Well i cant seem to get these pics to show. My white habs that are about 1 month old and up until today were looking great but when i got home from work 2 plants had brown spots on the leaves it almost looks as if they are dried brown spots fairly nice size spots I might add. I will figure out how to get these pics on here but i hope that this sounds familiar to someone because I would sure hate to lose any seedlings

This will be in a long narrow room - 23x7.5 - most of room (2/3)is family room/hang out/sunroom - nice new decor a 39" deep couch I was thinking of putting this on a stand at end of couch area 37" stand - ditched the hang it on a wall idea - tough area - back of firebox, plaster etc.. the other 1/3 of room is small office area thanks eileen

My 7 cats did not even bother the two trees I have this year - not one ornament broken, knock on wood. They did take some of the bows from the open package and bat them around the house. Funny pics. Thanks for posting.

Not necessarily scholorly, but there's this: "That one single fertilizer will suit all plants sounds much like wishful thinking for many gardening enthusiasts. But – in spite of what often is said and written on the topic, it is quite logical. “All plants need the same nutrients in the same proportions,” says Professor Tom Ericsson, researcher in plant nutrients at the Swedish Agricultural College in Ultuna. “Therefore, specialty fertilizer products aren’t necessary”. Specialty fertilizer products are becoming more and more common in garden centers. There are special fertilizers for roses, rhododendron, orchids, pelargoniums, citrus, cacti, tomatoes, bedding plants, potatoes and more. There are also specialty fertilizers for plants growing under similar conditions, such as vines or bonsai. To provide your plants with the nutrients they require seems both complicated and expensive judging by the assortment offered. But – do all these plants really have such specific nutrient requirements that these fertilizers are necessary? And how can it be that one fertilizer can cover the needs of all bonsai, or all vines? They belong to a wide range of genus and species, and should, logically, have totally different needs regarding one or the other nutrient. It becomes even more confusing when you see how the ingredients vary between different products aimed at the same type of plant. Tom Ericsson has showed in his research that different plants’ need for nutrients isn’t all that specific as the fertilizer producer will have us believe. The truth is that specialty fertilizers are unnecessary and that fertilizing correctly is pretty simple. If you choose a well-balanced fertilizer it will fit all vines and all bonsai. The same fertilizer will work equally well for pelargoniums, citrus, beddingplants, rhododendron, roses and all other plants – even orchids and cacti. They all want the same nutrients served in the same proportions at an even rate. The only difference is the amount they want, or rather how fast the rate of delivery should be. Fast growing plants need more nutrients than slow growing ones, but still at the same proportions. All you need to think of is the dosage and the regularity. For container grown plants Tom Ericsson has a recipe that will solve the problems all at once. Choose a liquid, well balanced fertilizer containing all the nutrients the plants need. Add 1 ml to 1 quart of water (4ml/gallon), and use it for all your plants. It makes a weak nutrient solution that you will use year round, each time you water. That different plants have different needs for nutrients doesn’t matter using this method. It suits them all. Because the nutrients are added with the water it is a self regulating system. Fast growing plants that need more fertilizer will also need more water. When more water is supplied, so is more fertilizer. “The method works equally well for plants with low nutrient needs”, says Tom Ericsson, who himself is an enthusiastic grower of many slow growing species, such as cacti, orchids and tillandsia. They all need very little water, getting small amounts of fertilizer. Cacti and orchids are grown in fast draining substrates, and some of the water and fertilizer will drain out right away. If you grow plants completely without substrate, in the case of tillandsia and some species of orchids, you can submerge them in a bucket of water with the same nutrient solution a couple of times per week. 1ml/quart of water is so weak that all roots will tolerate it. One argument for using specialty orchid food is that regular plant food is too concentrated. This is a peculiar argument to Tom Ericsson. “The concentration depends on the dosage. The dose I recommend is not too strong for any plant” Tom Ericsson recommends applying the same dosage both summer and winter because plants need nutrients not only for growth, but also for maintaining already existing plant parts. As plants need less water during the winter months – due to less light, lower temperatures and the resulting reduced growth – the fertilizer applied will be diminishing. Even in winter the method is self regulating. We grow plants indoors during the winter during sometimes extreme conditions. When plants are placed above heating ducts the evaporation rate from both soil and plants becomes very high. The need for water increases, but not because the plant is in active growth. In such conditions, it’s better to reduce the fertilizer dose by half. “One ml of fertilizer per quart of water will work for most situations, but it is not a holy grail”, says Tom Ericsson. Each person needs to experiment a little to find the right dosage for his or her specific conditions. Using 1 ml of concentrated fertilizer per quart of water will deliver about 50mg of nitrogen in the nutrient solution, assuming the ratio of N is 5g/100ml. However, liquid fertilizer ingredients vary quite a bit, and the dosage may need to be adjusted for this reason. Growing plants that require high doses of fertilizer in order to mature, flower and set fruit within one growing season may also require adjustment of the fertilizer dose. “According to research done with Brugmansia, tomatoes and sunflowers by my students, they require 4ml concentrated fertilizer per quart of water for maximum growth.” Fertilizing the garden follows the same principles as fertilizing containers. All nutrients that plants require should be applied at the same proportions as they are found in plant tissue. (See table below.) Nutrients should reach the soil at an even rate. Sudden, large applications of nutrients cannot be absorbed by plants and the surplus is leached out to groundwater and waterways. Tom Ericsson’s fertilizer method works just as well in the garden. However, it is rarely practical to administer fertilizer by watering the entire garden. The space is too large, and during rainfall no watering will be done and therefore no fertilizer applied. Also, many of us like to use organic fertilizers in the form of manure and compost, since they add beneficial microorganisms and improve soil structure. In areas where it might be difficult to work in solid fertilizer materials, is the watering method an excellent solution, according to Tom Ericsson. – In the garden, where fertilizing isn’t done as often as in containers, can the fertilizer dose be increased. If you apply fertilizer twice during the growing season, 50ml concentrated fertilizer per 10l (2 ½ gallons) of water should be applied per 1m2 (9 sq.ft.) each time. It is a very moderate dose, completely harmless to all plants. This dose will add 5gr of N per 1m2 each season, corresponding to 50kg (100lb) of N per hectare (2 ½ acre), which is about half of what is applied on agricultural soils. Watering in the fertilizer makes nutrients immediately available to roots. It’s a good method to induce growth in plants that have slowed down or stopped growing. Other than that, Tom Ericsson encourages people to mimic nature when we apply fertilizer. Not removing dead plant material, allowing it to naturally deteriorate, is one example. – The purpose of fertilizing is to increase the fertility of the soil. It can be achieved by fertilizing more frequently and in smaller doses. It reduces the risk of unnecessary leakage of nutrients. The gardener also needs to recognize whether plants really need extra fertilizer. – Increasing fertility in the garden should primarily be done with organic material produced in the garden. This production can initially be stimulated with the aid of chemical fertilizers. Plants absorb nutrients from soil moisture in the form of ions. Tom Ericsson underscores that it doesn’t matter to plants whether nutrients come from organic or chemical sources. Correctly used, both types can provide the even flow of nutrients at plant roots that we want. In part, this is what Tom Ericsson intends by telling us to mimic nature. In nature nutrients do not suddenly appear in large amounts, nor do nutrient levels change quickly. Organic material is constantly being decomposed, adding a continuous supply of nutrients to soil moisture. – The concept that organic fertilizers always are better out of an environmental point of view is not correct, says Tom Ericsson. Unfortunately, the truth is that leakage of, among other things, nitrogen (ammonia gas) can be quite substantial. This is especially true when organic material is applied on top of the soil, such as grass clippings. One of Dr Ericsson’s students has shown that up to 25% of the nitrogen content in grass clippings disappears in gases when it is applied on top of the soil. Therefore it should be worked into the top layer of the soil and the loss of nitrogen will be significantly reduced. Grass clippings do have an almost perfect ratio of nutrients. However, in fertilizer trials with tomatoes, it has been shown that the sulphur in grass clippings is very tightly bound, resulting in poorer growth compared to commercial fertilizers. Increasing the amounts of grass clippings can offset this deficit, although leakage of other nutrients will increase. A better solution is to complement the grass clippings with extra sulphur in the form of potassium sulfate. Manure and compost should also be worked into the soil, to minimize nitrogen leakage. Manure from cows, horses, pigs, sheep and goats is pretty much well-balanced. Bird manure may need complementing with potassium, depending on the garden soil. Clay soils rarely need such additions. – One aspect of using manure is moving fertility from farm fields to gardens. How does the farmer compensate loss of fertility from his fields? It isn’t easy to use fertilizers in an ecologically sound way when you consider the entire chain of effects. Regular applications of fertilizer is of paramount importance. In the cases of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur; plants can function well regardless of plentiful or sparser availability, as long as supply is continuous. This is the reason that plants growing in lean soils in nature do not show any deficiencies, in spite of poor access to nitrogen. Slow growth will be the only indicator. When access to nutrients change, as in the case of fertilizing seldom but with high rates of fertilizer, deficiency symptoms will occur when nutrient levels diminish. Deficiency symptoms will also occur at low levels of other nutrients than nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur. If nutrient access is unbalanced, i.e. plants are getting more than they need of certain elements, but less than they need of others, the substance they need the most is the one that is going to limit growth. Whatever nutrients are available in excess, will be absorbed by the plant to a certain point. In come cases, this may lead to toxicity. Too much nitrogen will lead to excessive foliage production and less flowering. Too much potassium or phosphorus will not lead to ill effects. There will be no toxic symptoms and the gardener may not realize that the soil contains five times more phosphorus and twice as much potassium as needed. The fact that different species of plants grow on different types of soil does not mean that the one needs more of a certain nutrient than the other. It just means that the plants have developed strategies to adapt to certain conditions. Acid-loving plants have adapted to acid soils. Their need of calcium is still the same as any other plant. Nutrient requirements do not differ from plants that thrive in alkaline soils. The problem for acid-loving plants is that they have not developed a method to limit their calcium uptake, and will absorb too much of it when available, resulting in too high pH-values in cells. Some acid-loving plants also have difficulties absorbing iron, which is tightly bound in alkaline soils, another reason why they thrive in low pH soils. This all pertains to the plants ability to handle nutrients, not to the actual nutrient needs of the plant. Continued below