heaven- do you have the ability to take your plants outside for a month or so during the fall to get chill hours. if yes, i would strongly recommend a mauritius lychee plant (my fave fruit). if limited strictly to non chill plants, u may want to consider jaboticaba- a delicious grape like fruit, that i am growing. my warm weather collection includes guava, lychee, jaboticaba, fairchild mango, 3 diff lychees, and 5 citrus. do you have any pics of your plant set up- would love to see. you should def post this question on the tropical fruit forum- you will get a much better response. Here is a link that might be useful: tropical fruit forum link

My opinion only...... I've got an American Harvest with 4 racks. It's plenty for me. I can buy more racks if I want to add to it (they just sit on top of each other). My budget won't allow me to go spend $100+ on a dryer when this one works just fine. I probably run it 20-30 days a year. If you plan to do really large quantities, it's going to be a different story. I'm only preserving for 2 people (plus some for grown kids and gifts). New or used?? I would think if you can find one used and can make sure it works and is clean, it saves some bucks. I guess, if I was just getting started, I'd stay with the lower end and see if I really wanted to stick with it. You can always upgrade later. Luckily, it's not a complicated piece of equipment. Deanna

I attempted to post a follow-up yesterday but it looks like it didn't make it. Yes, I am a ding dong. After reading jerkymom's post I remembered that i HAD planted some Sugar Baby watermelon, but when I saw those light-green jagged leaves on the seedlings back in April I was sure that they were weeds and pulled them out, except this one. I always thought that melon seedlings had two rounded, dark green leaves. I should have been suspicious when it started catching powdery mildew. Oh well....that one watermelon was good; we'll get more next year. Thanks for the help; otherwise I might still be thinking that watermelons grow wild.

Try crisscrossing twine from one side of the cage to the other. Make three or four crossings on each level near the stem. Do not use the thin string for kites, but use the twine you find at the hardware store. Try to put the string below a collection of fruit. I use this technique for my peppers and it works well. You do not have to pull the string super tight just tight enough to help support the plants. This will allow for a little movement as the plant grows. If you find that the string is beginning to impact the fruit or some branches, simply cut the twine and replace it in a differetn loction. Next year put one of those 3'tall bamboo poles alongside each new seedling. Make sure it is one of the stronger poles that are about 3/4" in diameter. As the plant grows you can use some green gardeners tape to tie it to the pole using a loose loop. If you put the bamboo pole in when you transplant you will not have to worry about damaging the roots. Hope this helps Tom