Dorothy I sure enjoyed reading that one. could not wait to find out what came next...man I have not read that fast in a long while lol Thanks for the laugh Lucy

Oh Tony, I actually sat here and read this, laughing all the way. We need something to warm the soul during cold spells like the last few days. Sorry about your tomatoes, With enough seedlings in the stash, fortunately you can start over again. Get a nice hot toddy, and stay warm Irene

Hi daimonic, Are the 20 X 8 X 8 boxes youre talking about planting the peas in window box type boxes? 20" long by 8" wide and deep? Thats not going to be a lot of soil for planting something like peas in, but if you use a good quality mix, you may be able to do it. If you have Hyponex, I real seriously recommend you go out and buy something else. I had always heard that Hyponex was no good, but until I read your link, I never knew it has sedge peat in it. Thats pretty much equivalent to planting something in sludge. Since you dont have much space and wont be able to plant very much, you want to do everything you can to be sure what you can put in does well, and having good soil is the most important thing you can do to be successful. You should be able to buy good potting soils in large bags at any "real" garden center," and its usually not all that expensive. And youll be able to use it over and over, so its not like wasted money. I use Sunshine Mix for everything, which I buy by the bale at a garden center. A bale can last 2 to 3 years, and I think it cost something between $20 and $30. But a couple big bags should be plenty for you. Sunshine has all different kinds of mixes that they sell in bales, and Im not sure what they sell in bags, but Im sure whatever it is, its a good, basic mix that will work for pretty much anything. The reason you need a "good" mix is because roots need both water and oxygen. With a mix that has sedge peat in it, it will stay saturated, excluding the oxygen, and the roots will rot. A good mix, with a lot of Canadian sphagnum peat will hold the moisture, but allow excess water to drain off. Analogize it to a sponge! If you saturate it and lay it on the edge of something, the extra water will run out of it, but it will stay wet. Thats what you want your potting mix to do. I think you mentioned up above that you have the trays that go under your boxes. DONT use them. If theres water standing in them, the soil will also stay saturated. With such a small volume of soil, youll probably need to water them every, or at least every other day, but thats a completely different animal than keeping the "saucer" full of water. And the heat could definitely be a problem. Thats why I was suggesting putting them where theyd get the morning sun if you can. Afternoon sun is going to heat them up a lot more, and since the boxes are above ground and exposed to ambient temperatures, theyre already going to be warmer than something planted in the ground. Anything you can do to insulate the soil from the heat, or reflect the sun away from it will help some. Regarding the phosphorus, the easiest way to quickly add phosphorus is to use a "blossom booster" fertilizer. If youre not familiar with fertilizers, they all have an "analysis" on the package. Thats 3 numbers somewhere on the package that tell you how much of what nutrients are in that particular fertilizer. The middle number is the amount of phosphorus. Phosphorus is the stuff that promotes blooms, and, subsequently, fruit and seeds. Nitrogen is the stuff that promotes lots of green foliageandI can never remember exactly what good potash isbut it is!!! (Im sure some of the chemists around here will have something to add about potash!) Since potting mixes dont contain ANY fertilizer (unless you buy one that has some added), youll probably need to use something, and, as far as Im concerned, using a water soluble fertilizer is the easiest way to do it. So buy a small package of any "high middle number" fertilizer that you can dissolve inusually a gallon ofwater, and water the peas with it. I use 20-20-20 for everything! I like things simple! ;-) And for most of my life I used Peters brand, but then Peters was bought out by MiracleGro and (wonder of wonders) the quality deteriorated, so "Peter," who had sold his companyand his nameto MiracleGro, started to make his original product againthis time calling it Jacks! So now I buy Jacks! When it was Peters, he used to have different formulations, including a blossom booster, but Im not sure if Jacks does or notif you can find it, I recommend it. If you cant, get almost any brandexcept MiracleGro! MiracleGro falls pretty much into the same category as Hyponex in my opinion. I dont know that using this type of phosphorus would be anymore "effective" than bone meal, but its simple to use, and faster acting than bone meal. (As Steve says, you want it sooner than in the next decade!) Heres a blurb about fertilizer formulations I copied: What do the numbers really mean? The first thing to understand when selecting fertilizers is the chemical composition code labeled on the container. These numbers are almost always listed as a sequence of 3 numbers, such as 30-10-10, or 10-50-10. NITROGEN (N) - The first number in the sequence specifies the nitrogen content of the fertilizer. and is given as a percentage. Nitrogen promotes vegetative growth in plants. PHOSPHORUS (P) - The second number in the sequence specifys the phosphorus content of the fertilizer. Phosphorus promotes flowering. Fertilizers labeled with disproportionately high amounts of phosphorus are sometimes labeled as "bloom booster". SOLUBLE POTASH (K) - The third number in the chemical sequence referrs to % soluble potash, K2O, contained in the fertilizer. A fertilizer labeled as 30-10-10 would contain 30% nitrogen, 10% phosphate, and 10% soluble potash, and would generally be used during a plants active growth cycle. While a fertilizer labeled as 10-50-10, would contain 10% nitrogen, 50% phosphate, and 10% soluble potash, and would typically be used prior to and during a plants blooming season. How are your peas doing? Be sure you leave them outside, unprotected for a couple nights before you actually plant them into the boxes. Have fun, Skybird P.S. Stop apologizing for asking questions! Thats what RMG is here for! :-)

Great story Jem! My dad was a rice farmer for many years and he really encountered a lot of snakes out in the fields especially during the times when they had to flood the rice fields. He also had the pump station that would pump the water from the bayou near by into his fields. The screen down in the water inlet would get stopped up and he would have to dive down in the muddy water and reach down in there and pull out what ever was blocking the inlet screen. He never knew what he would be grabbing! Could be a water moccasin or cotton mouth, a snapping turtle, a big fish or just a wad of water lilies. Thank goodness he never once was bitten doing that. He had several venomous snakes bite and stick into his big heavy boots. Walking around in the fields in water was a dangerous job. He would come home often with something in his shirt pocket for me. A little turtle quite often. I had an aquarium with a collection of the little turtles he would bring to me. I would keep them for a while and then return them to the fields when they were a little bigger. The life of a farmer is a very difficult life in so many way!