Those reading this thread grow plants in media that range from sticky, extremely water retentive, and low in oxygen when they are saturated, to media that remain friable (uncompacted), highly oxygenated, and hold NO perched water when they are completely saturated. We cannot simply blame poor plant performance on watering habits, as I illustrated upthread. Neither, can we consider plant/water relationships without considering the media. When we blame poor plant performance on over-watering, what are we saying? On one hand, we might be saying that we are applying too much water to the soil, but is that really accurate? I don't think so. I think it's much more accurate to say the soil is holding too much water. Doesn't this then, shift the responsibility for root rot issues and poor plant performance to the media instead of the hand controlling the water can? The argument might be raised that all you need to do is water less - problem solved .....right? Not so fast. What happens when we water less, in small sips? Salts accumulate in soils from the fertilizers we apply and, as this happens, plants have increasing difficulty absorbing water and the nutrients dissolved in water from the soil. This is stress, and it assuredly affects the plants vitality and diminishes potential growth. Yes, you are able to work around this issue of accumulating salts by eliminating them from the soil with thorough flushing - frequently, but that is a time consuming process and several extra steps. Since the reason you need to flush the soil is because it is too water retentive in the first place, flushing it places the plant at risk for root rot - unless you take still additional steps to make sure that doesn't occur - like depotting the plant and placing it on newspaper over night so the water saturating the soil can be wicked into the newspaper and evaporate. So it sounds good to say it's a watering issue, and not a soil issue, but we can clearly see that it is not a watering issue. Lets look at the other end of the soil range for a moment. Consider a soil with particles that are large enough that the soil holds no water between soil pores. The descriptive terminology would be that it 'holds no perched water'. You can water this soil every hour of every day, yet it holds no water between it's particles. It does. however, hold plenty of water INSIDE the particles - water plants can easily access as they need it. As the plants access this water, their roots are totally surrounded by plenty of air - even immediately after you water to saturation. Even if you water again 10 minutes later, all the water drains from the pores between particles and air returns to the entire volume of soil. How do we need to treat plants in the heavy soil? We need to water them carefully, because if we over-water the soil remains saturated, anaerobic (airless) conditions prevail, and root function/metabolism suffers, the plant is stressed and grows with reduced vitality. While, and because we are watering in small amounts to prevent soil saturation, salts are accumulating and additionally stressing plants. This occurs in every planting you cannot water properly because the medium is too water-retentive. How do we treat plants in the porous soil? We water them until about 10-15% of the water we applied comes out the drain and move on to the next plant - no worries - repeat in a few days. From what I offered, it's easy to see that soils and watering are inextricably related, and that it is actually the SOIL that dictates how you are able to water. Roots die when subjected to saturated (anaerobic) conditions. They don't all die at the same time; they die incrementally with the finest of roots - the workhorses - dieing first, larger roots following finer roots as the length of exposure to anaerobic conditions increases. This process begins quickly, even if you can't see it, within hours of watering, and doesn't stop until the water in the soil is used up and air returns to the soil. At that point, the lost roots begin to regenerate. This is very stressful, and extremely expensive to the plant in terms of energy outlay. The energy the plant must put into root regeneration would have went to blooms, fruit, more leaves, branch extension, or an increase in biomass. It simply is bad for the growth process. These problems are entirely eliminated in soils at the other end of the spectrum, so 'no', we cannot so easily say that it is over-watering that causes these issues when in fact, they are directly related to soil choice. Heavy (water-retentive) soils are convenient and readily available everywhere, and there are the strategies I touched on to help you cope with the difficulties encountered when using them, but the price of convenience, as you see, is often measured in plant vitality. Al

Well, now that you have the tomatoes covered, how about a few pepper plants. I grew 131 varieties of peppers with multiples of most. So I am pretty much in the same predicament that you are. I feel your pain. Fortunately, I teach and I can unload some on my students. Lyle

mariposatraicionera, so sorry to hear about the tragic case of your relative. I can tell you from personal experience that finding responsive and expert medical assistance is not always easy even in the DC metro area. I am fortunate that since my wife is a physician who works at a major teaching hospital, she is able to utilize the resources of that center for consultations and/or treatment when it comes to family members. It was, in part, the insistence of physicians in the cardiology department at her medical center that provided the impetus to have a cardiac catherization done. One other piece of information that may be of value to forum participants: for anyone who is ever faced with a situation requiring cardiac catherization - the two imperatives when it comes to such a procedure is that it is done by a cardiologist who does at least 75 of these procedures annually and it is done at a facility that has a by-pass program as well. The latter is important because there is an inherent risk that during angioplasty and stent placement, damage can be caused to an artery which would necessitate immediate by-pass surgery. If this should occur, time is of the essence and being at a facility that can perform by-pass surgery is a god-send. Mine was done at a facility that does an average of 70 cardiac catherizations a day!! The interventional cardiologist who did mine does 6-8 daily! I now have to go to my regular cardiologist for follow-up visits since the interventional cardiologist does not do any "regular" cardiac care. It is amazing how specialized everything has become. talley_sue_nyc, your comment that "many people just live w/ a dull ache in their arm, and end up dying of a heart attack" is probably true. In my case, the moment I told my wife about the ache she immediately scheduled an appointment with my internist for the very next day. I went and cancelled it telling her that she was over-reacting! So I know exactly what you mean.

Ima,my mother in law made the complaint to myspace today. It was infact her fault that BM was able to obtain the pictures, and now all family members profiles and pictures are private. Yes, I know that once they are "out there" there is nothing I can do, I'm sure she has them saved to her computer and will always have them. As for her having to believe the things she says, it's more of a way for her to prove to her family out of state that she is who "they" think she is. We (my husband and myself) did in fact get it easy where gaining custody was concerned. Dhr/Cps was involved because of some health issues reguarding one of my step sons, with many DHR visits to the home she left them living in and her home, I was granted temporary custody per her request (dad had been trying for 2 yrs before hand) because of his job.A year later my husband and myself were granted full custody with no support and only supervised visitation from her on the first and third sunday of each month (she has never once followed through with a visit). It has since been ammended to no visitation and we have a protective order on her and her husband. My step kids were beaten, threatened with weapons and not fed for over a week the last time they were with their mother over 4 years ago. Not only do we have the protective order but our local ymca, ballpark and their school also have them. She has shown up numerous times and still continues to do so, to all of the above screaming they were kidnapped and are being held hostage. She has even tried to "kidnap" my youngest step son and my own son from walmart and they were in the buggy I was pushing. So in that aspect no we arent lucky as you tell me to consider myself. I know of the emotional damage a BM can do to a child, I see it daily times 3. As I said, I have a 9 yr old who thinks he should be a girl and a 7 yr old who vomits at will to not have to eat. AND FOR THE RECORD... I never in my post accused her of being a bad parent for giving up custody, I simply chose to post a FEW of the bad choices she has made over the years, but I will say now; I think she is a bad parent (not for giving up custody) for how she has emotionally and physically abused her children and allowed others to do the same. I think she is a bad parent because she still allows her husband to abuse her and their child together, instead of seaking help(and before you say I dont understand what an abusive relationship is like, I was in one for 7 years before I met my husband all of my teenage years and into my early 20's, eventually everyone knows enough is enough). Now, you asked why I wanted to contact a lawyer. No, not necessarily to sue her, she has nothing to sue for and she wouldnt show up in court anyways. To have it documented, yes. She shows up and causes enough trouble without aid of pictures at their school, ymca and sports activities ect. It does scare me to think she has updated pictures that she can wave around and them possibly have the chance of seeing. They know she wasnt there and Im unsure of what that could do to their stability, their mental capacities(they have alot to work through as it is) and their all around behavorial issues, even if it's only for that day or week. Do I think she will use them in that manner, yes. So again, no I dont want to sue her. I dont want to waste money we dont have to waste, energy I am completly drained of already or time that I never seem to have either. As for her myspace page, today was the first I knew of her having one and no I dont care to go back to it. All of my focus does now and has for almost 7 years gone into MY KIDS, I do love them and they know it and with their father's job I am 99.999% the only PARENT they have. I do also try and ignore her, I have only one other time fed into her pity party and that was her email, she isnt worth it. But yes, this makes me angry and I feel I have the right to be, as you stated you were doing the job of "your" BM, so am I. I have a myspace page, I dont post pictures (for this reason) of any of my kids, yet here she is posting them, ones she didnt take, from a holiday she was absent from and claiming MY son as her own child also, when she didnt want to be a parent to her own kids. No matter her reason behind it, I cant seem to want to let it lie. And your right, its not going to change or fix thing nor will it make them better, but I cant help how I feel. Maybe this is all too fresh having all happened today, and Im sorry if this post seems rude, but I didnt expect to be reprimanded or attacked for my earlier post and thats kind of how it felt.