudbeckia, monardo, phlox, echinacea, and many other species are susceptible to aster yellows. Good luck. Laura Here is a link that might be useful: Yellows Diseases of Echinacea, Monarda and Caraway

Worms as environmental wrecking balls is something I read about several years ago. At that time, it was Canadian scientists measuring the massive forest destruction caused by US 'night crawler' worms (as opposed to the Canadian night crawlers, which are presumed to be respectful and polite to the forest floor). The pictures were very telling, but if 'before and after' pictures are all it takes to do science, then late-night infomercials are the pinnacle of scientific enlightenment. I remember a respected worm expert stating that worm bin leachate should be disposed of as hazardous waste because it contains alcohols, phenols, and turpines, or something to that extent. You can buy a substance called humic acid to put in your garden. It's considered to be a healthy product of composting, and a benefit to plants. If you look up humic acid on Wikipedia, you will find: " Substances identified include ... linear alcohols, phenolic acids, and terpenoids.[4]" We all know that earthworms accelerate the breakdown of trash materials into fertile components of soil; and that plants can only absorb nutrients after they've dissolved in water, which can just as easily wash away if there are not enough plants to take it in, or absorbent materials to hold it. The argument that worms degrade the forest environment is usually from the standpoint of a forest without worms or understory growth, and lots of floor debris. Inclusion of worms will change the forest floor just as they do in your worm bin, but you also need to bring the plants that are compatible with the worms. If you don't, the nutrients and soil will very likely wash away. If the worms got there artificially, then the plants that take advantage of them may also need to be brought in. Since worms tend to speed up the breakdown of materials, they support fast growing plants, and animals that go dump in the night. Scientific papers are generally written on very narrow subjects, as it's harder to get published if they include broad statements and subjects. In contrast, a journalist gets their papers published by being interesting, shocking, and scary. Neither publisher benefits from giving the whole story. Though I haven't read the paper on dirt causing global warming, it sounds rather straightforward. I suspect the average gardener would agree that dark soil is preferred for food crops, and that plants require porous soil so the roots can get fresh air. ...well, dark soil - when exposed to the sun - warms up fast, and the dark compost releases carbon dioxide. It sounds like common knowledge that has been republished in a scientific paper and then republished by a journalist, each time exchanging some scientific integrity for political bias. Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia: Humic acid