OH!! this is the perfect answer! I too start my seed on top of my big old monitor. I love the berry containers for starting my seed - fill almost full with Pro Mix tamp down, place seed, water well and let drain well out the little slots. I snap the lids shut on the tag (you can also write on the lids - but I reuse them)and I can place 5 containers at a time up there. covered with a tea towel I measured 100 degrees with my candy therm. seed will sprout within a week, and when they touch the lids I pop them open. I needed bottom heat for my seedlings - I live in a Very cool house - read that as drafty. so I dragged out my old electric blanket - laid down a plastic shower curtain folded the blanket on it and pulled the other half of the shower curtain over the top. had it plugged in all day and could not get any warmth... maybe that is why I still had it in the closet! LOL BUT THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!! ohhhh Re do! I yanked out the string of white light rope I had. within 5 minutes I had heat! how perfect is this?!?! - lights within a plastic tube! I strung it back n forth like the heat tube on a pro bench and placed my trays on top. Using the candy therm ... I had about 85 degrees! tomorrow I am going to the cheap stores ... in search of ! some more white rope lite! thanks for a wonderful web site! best growing! Kim

How are the skins? I've always found that Sungolds, whether home grown or farmer's market bought, had relatively thick skins. I know it's gross, but when I eat them in bulk, more often than not, I keep a paper towel with me so that I can spit out the skins. I would have thought that drying them, while very tasty, would make already tough skin even tougher, but it'd be exciting to learn otherwise (though it probably won't do me much good this year, since that's the plant that the psyllids seem to be loving best :(). Have you tried using a micro-serrated steak knife to cut them in half? I've found that it's easier to use my steak knives for tomatoes, rather than even the sharpest Shun knife in the set.

For those not adverse to fungicides, dusting the damp seeds with Captan just before planting takes care of a lot of the sterilization goals. This is widely used for all palm seeds. Planting in pure perlite as a seedling mix can help too.

This is the first year i've ran into this issue.. my garden is a 40x 25 foot area in SW Pennsylvania, usa.. with a 4-6 inch wood barrier around the base and a gate.. i also have smaller chicken wire sticking up above this to further combat rabbits. (this is a suburb, non rural setting too) I planted a large area of green beans.. some corn.. and a bunch of pepper plants, broccoli etc.. One day i came out to see my fresh bean plants ripped from the ground.. broccoli seemingly chewed off to the core or gone completely.. some of my corn cut in half and gone.. and pepper plants broke in half at the base or gone completely.. i was and still am infuriated.. never running into this before. Every morning i see two huge crows hovering around and near the garden, and at least a few times in the garden, so i'm pretty sure they are the cause. I thought maybe i'd sprinkle DE on all the plants to make them taste bad, but this didnt help. At this point all i can think of is rigging up a mosquito netting above key areas, though its too expensive to cover everything everywhere.. i put aluminum foil pans to bang out there, but it hasnt helped much.. the netting is about $10 for 6x10 alone. Anyone have any thoughts.. does this sound like the action of crows? Thanks in advance