mith, Not sarcastic at all... you said "regardless of what the Kohler tech says. I can only comment based on my experience, and that of others" and I submitted that the Kohler tech is in a position to observe a far larger sampling than your test and your experience. You dismissed, out of hand and in general, the specific instructions of a tech/engineer whose job it is to make accurate tech information available to the end users of its products. So, regardless of what you say I accept what the Kohler tech says... no offense. The manuals for the GT/LT/YT tractors I've owned had specific instructions to use FULL THROTTLE whenever an attachment or accessory was engaged. My GT has a Kohler Command CH18s and an oil temp gauge. I can leave it idling all day long and the temp gauge doesn't rise above the low limit peg. After 10 minutes mowing it is at the mid green zone, about 2/3 across the gauge. I wasn't commenting on welder/generators because this is the tractor forum, and this thread is about tractors, but now that you mention it, every generator I own or have owned gave me no choice but full throttle (as determined by the governor) or off. I am aware of generators than can, and do, vary their speed according to load but I have not owned one.

When we were kids we just wore bright colors. They didn't want the parents to be obligated for costumes. I'm talking about in school, not dance class. When I was in Mexico in college and taking dance classes, short skirts were in. That is below the knee but not floor length. And we wore them with plain peasant blouses. No embroidery. Just ribbons on the flounce. I think it was meant as anti-colonial, and to be less quaint. Even though the skirts flirt the same way as the long ones do, they could otherwise have just been stylish skirts of the time. I think I still have mine somewhere. One is turquoise with red and white ribbons and lace. The other is a black and white print with white ribbons. We did really really traditional for one show, and more interesting ones for the other, but it's the traditional ones I remember best. I knew Jesusita En Chihuahua from school but we did the bridge in Mexico. :) And we did the real version of Jarabe Tapatio instead of the one everyone everywhere learns in school. And La Culebra, which is one of my very favorites. And a showpiece to Guadalajara. I don't remember the more intricate, less trite ones though.

I never liked them .Too often they'd fall off. Did buy one again some time ago but the plastic was so soft it didn't work. Now with the gigantor cups from these places the ordinary cup holder is obsolete! I have a slide out one above the ash tray that works fine for cans, but the v-shaped coffee cups from drive thrus and 16 oz water bottles don't fit in them. My new van has a huge thing so the smaller stuff doesn't fit right. Cassette stereos, 8-tracks! There's some obsolete stuff now. Vent wing windows. I miss them. Rear windows that open, and open all the way! Flip out windows don't do it for me, except for a vent wing! A glove box that could fit something.

Kim, Research has shown that broccoli plants produce the best when they are put into the ground at roughly 3-5 weeks of age, at a time when they still are fairly small and have only 3 to 5 leaves. Broccoli held longer in containers (no matter the size of the container) and put into the ground when larger/older are more prone to bolt or to produce small heads. So, I start seeds Super Bowl weekend and aim to put the broccoli plants into the ground sometime in March. If the weather is cooperating, my plants are going into the ground when they are around 5 weeks old. I used to start them in early January when we first moved down here (I was operating on the timeline that worked for me in Ft Worth, which is about 80 miles south of where I now live) and that was too early. Once the plants were the right size, if I put them in the ground, then late cold weather in the low 20s inevitably set them back or made them bolt when April rolled around (even if the cold exposure was in Feb or Mar.). Broccoli is a biennial and, if exposed to temperatures in the low 20s for just a week, are much more likely to bolt. Essentially that week of temperatures in the low 20s tricks the plants into dormancy and then as soon as the temperatures warm up, the broccoli starts trying to produce seed and it bolts. That happens because a week of dormany-inducing cold temperatures trigger them to act like the biennials that they are. The broccoli doesn't bolt as soon as the temperatures warm up, because the plants are too small to produce seed, but something unseen has kicked in that makes them start preparing to produce seed as soon as they are large enough. Then, what happens? Your broccoli plants grow and are reaching a nice big size and start forming heads. You're dreaming of harvesting nice big broccoli heads in just a few weeks. What do you get? Small heads. Buttonheads. Then they bolt. Been there, done that, and it is why I don't start broccoli too early. Any other brassica is not as severely impacted---I can plant cabbage in early February and it never bolts, but if I put broccoli into the ground before the temperatures truly have stabilized and are staying far away from the low 20s, bolting is gonna happen. Keep in mind that the weather fluctuates from year to year and what works in one year doesn't mean it will work the next year. You have to learn to read the weather you have and plant accordingly. I plant based on what 17 years of gardening here has taught me and the biggest lesson our weather has taught me here is not to plant anything too early. You may learn different lessons there. I only know what works for me here, versus what used to work in Ft. Worth, one zone warmer, when I gardened there. Late winter last year was nearly perfect weather, but all the rain created different challenges from the usual temperature challenges. You know, it's always something. As far as a plastic tunnel, it depends on the size of the tunnel and how much sunshine you have. My greenhouse is just a hoophouse---PVC hoops and wood framing covered with 6 mm greenhouse plastic and 50% shade cloth to prevent overheating. In the winter time, on a day with full sun, if I fail to open the 2 doors and 4 vents in a timely manner, my greenhouse hits 140-145 degrees by 10 am. The greenhouse is 12' wide and 24' long. A smaller greenhouse would heat up even more quickly. Now, imagine how quickly a plastic low tunnel would heat up. I do not use plastic tunnels because I get tons of winter sun, particularly from February onward. I use heavy duty row cover rated to give 10 degrees of frost/freeze protection. The fabric breaths, but not as well as a more lightweight floating row cover only rated to give 2, 4 or 6-8 degrees of protection, so even underneath that 10-degree heavyweight row cover, if I don't leave a couple of feet between the top of the tomato plants and the bottom of the row cover, my plants roast, wilt and die. Guess how I know that? Persistent heat and sunlight in our climate are quite different in cold weather from the conditions faced by plants grown in low, plastic covered tunnels in zones 2, 3, 4 or 5. Before I bought and started using real row covers, I sometimes covered up my tomato plants with 4 or 6 mm plastic on very cold nights. It kept them from freezing by holding in the heat, as long as I got them covered in mid-afternoon when there still was heat to hold in. I could leave the plastic over them for days f it was cloudy, but if full-day sunshine returned, I had to get the plastic off those beds or the plants would roast. There's an art and a science to growing under plastic, and you kind of learn as you go because it will vary from one location to another and it will vary just as much as your weather varies from day to day. It is a lot easier to master the learning curve if you are at home all day like I am and can check the plants under the plastic to make sure they aren't cooking to death and wilting. That is something you cannot do if you are away at work all day. Plants grown under plastic need good air flow to prevent fungal diseases from developing. Also, pests flourish under plastic in all that warmth too, so for every bit of good you derive from using plastic, there can be undesired side effects too. Greenhouses, for examplel, are warm enough in most winters to keep a spider mite population alive. That's one argument for keeping a cool, not hot, greenhouse, if you don't want to be fighting spider mites in the greenhouse all winter long. Stockergal, If your container is big enough, you can grow anything you want in it. SunGold does almost as well in a large container (say, something the size of a molasses feed bucket or whiskey half-barrel) as in a small one. You cannot go wrong with SunGold. Juliet is a red grape tomato a lot of people like and it grows just fine in a large container. Cherry Falls is another one, and its plants don't get quite as big as some other varieties. Any variety that makes bite-sized fruit, whether they are round (cherry types), oval (grape types) or perhaps plum shaped (also called mini-Roma types by some folks) will produce great in a container. I also like a yellow grape one called Ildi. I see all of the above varieties in local stores in spring time. I grow tons of tomatoes and peppers in molasses feed tubs with drainage holes drilled in the bottom some years. If you set them up on a drip irrigation system with a timer it is the closest to work-free gardening you'll ever do. My friend, Fred, gives me the molasses feed tubs. After he saw how well tomatoes grew in them for me, he set up his own container area where he grows tomatoes. He has them on tables and a stone wall to raise them up high enough that he can tend to them without bending over, which considering his age (94) and health history of back trouble, is ideal for him. If you have only one plant in a container, it probably isn't work setting it up on a dripline unless you travel a lot in summer, but with multiple containers, it is well worth the time and effort. M Khan, You can buy hybrid seeds right off the seed racks in the stores. Most individual seed companies (and there are thousands) buy their seeds from the same small handful of seed wholesalers who grow huge amounts of seeds overseas. Are you in OK? I've already seen plenty of seed racks in stores in southcentral OK. Having said that, I buy a lot of seeds from Tomato Grower's Supply Company, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Victory Seeds. Dawn