hey you are a bit vague on the level of damage ... if completely gelatinous ... leave it all until it dries ... then lift it out of there.. dormant buds will trigger.. and in a few weeks it will reflush ... one year.. this happened twice.. and you are right.. the following year... they were smaller all around ... i speculate.. they used to too much stored energy ... and couldnt recover .... but they eventually did ... as the pips elongate.. the leaves are curled around each other ... and often the damage is just the outer most leaves ... and not complete.. to turn them into hosta jello .. lol ... again ... leave them be.. as even a partially damaged green leaf.. can photosynthesize .... if need be.. crack them open to allow the interior ones to unfurl ... in a few weeks.. as more leaves appear ... you can just yank off the worst looking ones ... to make the clump look better ... and you might be surprised.. in late june.. how few need to be removed.. to make the plant look a lot better ... the biggest mistake.. IMHO ... is to insist on 'fixing' it all too soon ... and making it worse .. by breaking or harming newly emerging leaves ... the worst year.. was when they got froze .. recovered.. and were pummeled by a mid june hail storm ... let them sort themselves out.. before you take action .. is the best advice i can give... ken

The powder I spoke of was layers of a greenish clay with centurys of limestone fines accumulations, part of the hardpan and often layered between limestone shelfrock. It has the color of wet Portland cement. I never went out to plant anywhing without a mattock and rock bar among my tools. Often they were needed to break through the shelfrock to get to the next layer of clay. It felt more like growing in pots that we've made out of the ground. Many plants prone to crown rot like azaeleas and heucheras had to be placed in raised beds. If they weren't raised just a little rain would fill the planting hole and never drain. Then of course most of what water that did come in the summer was run-off. Many unthinking people die every year from being washed off low-water bridges by flash flooding. As a youth during a vacation to Lake Norfork my sister and I took out horses for a ride only an hour after a gullywasher, where run-off on the dirt road had flowed like a river. Our ride was shortened because we were chocking on the road dust our horses kicked up. That's typical Ozarks. But when it gets rain it is beautiful. I miss it. Sandy, I really pray that you get some nice gravely needed rains. Not tornadic rotations but what is needed is a week of slow steady drizzle. Hopefully next year you will be able to post positive response regarding the long term effects on your hostas. Phil, in the Ozarks what weather one gets is greatly affected by the presence of water, like larger rivers and the Corps of Engineer reservoirs. The cooler air heavy with moisture seems to steer rain away as rain comes from wasrm moist air rising into the cooler upper air. Wrapped around me when I lived there were the huge reservoirs of Bull Shoals and Lake Norfork and the cold waters of the White and North Fork Rivers. It could be frustrating watching rain pass to the north and south while we baked. But I grew hostas and as all the forum remember Sandy had simply wonderful hosta gardens. She doesn't complain much but I haven't seen a pic of her gardens since the Springfield/Joplin (and Branson)MO. areas were tornado ravaged a couple of years ago. As I have already said, my heart goes out to all suffering the drought. Les

Dody, You can leave them in the cold frame if it stays above freezing all night with the lid closed. Tomatoes can freeze at temperatures of 32 degrees and lower, although it generally takes about 2 hours exposure, in my experience, to kill the plants back to the ground. Less than two hours exposure may damage them and set them back, but generally won't kill them unless frost also occurs. Frost is a different issue. Frost can damage plants and, if the conditions are right (or, maybe it would be more accurate to describe them as "wrong"), frost can form at 37 or 38 degrees. I've heard it can form at 39 degrees but haven't witnessed that personally. I have witnessed a killing frost at 37 or 38 degrees and see it here just about every year. So, always protect the tomato plants from the possibility of frost anytime temps are expected to go below 40 degrees. Having said all the above, I don't like to expose tomato plants to too much air temperature below 40 degrees. Once they are exposed to cold air temps, their growth will slow down and stall with the result being they'll often set fruit much later than they would have if never exposed to those cool temps. Currently my tomato plants are outside most of the day or all day (less time is spent outdoors on very windy days when the wind exceeds the upper 20s) and back inside either the garage (well-insulated) or sunporch at night. If the temperatures are expected to drop below 30 degrees, they come from the sunporch into the house, but I leave the big plants in the garage because it stays warmer. One thing to understand about tomato plants is that while some limited cold exposure early in their life is good for them, too much is not and will stunt them. Since my goal is to harvest tomatoes as early as possible (I usually harvest the first tomatoes from the early container-grown tomato plants in late April and from the in-ground plants in late May), I avoid letting them be exposed to any temperatures cold enough to make them stunt or stall. That's my personal preference because the earlier I harvest, the greater the overall harvest will be. If you don't mind a later harvest or less fruit per plant, you don't have to be extra-cautious about exposing the plants to cold temperatures as long as you protect them from freeze damage and frost damage. For anyone who's pretty new to raising tomatoes, you should know that hot temperatures shut down pollination and fertilization of the large tomatoes, with 'large' in this case being anything more than an oz. or two. Thus, it is advisable to get good early fruit set before the high temps begin negatively impacting pollenization and fertilization. The temperatures that impede pollination can vary but basically high temps 92 to 95 or higher will do the trick as will low temps above 72 or so. Having high humidity in combination with those temps is even worse. So, if prolonged exposure to cold temps stunts your plants or makes them stall, then by the time they get going again, they may not get good fruitset before the heat arrives. That's the main concern with too much cold exposure above and beyond the plants possibly freezing. Dawn

I have been using regular shop lights (fluorescent)to start seedlings for some years with good success; I observe certin rules gleaned from the wisdom and experiences of contributors to this and other forums both formal and non tech. 1. Use a good potting soil 2. Apply heat to the bottom for germination 3. Maintain proper moisture. 4. Using ordinary fluorescent lights, I expose seedlings to 14 hrs/per day with lamps as close to plant tops as possible. I also build reflectors from cardboard and foil on all sides of the seedling set-up. 5. Transplant when you have two sets of leaves AND the plants look heaalthy I transplant to a three inch pot. Type of pot is up to you. Many have had success with different containes. At this point it doesn't matter much.I use Neptunes Harvest here. 6. An area of recent research to look at is the temperature which best enhances seedling growth, future fruit set, plant health etc. Commercial growers are looking carefully at this and we home gardeners might invest some Feb. down time googling some of the work done up until now. My unheated cellar is between 60-65 in April when I start my matos and other veggies and seems to be just right according to the very tentative studies done up until now. Would love to find out if anyone finds further inf0. Sconticut