LOL Pam, I'm glad I'm not the only one! How ever in the world I got on their list I will never know. At first I thought it was funny only because it was an example of "it takes all kinds . . . " but now I find it incredulous, along with all the others. Wish I knew how to stop those, since they use spam machines to generate nonsense e-mail addresses that I can't block since they use a new one each time.

Mine go like this: 1) Decrease shopping at Target, and when I have to go, only go to the diapers, formula, milk aisles 2) Save more money, and stop wasting it on frivolous stuff. My goal for the year is to triple my savings account. 3) Lose weight- I know it is cliche to say this at New Years, but I've got to get rid of the baby weight from baby #2, I was half way there when I found out I was pregnant with baby #3, and now he's 6 months old, I need to stop making excuses because this is not a healthy weight for me and I feel it. 4) Be more patient with my children. I love them to pieces, but sometimes I lose my patience after hearing mommy, mommy! for the 9,000th time in a day 5) Go to Italy to visit our extended family. DH's Nonna will not be on this earth much longer, and we want her to meet her great grandson. This resolution also includes, conquer my fear of flying and dying in a plane crash. 6) And my final, is to have more sex. I read somewhere last year about a bunch of people that committed to doing it every day and it did wonders for them, An added benefit is it will burn more calories, and it keeps DH happier, and keeps us closer. I am not telling him this, I'm just gong to do it. Sorry it's so long, I've probably bored all of you.

Yes, people, it's another long post. It's a complex subject. Deal with it and if you have an opinion, I'll print it out and stick it in the pocket next to my heart. As for the rest of you, you know where you can stick it. :-) Unfortunately, they always seem to know it's winter. :-) But that should help! "Then I made up a cocktail of southern ag citrus nutritional spray, and bayer 3 in 1." I'm not sure about how edibles (if you eat the produce off that tree) have to be handled post-spraying and for how long, but I'd check on that. For mild outbreaks caught early in the future, I'll avoid recommending a bit of soap because, although it works perfectly, the screaming will start again and while I'm armored and don't care, I'm sure you would rather it didn't. But in the interest of not recommending 1/2 tsp of soap in 1 gallon of water, spray, let sit for 5 minutes, then rinse off in the shower, which you'll note I did not recommend, but will kill adult mites. Iron tone is another organic fertilizer. Again, I'm not going to take you to task for this. By the time any of the major issues above (and they do play a factor) are a problem, you're going to need to repot the durned trees anyway--which you should be doing. I find the arguments spurious at best. But even I don't recommend more than 20% of fertilizer as solid organics, and it does seem like you're going past it (too much absolutely will clog the soil's ability to naturally drain itself and it does need time to decay appropriately--this takes longer for potted plants). Most of the...uh, esteemed opponents...above ignore the 10-20% recommendation and seem to think I'm advocating pouring it on by the kiloton. I'm not. Save the rest for outside. In the future, I'd recommend ferrous sulfate heptahydrate, which will both acidify the soil a bit AND add iron. Miracid's fine, but don't overuse it. Citrus trees prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0 and Miracid will push your pH below that. I'd say get Miracle Gro or any of the recommended brands above...or really anything else with micros in it. Honestly? They're all about the same and they all completely dissolve in agitated water. These days, it's even easy to DIY your own if you want to! It's possible to correct pH...but easier just to repot the tree. Iron accessibility is just fine at a pH of 6 to 7. (Forget most pH home tests, they're awful, and the few that are "good" have variances of 0.2 to 0.3, which is...tolerable...and still tell you absolutely nothing about how to fix the problem if there is a problem. Do you add Ca, Mg, K, dispel Na? The test is silent on these points, but if you're using it to tell you if you need to repot, that would be acceptable). Yep, sorry for the information dump, but that pretty much covers it. I'm sure somebody will complain about it somewhere since they already did... :-)

I resisted going on Facebook. I am now a member of it. It's nice to see pictures of hosta and the different gardens and ideas that people have. I don't like the format though and having to keep clicking on other comments. I much prefer this forum. I agree with Beverly that there is so much incorrect information on Facebook from the members. For example, when a poster asks about overwintering pots, there are a number of different responses. One response, for example is: "I just leave them where they are. I've done that for years and have no problem whatsoever. They all come back." No mention is made of the size of the pots nor the gardening zone nor the potting media. People on Facebook can be all over the world and yet many of them do not mention their zone or location. So, overall, I find Facebook entertaining, but frustrating. I tend to rely on information provided by those members who I know are experienced at hosta growing. The problem is that I don't know of many of those named members. So I can't rely on many of the comments I read or receive.