Srad....Your Scheff is a fighter. What was its height/width before pruning? How much light is it getting? Shade, medium, bright, full sun? My Scheff's are fairly slow-growers, but neither are getting enough sun. They did fantastic outside, but because of ant problems, I refuse to set outside during summer anymore. Wish the ants would leave! Jaycee..don't consider yourself paranoid. I don't know how many plants you have, but the more you acquire, there's more worries. My plants were insect-free for years. I make a batch of home-made insecticide, and spray throughout the year. Anyway, about 4/5 summers ago, the ant population in our area increased x's 100. :) Well, ants and mealy work together. So, over the years, even though my plants were w/o pests, 'pretty sure I know the online nursery mealy was present,' mealy, which is more contageous than scale, spread amongst my plants. Talk about anxiety attacks! No matter how much Rubbing Alcohol I sprayed, mealy would not die. I ended up tossing, 30-something African Violets, all but one Clivia, 'some Clivias came from China,' and 90% Hoyas. So, don't ever think you're paranoid or goiing over-board..better safe than sorry. Jay...regarding FE. Most of my citrus came from a nursery in Fl. The owner and I talked on the phone often. She's the person who told me about FE. Their citrus trees are sprayed w/FE as a preventative, but it also KILLS scale. She gave me the dossage...she even suggested, 'since my Olive was badly infested,' a second application may be needed. Actually, the first ap did the trick, but I sprayed a second dose as a precaution. I spray FE and other household products on plants before they're brought back indoors in autumn. So, the combo works as an insecticide and last, foliar feeding of the year. The only thing I'd do to rid gnats is water when soil feels dry, 'to a degree,' and provide fresh air. We keep windows opened, and run a ceiling fan. Rotating fans work well,, too. As long as air isn't aiming at a plant. Same w/a/c and heat. Who gets sick talking about plants? lol. Toni

This bill has NOTHING to do with socialism and EVERYTHING to do with capitalism. The profits of big agriculture are written all over this bill. I've spent weeks 'dissecting' every word in the bill and researching the co sponsors and the wretched politicians that wrote it , you should do the same. It does in fact impact farmers markets or any vegetable that is sold or meant for human consumption. It makes all growers comply with industry regulations ie insect control/pest nematodes,bacterial disease control and on and on. It hardly impacts the current agriculture monopolies and impacts the small farmers that don't have the resources to comply with regulations. Tom Vilsak (one of the bills authors) is heavily in favor of large industrial farms and genetically modified crops. Political spin confuses people, it is not about socialism per say , if we want to be intellectually honest HR 875 was born out of corporate monopolies infiltrating Washington with their money and influence. This bill is capitalism out of control,paradoxically the profit motive of corporate monopolies is behind this bill. They see the threat of small farmers and back yard growers and they want to stop it. This is all about $ business $....thats capitalism for you.

Josh-- "I would love to try the Hydroton method, I just am not really sure where to buy it or the pots? I'm assuming online? Can you link me?" Sorry, no link, though I believe you can buy this stuff on Amazon. In fact I think many places sell it, but it becomes expensive to ship, especially with the USPS in its death-throes. Ha! But I can tell you that more and more places here in Colorado are selling it. Honestly, I think mostly because of Denver making pot legal. I personally do not partake in this type of gardening myself, though who am I to say what people can and cannot grow? Anyway, this has helped the hydroponics market here because of the high demand. In fact, once while in a hydro store, one of the fellow patrons asked me how I grow my plants and so I told him and he asked about my results-- when I told him how amazing my blooms were he was utterly confused. He thought I meant pot when really I was speaking on orchids. We all need our hobbies... So my suggestion to you is to call around. Search Google for a hydroponics supplier and if all those fail, there is Amazon and ebay. Buy a small bag and give it a try to decide if that's where you want to go with growing more plants this way. That's what I did. It started off with orchids and then I heard of the myriad of other plants people grew in this stuff and I gave it a whirl. As for the pot-- depends on what you want to grow it in. Easiest is plastic. Walmart has gallon-sized square storage containers-- in the isle where they have all their plastic food storage and lunch boxes etc. It's there "Main Stay" brand. Works perfectly for one hippie bulb (or one orchid, as the case may be). Below is a link on how to set up the rest. The creator of semi-hydroponics is Ray from First Rays Orchids in Pennsylvania, not far from my home town. Follow his instructions, but think "bigger" scale than the smaller containers he uses for orchids. Noni this goes for you too-- read Ray's page and let me know what questions you may have. His method is excellent but I've made adjustments according to my own growing environment. For instance, my reservoirs are deeper because at 10% relative humidity many times of the year plus windy conditions, the plants will use up a lot of their reservoir. As for fertilizer, I use Grow More's Phal fertilizer. I believe its something like 20-16-20 plus the micro nutrients-- I deliver the water via a hand-pumped pressurized tank that holds two gallons. I put at most a teaspoon of fertilizer in for those two gallons-- a weak solution but its given with every watering. I should mention though that the orchids get watered rarely. Each orchid goes through a freshwater flushing every few weeks. Hippies feed a bit heavier and get a flushing every few weeks and then some-- they don't seem to be bothered much by biproduct build up though during their growing season outside, they get flushed all the time by storms or by the garden hose. Orchids are much more sensitive to any mineral or fertilizer buildup. In general, if I see "crystals" forming on the hydroton, that pot gets flushed. Noni I never share water between plants, especially with the real possibility of viruses. I'm by no means an expert on this so please don't take anything I have to say to heart-- the only thing you can do is read up on the subject and figure it out for your conditions. With that said, I love this growing method and plan to keep on with it. ooooooooooooooook Gardenweb is totally lame and won't let me post the link.... so here it is in plain text, though I'm sure somewhere someone in Gardenweb is clenched and angry. Gawd this place has declined.... ok it won't even let me post it as plain text.... Isn't a forum supposed to be a place to learn and share and teach? If anyone is interested in this further, I urge you to go to the Landspro forum. Very disappointed, DR

Mike- You asked the question that has been in the back of my mind all summer. I found Fish Emulsion at a hardware store, but it's a fertilizer. Am I supposed to somehow spray this stuff on the plants, or is there a fish emulsion product designed specifically as an insecticide??? I used the emulsion once as a fertilizer, and very nearly lost my lunch! (that smell is so...sewage) I have a Scale, mealy bug and Spider mite infestation on my grapefruit tree, so I put it back outside until I can figure things out. (gotta find Neem Oil soon- I can't get out to Logee's , where I bought it the last time) I used Safer's on some smaller citrus plants and some Gardenias that have Spider mites (ran out of that!), and they're back indoors, but I'll have to Neem the crud out of the Gr. Fr. tree- that tree has been nothing but trouble from day one!!!. Thank goodness it's the time of year when Ladybugs are in abundance- I think they've helped with the Mealy bugs some- I see less of them since I put the tree back out. But they're still there- all in the flower buds :0( Plus- the Ladybugs are leaving.... Why didn't I spray before I took everything in you ask? Because that would have been the smart thing to do!! Any advice on that FE fertilizer? Is this what I should use to (gulp) spray? What ratios should I use to make a "mix"?