Tom, What is your average emitter flow rate and and head loss. This translates to each emitter will take a portion of your 5 gpm flow rate total and each emitter will rob your system of some its pressure. For example if you use 10 gph emitters that equates to using 0.17 gpm. You only have 80% of the flow available( 4 gpm) so that allows you have 23 emitters on your system per zone. To water 70 plants, you need 3 zones. Time to irrigate every 3rd day with a hundred gallons. 23 emitters @ 0.17 gpm per emitter equals 4 gpm per zone. Divide 100 gallons needed for plans by 4 gpm. It would take 25 minutes per zone or 1 hour and 15 minutes for all three zones. This only an example and not what you actually would do or actually how long it takes. Increase emitter delivery rate decreases time. Pressure loss is also an important limiting factor in designing zone sizes. It may override the flow rate in designing the system if the pressure is low enough to start with. 56 psi is a good level to have and about average for systems. If each emitter loses about 0.5 psi then your system is can only support 90 emitters per zone (56 psi x 0.8 efficiency)/0.5 psi~90 emitters. How much total water does your 70 plants need when mature per week? Hope this helps. Others please check my logic and math. Aloha

I'm entering this discussion pretty late, having just got back into town and onto the computer. As a mechanical engineer I can certainly claim no special knowledge regarding the laws of genetics: frankly, I do not comprehend them. However, I do have over 50 years experience growing tomatoes, make notes regarding performance of varieties and the response to various experiments over the years, and so feel qualified to offer my own experience, not as proven "law or science", but rather as a relevant observation or opinion. So here are some of my opinions regarding tomato genetics: 1. Will every tomato taken from a single plant yield seed true to the plants variety?-----NO!!!!!!! All blossoms may be capable of self pollination but there is a heck of a lot more multicultural fertilization going on out there in the garden than many believe in, particularly on warm summer nights--just shine a flashlight into the garden and see. How else can I account for the many crosses I have experienced over the years in spite of extreme care in seed saving and labeling tecniques. 2. Will all seeds from a single tomato be consistant in the plant and fruits they produce? NO!!!!! Over the years I have done more than a dozen grow outs comparing one variety of tomatoes to another. This was done by planting rows of seed I had saved against other adjacent rows of either commercial sourced or saved seed of an alternate variety or strain. All my saved seed comes from one tomato, the only exceptions being certain paste or plum varieties which yield extremely limited amounts of seed. Yes, I am aware of contrary recommendations, but this is what I do. Typically my comparitive rows would have in them 6 to 8 plants. All these tests showed minor variation plant to plant in vigor, fruit set and size, desease tolerance, and days to first fruit. More variation than I could ever imagine could be charged to lack of soil consistancy, and certainly enviromental variation was not involved. But here is the key fact: Every now and then one of those plants in a test row would vary extremely from all its siblings--could be very good or could be a very bad variation. One variation even produced bicolor fruits! So, in summary, my experiences contradict some parts of genetic science others have presented. Maybe if the Good Lord will give me another fifty years I can get this matter down pat and straightened out!

I just picked up a generous set of Vollrath HG-Pro cookware at the Seattle Home Show for $429. After the demonstration and talking to the rep for a bit, I was willing to give non-stick a try again. I have been using a few pieces of fully anodized Caphalon for years. In my book, the permanent "stick resistance" of anodized is better than the "non-stick for awhile" I've experienced in the past (I have one Caphalon non-stick that has degraded in performance over the years, even after cleaning per Caphalon recommendations. I may send it in). I cooked up my usual 4 whites + 1 yolk omelet this morning on the new pan, sans oil (except for initial seasoning), and almost spilled the finished omelet on the floor when I lifted the pan off the burner. I was not prepared for the eggs to slide around unprovoked like that. If this kind of non-stick performance lasts, then I'll be very pleased. The Vollrath pans are lighter than my Caphalon. They heat faster, and about as evenly. The rivets and outside sides of the pan are non-stick as well, which is nice. The bottoms are machined flat and stamped with the Vollrath and NSF seals, company address, and model number. The bottoms are exposed raw aluminum. This can leave gray/silver marks on other surfaces, such as on my cast iron burner grills. All-in-all, the set seems to be a reasonable value. If the "ceramic-titanium reinforced" non-stick really is permanent, even when using metal utensils, then the set will have been an excellent value. I just wish they had anodized the pan bottoms instead of leaving them bright and prone to marking other surfaces. Perhaps they will oxidize in time. -- Geoff

"They guy thats got two fields with a d box/valve and is going to see how long he goes just cracks me up, you go buddy, it's only gonna cost you thousands in the long run. " once you have wrecked on of the fields it is just that, not suitable for use every again (unless you want to try and dig it out and replace it). Once solids pass into the field (or waste that did not sit in the tank long enough) the field is wrecked. It will NOT recover.