"It looks like you switched to the Dyna grow 9-3-6 last year. Do you still use CRF in your soil mix if you are still using this fert?" Actually, I rarely use the CRFs at all. I like the near complete control the soluble fertilizers give me in containers. I'm pretty diligent about fertilizer applications, so I really don't need the CRFs to cover the 'in case I forget' base, or for any minor elements they might supply. I included them in the soil recipes to make it easier for others. As long as you're faithful to your nutrient supplementation program, you can easily do w.o them. If you think you'll be lax at times, I'd include them. 109 ppm alkalinity is nothing to be overly concerned about with fast container soils. It would be interesting to learn how the Ca and Mg levels are though. Alkalinity is related to pH because alkalinity (practically speaking and for our applications) determines your water's resistance to pH changes. If you have water 'A' at a pH of 9.0 with an alkalinity of 75 mg/L CaCO3, and water 'B', with a pH of 8.0 (a full point lower to begin with) and alkalinity of 300 mg/L CaCO3, it will take about 4 times as much 35% H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) to bring the water with the lower pH down to That aside - your water is better than mine, so I really doubt you'll have Fe/Mn issues if you're using either the 9-3-6 or MG. I will say though, that bark/peat soils have a potentially high Fe:Mn ratio, so applying Fe w/o Mn could easily create a deficiency of Mn. If I were in your shoes, I would do nothing until I actually saw evidence of an Fe deficiency. Then, I would acidify. Oh - the other likely cause of an Fe deficiency is too much P, which combines with the Fe to form an insoluble precipitate, so avoid the high P fertilizers - they are useless unless you are using them to supply the exact amount of P needed while intentionally (severely) limiting N. I used this strategy last year: I fertilized with regular dosages of 9-3-6 until the plants were well established. I then cut way back on the dosage and added ProTeKt to the solution. I rather like to envision that I used the added K (and got the benefit of the added silicon) to change the fertilizer ratio to 3:1:3 from a 3:1:2. This allowed me to reduce the dosage of N (reducing vegetative growth) while still having adequate P and K. Take care. Al

Controlling thrip infestation: Several naturally occurring enemies feed on thrips. To avoid killing these beneficial insects, which naturally reduce thrips populations, insecticides should be avoided. High nitrate levels invite thrips. One should always be cautious about over fertilizing crops during the growing season. Also, the choice of cover crops can affect the amount of overwintering thrips. Oats rather than wheat or rye is a better choice for cover crop in order to control thrips. Natural occuring fungal diseases can devastate thrip populations. This is another reason that the use of insecticides would be counter productive. Natural occuring mechanisms are always a better means in the long run. Also, a lack of soil calcium may invite thrip populations. Mark a date on your calendar, and, have your soil tested yearly. "Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control" is very good a publication worth reading. A large greenhouse grower in The Netherlands found that garlic plants are an effective way to repel thrips. He uses garlic planted in the greenhouse. As owners of a small family farm, we are always mindful that we must be good stewards of this land that provides us with a bountiful crop each season. This is the least we can do in return for the opportunity and wonderful life we have been afforded living on the farm. Trish

Messenger & MSN browser have check marks .. so they are installed. You sort of did things backwards. Just browse and expand that list and put a check mark next to your Games & they'll come back. As you notice more things that don't work.. browse that again and add checkmarks. Usually nothing in there is required - all sort of optional stuff that is enabled when it does have a check mark to the item wanted. So uncheck your messenger and MSN browser & they'll go away & use a few less memory and cpu resources and save a few drive bytes.

Kateskouros, I think I've got a list somewhere that has them all. However, eventually it turned out that as I finessed my ad blocking system that I was missing a bunch of them so could no longer keep track. BUT the ones I could see? I never remember who they are until I see their name somewhere else. For the rest of my life I won't be able to tell you who had the most annoying GW ad... but for that same life every time someone mentions AngiesList I'll think OMG that was the most annoying ad. Somewhat like the groupon superbowl ads...