Now get yourself a fertilizer injector and you will have great looking plants. If you extend the system you can set up zones. Then you can get a digital timer that can handle the zones. After that, start looking at soil wetness meters to feedback turn on and turn off times. It can get pretty expensive. The injectors are really quite nice, especially if you have alot of area to cover. Fertilize to a base level and add more to the heavy feeders.

I agree with lboise that the hysteria over the criticism that an oven doesn't have a telescoping rack are getting a bit well, hysterical. A telescoping rack is hardly in the realm of automatic squeezers, basters and whatever else. James, has a point that telescoping racks have their limits of appeal too, and that it is hardly unfair that a vendor doesn't offer this feature. However, momotom has perhaps valid reasons to be disgruntled and James' and antss' reasons for dismissing that she might find it useful are fairly preposterous. That said, here's my reckoning on it. I dont' have a miele oven but I do have an oven with a (one) telescoping rack at the very bottom. - 6.5 times out of 10, it makes no difference to me whether my oven has a telescoping rack or not. Either coz I'm not using that rack or that there is nothing unique about the pan I'm using that makes me appreciate the telescoping vs. the not esp since I want to get into and out of a hot oven asap. - 1 times out of 10, it is a bit of a nuisance with the extra sliding paraphernalia which is certainly a slightly bigger deal to remove than a plain and simple rack which slides right out. At those times, I'm very grateful that only the bottommost rack is this telescoping affair and not the other racks because I seldom need to "move" the bottom rack out of the way (since the bottommost rack is never really in the way of a cooking process) but I often need to move the other racks. - 1.5 times out of 10, I'm glad of it - either because I've got something heavy and slippery going in and out of the oven or I'm cooking something delicate in a water bath and boy is it ever handy to have the ever so smooth rack slide all the way out so I can access said item to remove it with no sloshing or no stiction/friction to contend with with a heavy pan on the rack which comes out 3/4 of the way. - Another 1 out of 10 times, I wish I could have the telescoping rack on at least the second rack too coz most ovens and most recipes want you to cook at the center of the oven rather than the bottom most rack. But then again, see 2. Terribly scientifically loggged as you can see. ;-) So, on the whole I'm glad my oven has a telescoping rack. BUT it is nothing that would be a make or break deal for me. But that's just me. Lastly, antss, while I many many times find that your observations are particularly sound and logical, this last post is more mind-bogglingly servile and genuflecting of the vendor than any company needs or should expects. A consumer hardly needs to make it their business to ensure that a proprietor not be troubled or disturbed with a recommendation. (1) If Miele receives a groundswell of mail of any kind, smart money would bet that they (a) would be pleased out of their gourds that they have engendered that much enthusiasm and (b) would make haste to address the complaint. (2)HOW could Miele or ANY company "know what the marketplace wants" if said marketplace is not to send them the corresp.???? This makes no sense. On the latter, sometimes people here forget that while Miele makes good products, that it isn't a charitable venture - this is NOT run out of the Vatican, folks. It is a profit making enterprise. Their motives are the same as any other company - to maximize return on their investments. James and antss etc. might feel that they, and by extension anyone else, must need only what Miele already provides because Miele has effectively told 'em so, but I can assure you that "the marketplace" is not so easily condescended to. I love my Miele gizmos and appliances but, believe me, I've got a list of what is good and what is not so good about them on each of 'em. It's not about freedom of speech, it's independence of thought. & yes, I recognize that you are not obliged to have that either. lboise, I wouldn't admit that on a public forum. :-)

P.S. Google "gardenerguidezonemap" (all one word, minus quotation marks), for an explanation of ALL U.S. zone maps, and the necessity for their creation. There is a "Heat Zone Map", (officially named American Horticultural Society Plant Heat Zone Map) commonly used (by growers) in the U.S., that notes the average number of days, annually, for a given region, when the temperature exceeds 86 degrees (F), or 30 degrees (C). This is an important consideration for growers/suppliers in the U.S., also: Example: I'm in USDA zone 7, Maryland, the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. If our highest (Summer) temperature here exceeds 90 degrees (F), 32 degrees (C), for more than 5 days, it's termed a "heat wave". I have a grower friend in Arizona, 3,000 kilometers West of Maryland, smack dab in the middle of the desert, also in USDA zone 7. It is not unusual for his highest (Summer) temperatures to reach 120 degrees (F), 49 degrees (C)! Obviously, though many plants can tolerate our lowest (USDA zone 7) temperatures, few can tolerate his highest temperatures. I wonder how many plants in the U.K. could tolerate 49 degrees (C)? By the way, for those who have not experienced 49 degree (C) heat, or been in the "desert", I am reminded of my first excursion there, many years ago, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I took a Summer day-trip into an area to photograph Jack Rabbits (a large hare, nearly a meter in length, which, at the time, I had never seen). I was duly warned by locals to be extremely careful, not to remain for an extended period, and not to wander from sight of my vehicle (for fear of becoming disoriented, and lost). I listened, but disregarded the advice--and later, became somewhat disoriented and (temporarily) lost, when I lost sight of my vehicle. I was a smoker, at the time, and remember my cigarettes snapping like twigs, when the 49 degree (C) heat removed all moisture from the tobacco, and the cigarettes became as brittle as dried twigs. My tongue swelled to nearly twice its size when all saliva left my mouth, and I found it difficult to talk. I believe the extreme heat was the cause for my disorientation--that, and the fact that the landscape looks completely the same, North, East, South and West, and if one loses sight of a particular landmark (like a vehicle), one has no idea from which direction one came. The only plant life I remember were knee-to-waist-high shrubs that we call "tumbleweeds" (once they're dislodged from their roots and proceed to tumble across the desert floor). "Mirages" abounded--strange visions, caused by extreme heat. The only wildlife I saw were Jack Rabbits, Coyotes, and Sage Grouse, all of which I flushed in my wandering (searching for my vehicle, that I had lost sight of); I thank the Lord that I didn't stumble upon any Rattlesnakes--always a clear and present danger in the desert Southwest. Where desert dwellers find water to drink, I have no idea; I saw none.

Hi Rick I know this is an old thread but I've facebooked messaged Dino a few days ago and haven't heard anything back yet, his Facebook looks like he hasn't been on it in a while..so you maybe you might know another way to get ahold of him? Or you can even give him my email.. sarasgreenthumb@gmail.com, I hope he's still selling those gorgeous trees I've been seeing all over this thread lol including your beauty's.. how they looking btw? P.s id like to buy a FEW big guys from him CUZ lol I'm addicted and admitting it ;)...Thanks for even reading this as I know I must be a bug with all the questions I ask you and going through all the old threads lol, thanks for the abundance of knowledge Rick. Sara