Don't spray for curculio now, not until petal fall. Lots of people here use Spectracide "Once and Done" Triazicide.

Carol, You're welcome. Gary has a wonderful assortment of plants, and if I lived anywhere near Tulsa, I'd visit the Farmer's Market and other places where he sells plants so often he'd probably think I was stalking him. I've been outside mowing up leaves this morning, collecting them in the grass catcher, and then dumping them into black lawn-and-leaf bags. It takes a lot of lawnmower grasscatcher bags full of mown leaves to fill up one big lawn and leaf bag. I hope to fill up 150 of those bags in the coming weeks so I'll have oodles to dump onto the garden beds. The wind is blowing hard and bringing down lots of leaves this week, so I should get a few bags done this week, but it is still warm enough during the day that I have to watch for snakes. My most recent snake sighting was a little skinny non-venomous snake in the garden on Monday. Even after the first few freezes, the ground is still pretty warm and the snakes come out on warm days. I usually don't see any snakes after December 1st though. My plan is to mow leaves all day, taking periodic rest breaks which double as housework breaks---so I can come inside from mowing leaves, sit down and rest a minute while I drink something cold, and then do laundry or vacuum or whatever before going back outside. I can get a lot done when I alternate back and forth because it keeps me from getting too bored. If I tried to mow leaves all day without a break, I'd get bored and just stop. I noticed a few onions in the garden today. Guess I missed a couple when I harvested, so I'll have to dig in the soil around them and see what I've got. With all the wind blowing and the grasses dormant and dry, I've been somewhat concerned about the prospects of grassfires, but so far it's been pretty quiet with only a couple of them lately. In the meantime, I'm a leaf-mowing maniac.

I think you maybe reading too much into the linked article. They are offering you general guidelines, not any absolutes. So just to be clear I am not saying it isn't in soil, it is. It is all soil. I am saying that it isn't ONLY in the soil. It is also in the air and on surfaces all around you. Soil-less potting mix starts out at the factory as sterile. (Bales of peat do not.) During transport, storage, and once you open the bag it is no longer sterile. The extension offices are quite right in saying start out with a sterile soil-less mix. That improves your odds. But they are not saying that you still can't get damp-off even when you do. That is an important distinction. What I am trying to tell you is the fungus spores, just like all other fungus is in the air all around us. The only way you could prevent the fungus from coming in contact with your plants is by doing the whole process in a vacuum. You can't so there is no need to dump out mixes because the new you get will quickly also be contaminated. But it isn't the inactive floating-around fungus spores in the soil or in the air or on the container that do the damage. They just lie there, dormant, unless they are given the conditions they need to go active, to grow and replicate and produce the toxins that do the damage. Deny any fungus spore acidic pH, humidity, excess moisture, and expose it to good air circulation and it remains dormant and eventually dies. <Knowing that my plants are going to start off under the lights, would you recommend switching back to my smaller 72-count cells, or should my 50-counts work equally well as long as I go more by the weight and not soil appearance to judge dryness?> I don't think it makes any difference. We start all our plants in the greenhouses in bulk flats and then transplant to 6 packs or other larger containers depending on planned sale form. Many times I have started 20-30 tomato seeds in each cell of a 4 pack when I'm only germinating a small number of the variety. That way I can get 100-200 plants going in a small space. But as long as I use a soil-less potting mix that is pH balanced, keep good air circulation going, and limit the water there are no problems. Dave

Kim, Prayers for fast healing for you. Bon, Where would we be without our beloved OK Mesonet? It has all the most helpful info in so many different formats. I just love it. I'm glad Bill made it home in time to chop wood. Hopefully that wood will keep the stove fed and keep you all toasty warm. Maybe you coulda/woulda/shoulda been chopping wood, but we know that it wouldn't feed your soul the way that gardening does, so we totally get it. Your wind chill was bad and it was bad so much earlier than ours. The cold front didn't make it this far south until tonight, but we're plenty chilly now. Megan, If you need some time to just chill, then allow yourself to do that. I think when our bodies are telling us what it needs, we need to listen. With a three day weekend, you should have adequate time for chilling and seed starting. Enjoy your holiday weekend. dbarron, Maybe the cat and dog were just playing and neither is too much of a fraidy cat? I'm glad you got the car into the garage so you won't have to chisel ice off the windshield later. The plants don't seem as bothered by the cold as we do. I guess that's because they are out in it 24/7 and are somewhat better adapted to it perhaps. Rebecca, I hope the procedure went well and that you and your mom made it home just fine. Y'all, the models look like somebody is going to get some snow next week, but I do not necessarily think it will hit many of us unless something changes. We have an unexpected, last-minute bonus weekend with the older granddaughter this week as her dad is unavailable for his weekend with her. Well, his loss is our gain and we're going to enjoy having her here with us, though she might climb the walls a little bit without her little sis around to play with. Of course, we can do things we don't do when little sis is here, like maybe go to a more mature movie (something not G-rated) or to a restaurant that little sis doesn't like. Tomorrow will be just her day and she's already voiced her opinion on where we should eat lunch. : ) Before they called to see if she could come stay with us, I had thought I might do a little plant shopping or something tomorrow but I think instead we'll do something she'll enjoy. It still is pretty chilly to be buying plants, especially since the cold weather doesn't want to go away. I'm ready to do some gardening, but the weather isn't really right for it yet, especially with the persistently soggy soil. Dawn