Last year was a poor year for my butterbeans, and my eggplant as well. Those of us in the North and Northeast had heavy rains in late May & early June which delayed planting, and there seemed to be some other factor at work... perhaps more cloudy days in early summer. There were many threads on GW last year regarding difficulty with eggplant... and since both eggplant & limas prefer similar conditions, perhaps the problems were at least partially climate-related. I don't know if Atlanta experienced those rains last year, but they could have been a factor... if they delayed planting. Did the butterbeans flower earlier, but not set pods? If so, excessive heat may have caused blossom drop. I also agree with Sandy, when someone talks of "beautiful plants" but no pods, the first thing I suspect is too much nitrogen present in the soil. Any combination of these (and other factors) may have caused the poor yield. Of course, this was also a new variety... perhaps it simply was not adapted to your conditions, or was weak by nature (like one large lima that I tried last year). Have I got you thoroughly confused yet? ;-) Hopefully something here will ring a bell.

Another thing to consider Janet is the vermiculite in a baggie method. Quite a few people have had faster germination results with that method with clematis seeds that take longer the conventional germination method. Just talked to Dana last night about it on the phone to get her specifics and she uses 1/4 cup of vermiculite in a sandwich baggie, adds a teaspoon and a half (correct me if I am wrong with this quantity Dana) of boiling water. Rolls the baggie around to distribute the water and allow it to cool. Add the seeds, keep them at room temp for two weeks out of direct light, put them in the fridge for two weeks, and then back out at room temp and you might start getting germinations in as little as two weeks. I started some addisonii seeds sort of this way on 7/22. I soaked the seeds overnight in water, removed the seed coat, and placed them in a baggie with some vermiculite and water (don't know the specific amounts of either--just eye balled it) and left them alone. Yesterday I noticed I had one germination on the seeds- seed coat still intact but a root protruding out the bottom of the seedcoat. I am going to try leaving them in the baggies until the cotyledon leaves emerge to see if that helps out the transplanting success. I know on Brian's website that he notes in one entry it took 440 days to get addisonii to germinate. We are not really comparing apples to apples here since I am noting germination by root development and he is probably indicating it by when the seedling emerges from the soil. However I have talked to several people who all have gotten much faster germination using this method versus the traditional method of sowing seeds in a potting mix in a pot. I for one would really like to know the scientific basis behind why it works so much faster via the vermiculite in a baggie method (being the science nerd that I am) but you can't argue with results.

Well we found that monsters mate would you believe clinging to the chain on the hanging basket, its no more too. Hey I think it is a very handsome caterpillar they all are. Alison... Bev sent me the seeds of the Hollyhock and told me to try them as she lives near the NSW/VIC border and it gets really hot there too. I planted the seeds last December three different colours came up, I popped the little seedlings into the garden bed in February, they struggled a bit then with the heat but finally started to grow as the weather cooled down. The caterpillars, beetles and these huge bugs stripped the tallest plant so it didn't flower at all but thankfully since the rain they have all gone, you are welcome to seed so you can try yourself if you want.Cheers...MM.

Agreed. Spinach is all leaf production, no fruiting or flowers so you need nitrogen. Some P and K surely won't hurt and may be beneficial to root growth. All micro-nutrients will come from good compost. Also check the label for your lawn fertilizer. In general lawn fertilizer will only contain N-P-K and no other micro-nutrients. As a general application fertilizer you want to have those micro-nutrients represented on the label too such as calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium and others.