Hi folks! Since you're on the east coast, another vendor that I have used and gotten very respectable trees is McKenzie Farms. This is my second year with citrus and I decided to buy some from here due to positive reviews on the citrus growers f o r u m. Shipping was very reasonable, well packaged and the trees were very nice. I got a 1 Gallon Meyer Lemon, Eureka Lemon, Key Lime, Kaffir Lime and a 3 gallon Moro. The 1G trees were about 12" tall. The 3G Moro was fantastic, about 4-5 feet tall and still had 4 small green oranges on it. The 1G trees were $20 and the 3G was $40. I repotted all into a 511 mix. I had used CHC+Peat last year, but decided that it dried out too fast inside over winter. I'll post a picture when I get home. Here is a link that might be useful: McKenzie Farms

I am just using a 20" light from an old aquarium, it was a spur of the momment thing. I also took a cardboard box and lined it with aluminum foil to reflect the light, not sure if it helps of not. I am going to do some more research and build something better for next time but for now it seems to be works well. I ordered them from amazon.com from a seller called Hirt Garden. The sent them with a hand warmer type thing, and the box was still warm when I got it. I would definately order from them again. There were four plants, but I seen I needed to seperate them to get a better yield and picked the alpha plant to isolate. Here is a link that might be useful: Hirt Thai Hot Chilis

I too am new to all this and struggling to learn what needs to be learned for this to work. My biggest challenge is that some of my plants don't look good (I'd say 6-8 of my 28 are in some level of disrepair or desperation), and I *know* they don't look good, but I don't have the ability yet to look at a plant and based on its condition say "Ah, yes, bugs." or "Needs fertilizer" or "too much water" or "too little water". Man, it'd be so great if there was one site with pics of each problematic condition a pepper could have. I had aphid infestation, and I got rid of those, but then it rained every day for a month, and the damage looks similar...LOL Anyway, like you I was getting lost and overwhelmed by the whole fertilizer thing. Then a guy who works at a very successful and major nursery here (DeBaggios) said, just use TomatoTone, period. at transplant time and then once every three weeks, another tablespoon full in a circle around each plant. Seems pretty easy. I guess we'll find out if it works.

Have never planted much but I LOVE gardening so I figured I'd be over zealous this year and started some veggie seeds inside. I live in zone 5b (southern WI) and have some concerns I was hoping to get feedback on. I just planted my red cherry tomatoes on the 17th. The seed packet says they should sprout in 7-15 days... well it's 5 days later and they have all come up. They look skinny and the stems are long.. like almost 3 inches with the cotyledons at the top. This doesn't look like any of the pictures I've seen so I think I've done something wrong :( I used a seed starter mix soil blend and they are in containers with a plastic dome on top. At the plant store they told me that tomatoes like "warm" and to use a heating pad... so I did. I bought a "germinating heating pad." Since I've never done this before, I asked a ton of questions and was advised to not water them with tons of water but to spritz them with water- which I do once a day. I'm not sure if what is happening is okay, or if something is going terribly wrong. Am I over-watering them? Are they not getting enough light? (they're in a window) Is the heating pad causing this? Should I take the plastic domes off? Do I need to start over? HELP!!! I am determined and motivated to make this work :)