Hey buddy!! I use to use them and the problems I had to deal with using extra light was unsurmountable..Not worth it for me.. If you are forced to use them and do not want to, then you have two choices..One, do not grow plants that need lot's of sunlight...Or two, grow them, but expect to work hard at avoiding many problems associated with them.. That is where some will come in here and help..The ones that use lights and soley rely on them may have had and still might much more succees than I ever did.. The PESTS are a givin for most..That is why you hear all this talk of sprays, homemade recipes and or chemical being used my most all winter long!!!! I only use them regular flourescent lights over my clivias in the cellar for a couple of hours now to help them grow in perfect symetrical shape, while my expensive ones just sit turned off all winter.... We can talk later..I will e-mail you when home later..:-) Mike

Rainbow, I start with 10-52-10 around the first to middle of June. If I remember to do it I fertilize about every two weeks until the first of November or until hard freeze. This may not work and will not be needed if you have rich soil. The soil in NE Mississippi on the hills is not rich at all. If there is not plenty of rainfall I also water as needed. I plant all my rebloomers close enough to the house that I can reach them with the water hose. I have three(Anxious, Immortality and Brother Carl) that have been blooming since June and the regular fall bloomers started late August. Except for about two weeks after the spring bloom I have had at least one iris in bloom since early March. If I get a few really late spring bloomers I think I can fill that gap. Lee Mincy

I don't totally understand your design. You have a layer of wood not in contact with the soil? Why do you need this layer if it's not containing soil? There is absolutely no problem using PT wood to build raised beds. The PT wood these days is treated with a copper based preservative and not the arsenic based compounds used several years ago. Even then, it was shown in several studies that the arsenic hardly traveled away from the wood. Other studies have shown that crops planted in arsenic-containing soil did not contain arsenic in their fruit. So crops like tomatoes were fine. Leafy vegetables absorbed the arsenic but not in huge quantities. Copper doesn't have the toxicity of arsenic so you are absolutely fine. I'm guessing that too much copper in the soil would lead to some noticeable problems with your plants so you would know if copper was leaching into the soil. If you are building some large raised beds, it's pretty much a guarantee that there will be no copper contamination beyond a certain distance from the wood and that distance would be very short (a few inches at most).

Mike - Ya spraying them inside is kind of a pain, but I would like to think it's more effective for all the trouble I go through lol. I bring them straight into the bathroom and put them in the shower so clean up isn't so bad. They get sprayed super frequently for the first couple of weeks so anything that survives the initial hose down can't spread to my other plants. Though if your having such success with just spraying them outside, then I think I will incorporate a couple of outdoor sprays into my routine as well. Preventive measures are definitely important :)