Why ask people all over the nation when Florida's soil conditions are very well understood by the U FL Extension Service? If that is Hollywood, FL, you are very near where some of the first micronutrient studies were conducted (1920s) because the soils are critically deficient in several (copper and zinc on sands and peat, manganese on marl). There is an extension office and small experiment station near the main campus of Broward Community College (near the educational TV station, if it is still there). Many but not all of Florida's sands are acidic. The sands in southern Florida can be naturally more lime rich though. It takes a little but not extraordinary effort to successfully grow many vegetables and fruit there. A citrus-type fertilizer with complete micronutrients will solve nearly all soil problems, save nematodes. Growing most crops in cooler, drier winter will largely solve the fungal problems on leaves and fruit. New Zealad spinach and cherry tomatoes (old selections anyway) and some Latin American root crops will grow in the summer heat and near-liquid atmosphere.

Let me first clarify my interest in this subject. I don't give 1 crap about rhodies. I do have some nice azaleas which have been blooming for almost two months this fall. However, my main concern is the oak-hickory forest that is the major forest type in my region and specifically on my land. Although I love collecting and growing plants, I will do whatever I consciously can to minimize any possible threat my collecting could have on the native plant community around me. I work in the dental field and one interesting statistic is the fact if you have a percutaneous exposure with a patient's HIV infected blood, the rate of subsequent infection is 0.3-0.5% in a dental setting. Knowing the odds are incredibly low, any particular person that became exposed would still be on pins and needles until they received their test results. It is pretty damn human to worry about such things that are an imminent threat to health.*pathogens/pests in the forest* It's also pretty damn human to ignore any threat perceived to be highly unlikely if it hasn't directly impacted self- fatal car crash on the way to work or some microscopic soil pathogen is actually capable of killing a vast swath of our forests when it is far away. *SOD threat minimizers* I don't take the 'holier/smarter than thou' approach you have taken, Aka. I don't think those that think differently than me on the subject are irresponsible lazy asses, they just have different convictions than I do about it. I also certainly don't consider myself Howard Hughes crazy. I don't appreciate the condescending tone in your analogy, either. Personally, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we in the east with our wetter climate have native soil microbes that keep this particular strain of phytophthora in check. Our native eastern trees may also be somewhat more able to deal with the pathogen due to surviving in conditions more similar to the pathogens native region. The east coast is much more like the Philippines when it comes to climate precip wise than the west coast not that either is an exact match.

With Windows XP you can resize your pics by right clicking on the pic, go to Send To and select Mail Recipient... You will then have the option of making your pic smaller... It will come up as an Attachment in an e-mail... From there you can drag the Attachment to another folder or your desktop then delete the e-mail. If you are using your cell phone to take pics to post on the internet make sure you turn off your GPS first !!!... There are bad people out there who can retrieve the GPS coordinates from the pic and find out just where the pic was taken, down to the room in your house! Hugs, Rita

Dare I hope that you are still active in these forums, Al? I will admit that I have skimmed many of the posts you have made and even with that have found a great deal of wonderful information that seems completely absent from the books, magazines, and websites from which I have previously gathered my information. I "got into" container gardening and houseplants only about a year ago. In one of your posts you mentioned how container plants could start at a 9 out of 10 in their health/vitality, and good repotting could keep them close to that for their entire (long) lifetimes. before finding your wise posts, I had already begun potting-up all my house plants that have been with me for about a year (previously left in their original containers). Now I regret that. Due to my regret, I wonder if, since it is only mid-spring, if I might be safe in repotting my just-potted-up plants, or if I should wait and try that next year? Some have been potted up in good soil...but their old soil was mainly left intact, some I believe I have potted up in soil that is too water-retentive, and those too had their original root-ball and soil left in-tact. (And this causes me to rethink my plans for topdressing the very large outdoor containers I have too...ought I to repot there as well?) I wonder if you could point me to a good visual resource for the root-pruning you describe. Normally I prefer to absorb my information via words, but I cannot picture what you describe as problematic roots.