Pomona is only available on line here where I live too. Dad used to like Equal in his jam, he said Splenda left an aftertaste. Of course he wanted everything so sweet that my teeth would ache just thinking about it. As mentioned, I like to add some white grape juice or apple juice to some fruit jams, and I also add other flavorings, like a bit of almond extract to cherry jam and cinnamon and nutmeg are good for apple. Cointreau is good with blueberries and ginger goes well with apricots. I find that the full fruit jams mostly taste like sugar, not much fruit at all, but some of the all fruit jams need some help too. I taste test mine and then add sweetener but I seldom added more than a cup or two of sweetener to jam or it was just too sweet. Somehow or another, it seemed to get sweeter when it cooled too, but maybe that's just me. I just made a nice batch of sugar free apricot jam, and I added the zest and juice of one lemon, but no commercial pectin. I got a very nice lemon/apricot marmalade that set up well, but it was not what I was planning to make at all, I was trying for apricot jam, so be judicious about adding flavor components. (grin) Annie

Paul David, You will get more visits per hummer with the weak mixes, but it may not be the best thing for them, especially for nesting females. This was posted here about 2 years ago: stronger solutions help mama hummingbird Posted by carolreese z7 TN (My Page) on Tue, Apr 21, 09 at 14:44 I meet with lots of resistance on this topic, but let me stress that I have read many scientific papers on hummingbird feeding and metabolism before I began making my solution 1 part sugar to 2 parts water. I will mention the scientific studies throughout, so that you may do your own investigations. First of all, make it easy on yourself, you do not need to boil the water. The sugar will melt with a little extra stirring, and the solution will not be prevented from spoiling by boiling it. The first hummer to stick his tongue in it introduces microbes. Of course, the feeders should be cleaned and refilled anytime you see cloudiness, usually every few days. If you read the studies, you will find that many of the flowers that hummingbirds prefer have nectar concentrations anywhere from thirty percent sugar to an astounding forty-three percent (jewelweed). Some of the desert salvias have even higher concentrations. Here is a link that will list a number of studies on this topic. http://www.springerlink.com/content/r12612v82625n115/ Researchers found that some of the "hummingbird flowers" that have lower sugar concentrations, are that way in order to discourage bees, which on certain floral structures are NOT good pollinators. Apparently the flower needs hummingbird business but not bees. If you average the sugar concentrations of the flowers a hummingbird visits, it runs around 31-33%. For starters, I recommend reading a report by two scientists, Hainsworth and Wolf, biologists with Syracuse University. They studied the feeding habits of hummingbirds presented with different sugar solutions. They found that a hummingbird takes in about the same amount of calories per hour. If the solution is strong, they visit the feeder just a few times an hour. If the solution is weak, the birds visit much more often to take in the same number of calories. Here is the link. http://www.hummingbirds.net/hainsworth.html Hummingbirds are actually insectivores, but require a lot of sugar to fuel their search, and fuel is the operative word. A hummingbird must take in an enormous amount of nectar, several times its body its body weight each day. The feeding day is a balance between energy expended for the calories gained. That�s one reason hummingbirds prefer feeders with perches. In fact, hummingbirds spend as much as 80% of the day perched, conserving their energy. After learning this, I began making my solutions stronger, two parts water to one part sugar, or about 33%. Those who insist a solution this strong is dangerous, must be unaware of this study, or aren�t thinking it through. The little birds are eating the SAME AMOUNT of sugar per hour, they just don�t have to work so hard to get it. I feel entirely comfortable making my sugar solutions stronger after reading that hummingbirds take in about the same amount of calories per hour regardless of the strength of the sugar solution. Weaker solutions just make the hummingbird visit the feeder more often, making it work harder, burn more fuel...and no, a thicker syrup is NOT hard for the hummers to lap up, this is another of those silly unfounded claims. I want to make the case for a stronger solution helping out the mama hummer. She is a single mom, getting absolutely no help from the male. She alone incubates the eggs, and has only a few minutes away from them each hour to feed. Once the eggs hatch, she must struggle to keep the hatchlings fed as well, regurgitating nectar and small insects, as well as meet her own needs. A stronger solution means she has to work a little less hard. Also realize that all hummingbirds actually need to put on weight later in the summer to bulk up for the coming migratory flight. Hummingbirds drop about 40% of their body weight during the flight south to Central America. Speaking at a conference in Pennsylvania a few years ago, I made my case for stronger sugar solutions to an audience that apparently did not take it well. A few days after returning home, I received a scolding email stating that my recommendations were dangerous for hummingbirds. One of the claims made in the email was that the hummingbirds might become diabetic. Apparently this person did not know about the study done by Dr. James Hargrove in Georgia that explored the reasons hummingbirds were able to take in so much sugar without becoming diabetic. You can read about it here. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1325055 Another claim made in the email was that the hummingbirds would need straight water after drinking such a rich mixture and would sip from puddles that might contain pesticides or radiator fluid, poisoning the thirsty little birds. Apparently they did not know about the studies by Drs. Hiebert and Calder, among others, that discussed the problems created by too much water intake. It seems that maintaining a balance of necessary minerals and salts is difficult for a bird that must drink so much fluid throughout the feeding day. Dilute nectar results in more frequent urination which results in loss of minerals and salts, just as you would lose electrolytes if you drank excessive amounts of water. Hummingbirds have occasionally been observed (Adams and Des Lauriers) licking soil, that was later tested and found to have high levels of phosphorous, potassium and calcium. Hmm, seems like a weaker solution is more likely to have birds licking up dangerous compounds, rather than the opposite - though that claim was ludicrous from the start. I was also scolded for using more sugar since that might cause more land to go into sugar production. This is where I realize this person did not even understand the first study I recommended she read - where Hainsworth's research showed that the hummingbird will take in the same amount, I repeat, the same amount of sugar each hour, it is just that it takes fewer visits if the sugar mixture is richer. Maybe she can't understand that means that I am not using more sugar, I am just making the hummers caloric needs easier to satisfy. Of course the amount of sugar I use in my feeders compared to the sugar in the soft drinks, candy and cookies in this country is miniscule, so that objection was laughable to start with. It�s astonishing how some people react to new information, especially information that may question long held beliefs. When I asked the person who wrote the email for references to back her claims, she quoted several "hummingbird experts", people who had written books, for example. When I pressed her for the science that supported their recommendations, there was no response. I supplied her with my references, and hoped to hear that she�d learned from their research. I�m still holding my breath.

Sugar water replicates very closely the natural plant nectar that is a part of a hummingbird's normal diet. But nectar is only a portion of that diet, which is primarily insects or other sources of protein. Nectar (or sugar water) is a high energy source that hummers use to maintain their caloric intake to fuel their hunt for proteins. Feeders are only supplemental food sources, generally provided to attract the birds in the first place and to augment the possible lack of natural nectar sources present in the winter months. It seems likely that a baby, not getting nourishment from its mother, would not develop in the same manner on just a nectar or sugar water diet, so what the rescue woman is saying makes a lot of sense. But there is no earthly reason NOT to provide sugar water to the adult birds (and even their young) as a supplement as long as it is kept fresh, clean and free from bacterial and fungal organisms, which can grow and proliferate rapidly on that nutrient source. And of course any artificial colorings are a no-no and totally unnecessary anyway. Here is a link that might be useful: hummingbird diets and supplemental feeders

Did you break up the root ball before transplanting? If so it should do ok. If not then can you carefully dig it up now and break up the root ball? Without knowing your location or at least your gardening zone there is no way to know if it is too late for a crop or not. Dave