I make sure to use water that has sat out overnight to water my plants. Does that not make a difference? Or not enough of a difference? You already learned that the crystalline structures on the leaves of your plant is composed of dissolved solids (sugar and mineral salts) left behind as the water in the exudate associated with the guttation (primarily driven by over-watering) evaporates. If you allow your water to rest overnight in an open pan, some of the water in the pan evaporates, but ALL of the dissolved solids in the water are left behind, So technically, the concentration of dissolved solids in the water (which includes fluoride, and chloramine, used now to chlorinate most tapwater) would be slightly higher than water straight from the tap. The pH of water straight from the tap is also slightly lower than water that has rested for a period of time, due to dissolved CO2 gassing off. Also yes, can you point me in the direction of drain hole tutorials?? I'm guessing you mean how to drill the holes? This should help: Drilling holes in pots The 2 types of drill bits most appropriate for drilling holes in pots are a diamond core drill for the highly vitrified (hard material - baked at very high temps - glass, ceramic, ......) pots, and a drill with several names for drilling clay pots fired at low temps, such as terra cotta. That (carbide) drill is called a 3-point drill, spear point drill, or a spade drill, seen here: You only need 1 - in 1/2 or 3/8" size. For the hard stuff, diamond core drills are best, though the 3 point drill will drill the hard stuff, too. Diamond core drills: You can buy either type at big box stores. They're not that expensive, and they last a long time if you take care of them. They are best used with a steady stream of coolant from a squeeze bottle (contact lens solution bottles work great for this) or with the work surface barely submerged. IE, put the pot upside down in a tub and fill the tub with water until it just covers the work surface. If you use a spritzer or squirt bottle, a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water is an excellent coolant, and soapy water is better than plain water but not as good as the antifreeze mix. The coolant keeps the tool from over-heating, and in doing so, increases the life of the tool substantially - like triple or quadruple the number of holes you can drill. Regular masonry bits are "ok" for drilling terra cotta or cement (you can make them work), but inappropriate for anything harder. The right tool makes everything easier. And lastly, should I be flushing all my plants (pothos, croton, aloe, snake plant...) when I water? One way or another - YES, absolutely. Ideally, your choice of soil should allow you to water to beyond the point of saturation, so you're flushing the soil as you water. If you can't do that w/o worry that the soil will remain soggy for a prolonged period, limiting root function, or worse, wrecking root health it would be best to consider learning how to amend the soil you're using or make a soil that allows you to flush the soil regularly. There are also a few very simple work-arounds that will allow you to use a soil that would otherwise be inappropriate. For example - if you're using a soil too water-retentive for a plant's well-being, and you need to flush it - you can flush thoroughly over a sink or tub or outdoors. When the pot stops draining, hold it in your hand(s) and move it up and down. You'll note that on the reversal from downward to upward motion, Newton's First Law of Motion takes over and some of the excess water in the pot exits through the drain hole. As the amount of water diminishes, more can be forced from the soil by reversing directions more forcibly. As long as your pot is of a manageable size, this simple trick is invaluable for anyone using an excessively water-retentive soil. If the pot is too large, you can use a wick to drain excess water, or even tipping the pot at a 45* angle to drain makes a very significant difference in how much excess water a medium can hold. Compare B with A to see how much excess water the simple act of tipping the pot forces from the pot. E shows what a wick, used correctly for best benefit, can achieve. D shows one way of using ballast to reduce excess water. Even when using extremely water retentive soils, ballast can reduce the amount of excess water a soil can hold to less than 5% of what it would hold w/o use of ballast. Al

This sort of behavior is typical of tomato plants late in the growing season. The plants are now tired and worn out, having expended a great deal of energy the last few months while growing and producing/ripening fruit. It is perfectly normal for the fruit to get smaller as the season goes on. It happens to my plants every year, and I just don't worry about it. By the time the plants are producing significantly smaller fruit, we've just about overdosed on fresh tomatoes anyhow and I've already canned, frozen and dehydrated more than enough tomatoes to get us through the non-tomato-growing season. The decrease in fruit size is one reason why lots of gardeners in the south will plant a second round of tomato plants in mid- through late-summer (the timing depends on how far south they are) for a fall crop. Fresh, new plants will have more vigor and will produce larger fruit than exhausted plants from the spring planting, provided they aren't having to deal with very severe drought conditions/moisture stress. Once I've met all my canning goals, I start yanking out plants as their vigor fades and productivity falls. I plant a lot, though, so tired plants are expendable. I never yank out all of them---and I use logic---the plants that still have loads of fruit on them are left in place until those fruit mature, and then I harvest the last of the fruit and yank out the plants. I leave enough tomato plants to keep us supplied with fresh tomatoes until the first freeze, but I don't keep enough plants that I have huge surpluses to can. If the fruit are so small they aren't worth dealing with, then I vote for going ahead and removing them and sowing the cover crop. We love tomatoes, but I get tired of them late in the summer. You know how it is when you first start getting ripe ones----you eat each one as soon as it is ready and you enjoy every bite. Well, by the end of the summer, we are totally the opposite--staring at those tomatoes sitting there on the counter and telling ourselves that we really "ought to" eat those. When I start leaving tomatoes on the counter and no one even eats them, I really start yanking out the plants and replacing them with something else for fall. I used to think there was no such thing as too many tomatoes, but since then I have learned that we do get burned out on eating them constantly. I'll tell you what, though. Despite all the above, when we are eating the very last fresh tomato of the season, it is a bittersweet experience because we know it will be months before we have more fresh, home-grown tomatoes.

So many people with issues with parents...sad. I was loved, I had toys and gifts,dresses, dolls, books, sport stuff, games,I lacked for nothing . But as I got older, I think I tried to "recapture" my childhood. As an adult, I loved antique shows, flea markets, garage sales. Any time I saw something we had in our house growing up, I had to buy it. I even bought too many rose bushes and planted them in my garden, trying to re-create my Grandma's rose garden. I now have a linen closet stacked with doilies and tablecloths I'll never use, sets of fancy glasses too fragile to use, things like that. Oh, and on the funny side, my daughter cleaned out my bathroom just yesterday. She found eleven bottles of Listerine. I don't know, I hate the stuff, it burns... I remember buying one bottle because it did everything, whitens teeth, freshens breath, makes gums healthy, strengthens the enamel. I'm just always looking for something to make me happy.

Thanks :) Perhaps it grew those fat leaves when I was neglectful of watering and the sun was lower in the sky (and therefore reaching all the way into that little window-box). I'm learning quickly here on this forum that my previous notion of "a lot of light/sun" is seriously inadequate for succulents *Off to research how many windows one can legally cut into the south face of one's home* I have purchased jute and am going to learn how to make macrame hangers from my mom. She was the macrame queen - the stereo even hung on macrame shelving in my childhood home LOL