Hydroponica: I remember making buffered solutions in chemistry lab back in college. You are totally right about that process, except that while the solution is still liquid, the extra water molecules will also(still) be broken up into their ions, as well. Try this...take just a water solution and add a drop of pH up or down and measure the pH before and after. Then, starting from a fresh batch of water, add equal amounts of up and down, and remeasure the pH to make sure its the same as when you started. Then add the same amount of pH up or down as the first bucket, and you'll see that it didn't move the pH as much as the first time around. As long as everything is dissolved in water, all the acids and bases are still broken up into their component ions. And if you are adding more positive and negative ions in equal amounts, then it will take larger amounts of offsetting ions (say, from plant feeding) to swing the pH around. Say you have 1 mole each positive and negative ions in a bucket of water. If you add or subtract 1/2 a mole of either, you'll get a large swing in pH. OTOH, if you have the same bucket of water with enough pH up and pH down in it to have 10 moles of positive and negative ions in equal amounts, then the same 1/2 mole swing only swings the pH level 5% of the original swing maybe 10%...I'm too lazy to get the calculator out). Of course, I'm just starting out so I haven't had a chance to try this outside the lab, yet. Buffering the nutrient solution will work chemically, but I'm not sure what affect it will have on real plants.

I have two Canon Printer/scanners. Both Pixma models (approx $120.00). They came with OmniPage SE free. This is an optical scanning software which is so easy to use. I use this heavily in my work (medical insurance). It scans documents into Word, where you can edit. Or you can edit right in the software itself. I love this software. I believe it comes with every Canon Printer/scanner. Jane

I do appreciate your reply. My absence from home delayed seeing it. I have Windows XP Pro. The EPSON SCAN feature worked fine for a few days and now will not open. I get the little window advising that I can use the troubleshooting guide if I wish. It does not help. I can go to Control Panel, Cameras And Scanners and use my scanner that way. But that way lacks some of the versatility of EPSON SCAN. So the problem must be in some software issue. I have uninstalled and reinstalled more than 3 times, no help. I got the newer version online from Epson, no help. I am even considering buying another computer for scanner use only, adding nothing to it except the scanner software, never using it online, so that software conflicts will not arise. Please post your suggestions. I again might be away for a few days.

I found a way to get my old scanner to work with Vista but it didn't work right when I first tried it. Decided not to mess with it anymore. I got my XP notebook going and it was fine so I just used that when I had to scan. Then bought the 7 notebook and found a 3in1 on clearance and figured or $39 it wasn't messing with the old one. This works, and I have an inkjet if I should need one occasionally. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle. Older units often don't work with the new OSs and I can't expect them to make them work. Plus my 7 unit is 64 bit so that throws another monkey wrench into things. And I had just gotten faxing to work on the Vista unit. The XP unit's drive died so I had to replace it. Missed not having fax capability. I still do some faxing on occasion. Computers can be frustrating and become quite the crutch too!