personally i have about a dozen shovels of different makes. long straight handles with flat blades and some with pointed blade. short straight handles of each. D handle of each. each one has it's own purpose in life. i keep a couple of each of the d handle and long handle pointed blades for regular use. hoes i have flat blade hoes, angled flat blade hoes, short handle hoes, and even pointed hoes. nothing beats a hoe for weeding around plants. what you are reading abotu tilling hte ground is jsut that, TILLING, not hoeing. i also have a Garden Claw. it works good for my wife to weed her flower beds. also good for getting dandelions out of the ground. stick it down, give it a twist, and pull it up. it is hard to use in our clay, but in the beds themselves it works great. i also use it to mix up my compost.

Hi Lisa,yes i can understand your concern and cerainly i have had different plants ( mostly Orchids )that have suffered from viral infection(s) one thing they all have in common is that they all cause the tissue to shrink ,go brown ( negrotic ) and die ,some are very specific ,in Cattley Orchids it may not show for up to 7 years on the leaves ,but the flowers are affected first ,its called " colour break" and a white flower will be streaked with pink to mauve ,this goes brown fairly quickly , Cymbidium orchids are the most prone of any plant i know ,and it shows as a checkerboard pattern of whitish ,and yellowish and pale green ,and lots of almost square flecks of black ,the flowers are last affected ,but flowering gets worse each year , Bromeliads are not that easily infected ( thank goodness) some plants have been infected for the nursery trade,such as the Variegated Abulutons ( chinese lantern hibiscus )just to make them variegated ,that virus has no other affect on them at all ,it is a big and varied subject and to err on the side of caution is allways a good idea ,Your Tiger is different to Shane's ,i have had the odd Neo and Guzmania do exactly that ,and yes the go to the bin ,mostly viruses can't get into a plant unless its damaged .a cut or broken leaf ,or grasshoppers can spread it as can a few other sap suckers ,Aphids are generally to small ,but a large amount of them could lead to trouble ,there are test kits available ,for the 3 main viruses ,but the best way is to send tissue to a Lab,if it is suspected the plant is best burnt,some viruses are so specific they will only attack one species ,such as Amaryllis ( Hippeastrum ) virus ,the amazing thing is that the plant viruses are such simple organisms,and minutely small ,it takes 200degrees to kill Tobacco Mosiac Virus !Burnt tobacco still has live virus in the ash ! However All you readers ,please dont go on a witch hunt and start destroying every plant with a dark spot ,most times its a different pathogen all together , Tissue culture can be done on affected plants and eliminate it in the resulting plantlets ,but ? the resulting plants are very very susceptable to infection ,with Orchids it was found that green seed does not transmit,but dry seed does carry it ,the principle may be the same for lots of seeds ,but some seed can only be used ripe and dry ,Vriesea for instance , PLease understand that i am not employing scare tactics ,far from it , its about being aware ,and i do thank you Lisa for that photo ,its good to have a file photo of that type of thing ,I have so far only had 2 Vrieseas that i felt where definitely affected ,maybe they are more resistant ,maybe i am lucky ,i did do tests to try and artificially induce it but had absolutly no luck at all ,and as you stated Lisa ,you can feel with your fingers ,its either raised or sunken ,and thats not a good sign ,cleanliness is important ,but that goes without saying ,and yes If the symptoms appear on the pup(s) i would start to get worried ,the lack of Zonation is(as you said Lisa ,) some thing that Tiger does by itself and thats no cause for concern , Jack

If you got 20, & they all still look healthy, then you've got a very good chance that most will survive. With grass pups, their survival rate often depends on how well they were removed from the mother plant. Sometimes their bases can be damaged during removal, & this often leads to them rotting out. In your climate, you should have a good % of success, & if you get say 60% - 80% past the first 6 mths you've done well. Typically I've seen grass pups develop roots within 3 mths when kept around 15 - 25 C. Some will be alot faster, especially if they had a few tiny roots when removed. I would stay away from the slow release fertiliser until you know the plants have developed a good root system, they will still grow well at this stage with just the liquid fed. If you treat them like seedlings over the next 6 mths or so, by keeping them warm & fed, then you should be able to repot them and then get them onto slow release plus a good liquid fertiliser, and you will see them grow quite fast. Good luck, -Andrew.

Hello, I'm the inventor of the Aquastorm Turbo Charged Aero-Hydroponic Cloning System that was featured on the www.newworldhydro.com website. We just recently changed web servers which is the reason our site still down. I was checking today to see of our domain was pointing to our name server when I found this discussion where our machine was mentioned. We are currently leaving the retail business and will be wholesaling our cloning system across North America beginning in early 2009. Our cloner is currently undergoing a face lift involving various improvements over the original design. I'm not here to sell anything instead I'm here to educate. The reason our system works so well over all others is because it's the only system available that focuses on "applied hydrodynamic friction" at the base of the plant stem in combination with our unique air injection system. I call this phenomenon "The Stream Effect". Plants will not respond well to conditions that they have not adapted to in nature. Fine mist sprays such as those found other cloning machines are not something that you would find in nature at the plants root zone. Our machine mimics the effect of a rushing stream which creates stress at the surface of the cuttings stem stimulating a high production of plant root cells. The result is much faster rooting times without hormones or fungicide and enormous root systems as described by one of our happy customers above in the discussion thread. The stream effect cannot be duplicated with micro sprayers, vaporizers, ultra sonic foggers, and air stones. I know this because in developing the Aquastorm I tried everything. Our system uses an air injection manifold where air is injected directly into the output tube of the pump. It then travels upward where it hits a geometrically tuned deflector plate. This creates a thick high velocity blanket of water that flows horizontally to the stems of the cuttings. I get excited when I read and hear customer testimonials which I get from time to time which is why I joined this forum. If anyone needs advice on indoor gardening fire away because I've got 20 plus years of experience and I enjoy helping people who need advice. Also with a little luck and pestering I might succeed in getting some college professors to take notice of the stream effect. I think it would be great to find my name credited in a research paper so wish me luck.