Adzuki Beans Satsuki Madori Cucumbers Spacemaster Cucumbers American Flag Leeks Hale's Best Jumbo Melons Purple Top White Globe Turnips Roma Tomato Guajillo Chili Perilla/Korean Shiso Bouquet Dill Summer Savory Boothby's Blonde Cucumber Mexican Sour Gherkin Homemade Pickles Cucumber White Long Cucumber Pizza Pepper Blacktail Mountain Watermelon Honeydew Melon Black Cherry Tomatoes Reid's Yellow Dent Corn Buckwheat Plain Wheat - All corn & Grains are organic & not genetically modified. I also have smaller amounts of certain stuff (tomatoes, peppers, melons, etc) -- All stuff is heirloom and/or open pollinated. :) I'd love some of your current cuttings! :)

How to grow mushrooms on logs. Mushrooms need only 3 things to grow successfully: shade, moisture, and uncontaminated, appropriate wood. If you have spruce, you can buy mushroom that grow on spruce, but do not try shiitake on conifers. Before I hit my stride I had numerous less unsuccessful experiences, so all this is from experience. Wood: usually the seller will tell you which wood goes with which mushrooms. Most mushrooms will do well with hardwoods. A few will do well with softwoods, and a few specialize in breaking down the resinous conifer wood and only that wood. Three simple steps will virtually insure successful wood inoculation: use freshly cut, live wood appropriate for the fungus you are interested in, wait 3-4 weeks for fungicide substances to dissipate, and protect it from contamination at all times. I have had mixed results with wood brought in for free by tree companies. After all, when they cut a tree, it is already sick and often contaminated. I had best results with wood that I knew in person (from my yard or my neighbor's yards). I have successfully injected contaminated logs with shiitake and oyster, two tough mycelia, but many other times I failed. To protect from contamination, keep the wood in the garage until ready to inoculate, but the best solution is to simply cover all open wounds with liquid beeswax applied with a paintbrush. Logs are best cut to about 3 ft in length for ease of handling, with a diameter between 5 and 10 inches. As soon as they are cut, paint the ends and put them aside. Moisture: robust, fast growth requires a steady moisture supply. Let me also mention that all mushrooms appreciate a bit of nitrogen, whereas P and K in the wood are sufficient for optimal growth. Normal tap water is poisonous to the organism, due to chlorine. On a log, usually the water percolates slowly through the bark, in the process neutralizing its chlorine, but in a wood chip bed, with the mycelium enveloping the outside of the chips, one could really damage it. I use a variety of techniques. One could leave a bucket out overnight, or I mix a teaspoon of urea or of wood ash in the water. I also use a lot of coffee grounds (outdoors only, or they develop nasty, fungicidal molds), either to buffer the chlorine, or when I stack the logs, I fill the intra-log volumes with coffee on cardboard sheets to both provide N and keep the moisture in the stack high. I believe that lots of coffee in wood chips beds is also beneficial as the high surface area will quickly buffer tap water. It is best to water them weekly. I have a few cider gallon containers. They have a pinhole at the bottom, and placed on a stack, they will drip for several hours. But if I were a man, I would run a drip line there and be done with it. Shade: mushrooms can not stand full sun. Full shade is best, with minimal wind. Inoculation: initially you will be buying 5/16'' wooden dowels inoculated with the mycelium, though inoculating with sawdust is more efficient and substantially cheaper. When you receive the dowels place them in a cool dark place for a month or so. When ready to inoculate, soak the logs overnight. I use a trash can filled with water. Then use the 5/16'' drill bit and drill holes in the log. In the holes, whack the dowels. Close the holes with liquid beeswax and place where the log can mature, possibly not in contact with the soil. Here it is best not to start them after Sept. 15, but in CA one could start them year round. A majority of dowels will not take. Often a log is completely colonized by a single successul plug. Place at least 12 per log, 25 being best. You then wait, 9 months to 2 years depending on species. The logs will fruit for about 4 years optimally, and then they will decline.

Err, Burgess DID list the scientific name. I have a big mea culpa here. Blame it on my inexperience. Hairmetal, it is indeed that tree, a 'pink magnolia.' I would NEVER have considered it to have been a magnolia. If you've ever been down here we have 'real' magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) EVERYWHERE. It's Mississippi's state tree and is on their vehicle license plates, but it's just as common here (actually have no idea how common it is in Miss, presumably the same, at least the southern half of the state). So when this self-identified amateur thinks of magnolia, that and only that comes to mind. Everyone I know calls the pink magnolia a tulip tree. Granted, I am the one and only person interested in trees and gardening in my circle of acquaintances. I have even seen the proper tulip tree, and have never had cause to call it anything at all. It is DEFINITELY a tree I have no interest in planting. I have heard, though, that some butterflie's caterpillars use it as a host (food) plant. Do y'all know which butterflies, offhand? Thanks again! Jeremy

Aloha Sandpounder, Lisa, Ilima and Farmfreedom, It is beginning to sound like pistachios might be the next nut tree I'll try in the back yard. The health food store sells them "raw" so I'll get a few and plant them and see if they sprout. Hmm, anybody know if they are a hybrid and if they self-pollinate? Thanks for the peanut idea, Ilima. When I finally get the official garden (it still needs a fence to keep out chickens and a hose bibb installed for watering) put together, then I will have a space for peanuts. Until then, maybe they could grow in the flower bed by the house? Do they take up a lot of room? Farmfreedom, those are some good ideas, however not all of them would work in Hawaii. We have difficulties getting things such as chestnuts, walnuts and filberts cold enough in the winter. Actually, there are a LOT of mainland plants and trees we don't have enough "chill hours" for. We can't get them cold enough for them to flower and set fruit. Most apples, peaches, pears and cherries can't be grown here. There are about three varieties of apple and peaches which can be grown, but we have to be really selective and get a "low chill" cultivar or they don't get enough chill hours. Peonies and lilacs are two more which don't survive, although I've ordered a "low chill" lilac which I hope will live and produce flowers. The Big Island of Hawaii has most of the climates available on the planet, but they are only in small spots on the island and no one spot has all the climates. I'm down near the ocean in an area with dirt and rain so it is a better growing area than most. However, I don't have the winter time cold and we do have some ferocious snails, insects, fungus and molds to deal with as well as the occasional nematode and those pesky chickens, too. A hui hou, Cathy