I tend to be very sceptical of 'miracle' products like Eleanor's fertilizer and Superthrive that use broad & vague rhetoric to tell you they do everything but cook a perfect 2-minute egg. If it worked like they want to believe it works, they would assuredly lay out the mechanism by which it works to satisfy the sceptics & even the cynics, thereby separating them from the ability to taint the manufacturers sweeping claims. It's sort of like the gritty mix or FP 9-3-6. I can recommend these products for container culture & make help you believe they will work because I can explain why and how they work in a way that leaves you feeling satisfied that your odds of seeing them as beneficial are very good. The many others adding their voices don't hurt, either. OTOH, we can see that it's difficult to sell heavy, peat-based soils when we look critically at them from the plant's perspective - or with the aim of optimizing growth and vitality. There will always be as few people who LOVE these heavy soils for whatever reason, but when it comes to convincing the masses that they truly ARE the best from the plant's perspective, the conversation usually finds them coming up short because of inherent issues that are very difficult to remedy. The same can be said of certain types of fertilizers. As a result, FloraNectar ensures optimal metabolic rates during the flowering and fruiting phase when nitrogen levels have been reduced. How can they make this claim? How can they 'ensure' anything optimal? FloraNectar fulfills the additional energy requirements of your plants throughout all phases of growth and during stressful times of transition. How? Plants' only source of energy comes from the sun & is stored in the sugars, starches, oils, and other bio-compounds they manufacture themselves .... When it comes to horticultural products, if it SEEMS too good to be true, there's a very strong likelihood it isn't. It doesn't bother me that some one else might be convinced of the product's value, but personally, I need a lot more convincing & something with a little more substance to sink my teeth into before I take the hook. ;-) AL

Hey Josh, I have been been using Pro-Tekt with my Foliage Pro all winter and i can say that my plants have definately been happier than in the past... When i take my rain water and place it in my watering cans, i add the Pro Tekt first to all of the water and then stir it in. (1/4 tsp per gallon) Then i go back and add my Foliage Pro to the water. I keep it upstairs and let it warm to room temperature and then water. The combination of the two will definately help your plants and im so happy to have found my Pro Tekt. My Hydroponics dealer had to order it for me. I still can't find or he wont (says he cant..) order it for me. He looked it up and says its not available. Hmm? I still order my Foliage Pro from Ebay. They have free shipping anyway. Have fun with your Pro Tekt!!! Hope you are feeling better!!! Happy Spring AL!!! Take Care, Laura

Rusty is right. JD dumped many small dealers and now you have to drive for parts. They don't follow the successful Walmart program of many little profits making a huge profit. Bad move in my mind. As a part time job, I service, on average, one machine every day of the year. 90% are Sears, or MTD. I really have to do almost no repair on the bodies, mostly routine stuff on the engines. I always loved my Wheelhorse 312A, non-Toro, but when I bought a used JD316, I have to honestly say that JD has it all over my Wheelhorse. Neither one has nickeled and dimed me, but my Eaton hydro pump did fail on the Horse after about 1000 hours. That set me back $800 for the part.

Along the same subjective taste theme, an extension researcher presented results of a single year trial in 11 heirloom varieties at the Mid-Atlantic Vegetable Conference in Hershey and they included 5 hybrid varieties in for comparison. Interestingly the 5 hybrids were all in the top eight for flavor. It could be that the public perception is changing. ***** It could be that the public perception is changing but I don't believe that at all. I think that study isn't worth much scrutiny b'c of the varieties that WERE chosen, aside from the sujectiveness of taste and all its variables. And If when I talked to a couple of folks associated with two places where both OP and hybrid seed is sold, I didn't get the impression that hybrids were outselling OP's. And yes, I do grow hybrids from time to time. Last Year Randy Gardner who bred the MT series sent me his three latest hybrids as a thank you for my sending him about 30 heirloom varieties that he wants to incorporate into his breeding programs. And he said that many hybridizers were now working with heirlooms to get some taste into the hybrids. And I think I mentioned above that David Francis at OSU is doing the same. Of the three he sent one is already out there, the other two were supposed to be available this year but aren't b'c of seed production failure in the Netherlands, and one of those I thought had outstanding performance and taste, the other one was excellent as well, and I didn't care for the third based on taste alone. Carolyn