Yikes! Be careful with *fresh* chicken/bird manure. Dunno about emus but chicken manure is HOT and should be composted first. This is because of the concentrated ammonia compared to other manure. Ingrid, re: drip... I think drip is a solution of circumstance in each location: water thriftiness, time, location in the yard vs closeness to a water bib, etc. For us, since we are not full time at the mountain weekend/retirement place it started as a necessity, so unlike my old pre-marriage house I couldn't procrastinate until I had planned it ever just so. Also, it sounds like we may have less property, just 1/4 acre in all. *As far as unsightliness*, almost all of the 1/2" line is run either along the fence line, or under the rocks defining pathways or garden plots and doesn't show. The 1/4" line on the roses on the fence don't show at all because of the bushes, the rest where it shows now, the bushes are either growing to cover soon or I guess I can't care cause it's not much. *As far as clogged drippers*, I'm with you on that one, but that's an easy one to fix at least for me and a time trade-off with watering, but I think I come out ahead. Have you tried 'FLAG DRIPPERS'? As I've mentioned umpteen times here on the forum our WW water you can 'bout stand a spoon in it is so hard. Flag drippers are great because the end (flag) can be either twisted or removed. Twisting usually releases the mineral buildup, if not or if there is debris in the line, you can take the end off to clear the line. The latter mostly happens on drippers to the end of the line. In the summer I do this when the drip is running ;-) The ones that I get aren't anything special, I get them at Lowe's. For roses, with the hard water, I usually use two 2gal drippers per plant (none are more than 6x10'). Since, ad nauseum, we are so hard, I check to see if they are running well every couple of weeks, but still, this is less time than watering. This last year, after oh, 3 years I guess, I got another set of drippers to change out so I could soak the existing ones in hot vinegar to clean them. I'll swap them out as I prune/fertilize again in a year or two now that I've had this idea (saves time on the knees/back to do it all at once). *Re our environments* Well, I think I can top you on dryness, it was 9% 'humidity' when we came up on Friday morning, BUT only 70deg. In the heat of our summer we only get a month hovering around 90+. When the daytime gets warm enough, I switch the drip over from morning to evenings so the plants have more access to the water. This is a foreign idea for me growing up by the coast as evening watering of anything only promotes fungus; however, someone up here suggested it and since we are so dry it made a lot of sense and I could see the improvement. *Re since you asked for opinions* Ok, since you asked (and just my opinion, you know how I love to share ;-) so not a judgment) but based on a small slice of similar weather, humidity, and as I recall you also have decomposing granite soil as a base, a couple of thoughts... You said your roses get enough water, but it would seem not the case if they wilt so quickly, right? - OR, so to speak maybe the *AVAILABLE* water could be improved (???), which is where I *subjectively* anyway think that the drip gives me an advantage, at least on my weather/dirt - more water gets to the *deep* roots, less to evaporate, and better still, less weeds. Otoh, I do still need to hose water to work in fertilizer, alfalfa, etc. All that said as I contemplate, I DO have an advantage of our pines that filter here and there a little bit during the day. Otoh, I do have more UV radiation at my elevation. TOO MANY VARIABLES!!! ;-) I may have inferred that you had drip at a former house? If that is the case, it would be a really interesting experiment in your current location if you ran a short drip line off from your hose bib (you could put in a Y so you could still use your hose) and see if the dripped roses do better than before. That would be really interesting!!! As for mulch, I keep adding over time and as everyone says, it just keeps improving, I've now actually found earthworms so I guess it's working ;-) My very best to you, I hope you get this figured out so it best suits you and your garden! Kerin

Better nutrients than gasoline... but I know what you mean. If you don't want to bother with a pump, to avoid drinking the spent solution all you needs is a 'trap' to connect to your dangling siphon hose if everything is in the one tub. An easy one can be made with glue and two top halves of 500 ml clear plastic water bottles, and it is just as quick as cracking open a drain valve. I think I follow that you are making the suggestion that I could just prepare the original concentration of nutrients by weighing or pouring standardized nutrient solution concentrations. That was worth a chuckle since I couldn't have imagined it any other way ... but now it is sounding like people use the EC to add without weighing like cooks tossing spices into a broth and testing it until it meets their spec ... that possibility completely went over my head, but I bet it is a common reason to buy an EC meter. I'm pretty sure something as generic as EC can be managed much more accurately with a good multimeter than the typical HM EC meters I removed from my shopping list. Like you said, EC isn't providing any details about individual ions, all that all you need to do is mix up the right solution once with the scales and graduated cylinders and measure it even using the resistence scale if you are lazy, since ppms are fudged anyway. The only technical issue is to get a standard sized 'cell', I might use a tic-tac case, and firmly attach two flat electrodes facing each other submersed on the bottom, and run two insulated wires out (preferably set in some insulating epoxy, both for electrode tab and especially to keep the wire leads to them dry. So check the 1/resistance and then check it at half strength or whatever your action threshhold is. (same calibration for temperature fwiw) That's the range. Enough on this since you said it's been discussed. I'll post what I did as soon as I'm in business assuming it has convenient application. BTW the open top tic-tac cell like this could be put directly into the rez as a probe to measure since the plastic ought to act as an insulation shield from spurrious readings. Maybe it was a pH measurement that was more complicated because for that you'll likely need a hydrogen selective electrode and interface, neither that a multimeter comes with... Back to the fun stuff, I was actually thinking of changing 1/3 of the rez every 5 days during heavy demand instead of everything every two weeks and play it by ear as to when a complete change was needed like if yield loss or gunking up. 1/3 every 5 days vs. 100% every 15 seems much better to me as a compromise between dilution and accumulating unused trace nutrients. By the 15th day, only 29.6% of the original spent nute solution wilnot be changed out. That sounds a whole lot better IMO than carrying all the spent nutes till the 15th day. I'm in northeast FL but so far I don't know anyone nearby doing this. There is a hydro store or two in driving range and one of these days I hope to at least get to one and check it out. But I seriously doubt that they would be so helpful as your pictures from the other thread, which really got me thinking more creatively from the canned stuff all over the web.

I remember granny's shelling circle. All those wonderful black-eyed peas and butter beans....both fresh and dry. We always did it on the back porch in the hot afternoon when you didn't want to go out. The boys (grandpa and others) dozed under the ceiling fans until it was safe to venture out without getting heatstroke. Chickens rolled in the dirt dusting themselves, the cats and dogs were under the porch, and the cattle chewed their cud under the big live oaks. Summer in gulf coast Texas is hot and not to be fooled with during the middle of the day. Even the windmill stopped work as though to admit defeat to the sun. An occasional cackle of a hen, or the buzz of a fly could be heard over the drone of the rocking chairs on linoleum because we all know that rocking and shelling go together. Thanks for the memories....sorry I got carried away.

Great photos, thank you. Happyday, so far it appears that all really big white seeded beans that I have found were either runners or limas (which do not grow for me here). The "Bianco di Spagna" were from the late Harvest Moon Seed Company. None of the colyledons emerged and the plants looked very much like other runners. The pods looked the same as other runners that I trialed last year. It is currently both dark out and muddy in the garden but I will see if I can dig up a tuber soon to help verify the species. The plan was to dig them up and store them for next year, but it did not happen. The flavor and texture of Bianco di Spagna were much better than most runner seeds though. So far, I have found four white runners with seeds with good eating qualities: "Bond's Orcas Lima" is a very early white runner with smaller thin-skinned good flavored seeds. We also liked "Cannellini Gigante" and "Delucci Cannellini" both of which are long season white seeded runners. The plan for this year is to grow Bianco di Spagna as the only runner to avoid crosses. Some will be sown in peat pots for an early start. By the way, we are currently harvesting potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots and Brussels sprouts and our grass is green!