scottamuss, Thanks. I'll go ahead and post it here... By the way, I feel soil quality is more important than water. Far too many gardeners over water. Take the time to learn that there is not a "cure all" for every pest at every stage of it's life cycle. Some won't work if it's going to rain. Some don't work well if it's too hot, etc. Pest management is complex, if you wish to use chemical products, do so responsibly which goes further than reading the label. If you want to learn, a good place to start is here: Integrated Pest Management This lecture is presented in two parts. Each part is 90-minutes in length. Recorded in Sacramento County in California's Sacramento Valley, this lecture is by Mary Louise Flint, Ph.D., Director, IPM Education and Publications, UC Statewide IPM Project and Extension Entomologist & Cooperative Extension Specialist. Education: B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley Appointment: 100% Cooperative Extension Research Interests: Integrated pest management of landscape, agricultural and garden pests; biological control of arthropod pests; alternatives to pesticides; adoption of alternative practices by practitioners; innovative delivery of pest management information. Topics discussed in the Integrated Pest Management Lecture: * IPM references and resources * Preventing pest problems * Natural common enemies * Making less toxic pesticide choices * Controlling aphids, scales, caterpillars, coddling moths, tree borers, snails and slugs, and lawn insects. You can watch the programs now online: Just make sure you have Real Player installed or download it free. Integrated Pest Management Part1 90 minutes Integrated Pest Management Part 2 90 minutes You'll want to bookmark the following link to Professor Flint's Lab Research on: Controlling Pests in Gardens and Landscapes: Vegetables and Melons I promise you'll learn one or two things to put in your gardening bag of pest management arsenals. ;) On Watering Some people want to customize the water for every plant. It's ambitious to try to give each plant the exact amount of water it needs but not practical or necessary. Even if someone gave you a chart, it would still depend on the quality and friability of your soil as well as the stage of the plant. So long as you have good drainage, the plants will take what water they need. General rule of thumb is that gardens require one inch of water per week by supplementing rainfall. You will have to adjust throughout the season and be attentive to the amount of rainfall you receive each week. There are two schools of thought on watering. Frequent shallow waterings or less frequent long, deep waterings. The general rule of thumb is that mature plants need 1-2 inches of rain per week in summer. You should provide whatever portion of this moisture is lacking. One inch of rain equals 65 gallons per 100 square feet of garden space. But this is just a guide. Time of the season, stage of the plants, soil composition, and many other factors affect the amount of water required. Be consistent during fruit production. Mulched plants require less water than plants that are not mulched. Raised beds require more than non-raised beds. If a good amount of compost is incorporated into the soil, less water is needed. Compost holds 6 times it's weight in water. Watering too frequently and too heavily is just as hard on plants as too little water. Roots require oxygen just as much as they require water and nutrients. Dry winds dehydrate plants. Cooler temps require less water. Those using drip irrigation whether from a soaker hose or milk jug are likely getting the best use of their water which is going right where it needs to go and the ground has time to absorb it. There are hundreds of methods of watering. Whatever you do, just be consistent. But I do agree, twice a day sounds like too much. Roots require oxygen equally as much as they require nutrients and water. I personally believe in a couple of deep waterings per week with the use of 2 inches of mulch to reduce evaporation and maintain a more stable soil temperature. Plants recover from dehydration much better then they ever recover from the roots being suffocated by drowning so under watering is better than over watering until you get the hang of it. Oxygen is equally as important as water and nutrients and rain water is always better than municipal tap water.

There is no substitute for manual removal of weeds, period. Your best bet is to get down on the ground and dig out the root system, or if you have some eager kids nearby who want to earn some money, give them a flat-headed shovel and have them take the top 1-2" of dirt off from around the area, then landscape mat after. You'll need to be really diligent to remove any sprigs that come up afterwards (everywhere), pulling 1-2 times per week at ths slightest sign of growth. If a plant can't get leaves up during its growing season, it will eventually die - this is true with everything I've dealt with, including very mature japanese wisteria and kudzu, both of which will go for months without throwing up a shoot, then all of a sudden blast off. Vinca Minor (periwinkle) is one of those invasive nasty bastards that makes me scream :) I am still working at killing some of it off behind my house. It seems like I just can't pull enough of it to make it go away. IOW, I feel your pain and wish you luck. Persistence pays, but nothing beats a good, up-front onslaught to get the job started.

rhizo: We are talking about 5 years ago when I was desperately trying to get rid of them. From what I remember I used numerous different products, more organic products than anything, but also chemicals that were not organic. I remember I even used a a spray that is suppose to be powerful enough to kill hornets (don't remember the name now). But nothing worked-killed on contact but they still kept coming day after day. I tried to only use the chemicals on the sunflowers rather than my vegetables because I was afraid I would poison us if I did. I had over $400 worth of Garden Alive organic products that I tried, Bulls-Eye I remember, and other insect killing products that I had gotten from Garden Alive--just can't remember all their names now-would recognize the names if I saw them. I also tried DE I remember. Sorry I can't remember everything--it was so long ago. As far as ants go, we can control local ants very well, it is the fire ants that keep giving us fits. My husband has spent lots of money on products that say it is for fire ants, but nothing seems to work. I have read up on everything I could about fire ants, things like you should put the poison granular on the mounds in the early AM because this is when the queen comes to the top--because it is cooler then--that she will go deep in the mound when it gets hot. My husband even pours boiling water on the mounds, but all that does is just make the fire ants that is left make another mound somewhere else. All the surrounding farms around here have fire ants, so even if you could get rid of the ones you have, you are just going to get your neighbors too. Everyone in the neighborhood has to get rid of their fire ants or they just keep migrating to each others farms. We even do things like run over the mounds with our cars every time we see one when we come home or leave the house, and my husband runs over them with the tractor whenever he cuts the grass. They even got into my gardening shed and ate a hole through the large sack of my potting soil and then proceeded to make a mound out of the potting soil! If you know of something that works, please let me know because we are about to have to sell our land just to get away from the fire ants! Thanks, Sheila

S...I am not positive about this...but it may not be anything at all. It is possible that that simply is a result of your avo getting torched from the sun. If you look closely at your healthy trees...you will notice a "flecking" on the exterior skin of branches. Some varieties (like Fuerte) can be more "flecked" than others. Perhaps, this just a physical reaction to heat/drying out.