Many seed companies just recycle last years seeds. The garden centers ship them back to the distibutor and they test to see of the seeds are still germinating. If they get good germination rates, ( not sure what the percentage is), they just repackage them for the next year with a new date on the package... so your seeds may actually be older than the package states. It kinda defeats any knowledge of how long seeds actually last, but also encourages me to keep seeds a long time. If the seed companies are recyling seeds each year, I can too. On a side note, I am growing peppers from seeds I bought last year and from seeds I saved from a pepper last year, and the ones from the pepper are growing WAY better. Maybe because they are fresher, or it could be the variety. Just food for thought.

I have 2 problems, after repotting all the plants into big grow bags. My Big bertha bell pepper is about the same height as it was in the smaller 2 gallon container (except that it has grown the first fruit - ie. pepper - doubling its size in about 2 weeks of in this 25 G container). The pepper is little over 2 inches, but it will get to atleast 6 inches (according to Bonnie). The plant size or leaves has not dramatically changed (as is the case with my eggplant which was also transplanted at the same time). The height has stayed around the same 1 feet, since repotting. I have not pruned this since i got it, and it has about 16 leaves (and some leave buds that popped up in last couple of days). Should i take out the fruit (assuming that it is eating up all the growth energy) that is at the bottom of this plant ? Should i prune into only 2 branches (like seen in some youtube videos on pepper plants ? ) My tomato (ACE 55) has curled up leaves. Even the leaves that are young and at top, are curling on the edges even though they look green and healthy. I am watering all the grow bags once in 2 days and the 1 inch below the top (ie. top has mulch is 1 inch in height), the potting mix stays moist to the touch. All plants are in CA sunlight of atleast 8 hours / day. There is enough slow release fertilizer in the grow bag and i am feeding liquid fert once a week. In the 2 weeks of repotting this, there are about 5 tomatoes that have started up. The bottom leaves have some disease (fungal i guess), but the top looks good. I am spraying Neem oil + water mix once a week. Why the leaves curl at top ?

Thanks, plllog! Throw in the freezer today (Thurs), take out and thaw in fridge tomorrow (Fri) and heat-n-serve on Saturday. Better to be safe than sorry!! Sure wish I could have squeeeeeezed one more day out of this so I wouldn't have to do the freeze/thaw stuff.

My mother bought Longchamp dinnerware in about 1970 for our new house. A few years later she replaced it with something else, but of course the Longchamp joined the PREVIOUS china, plain white, in the dinnerware pantry. When the last of my Mikasa Cordon Bleu, which I got just out of college in 1980-ish and refelcted the stoneware trend without actually being stoneware, anyway, that set was down to an unchipped plate and all the cups. My kitchen was yellow, grey, and white, and kind of a country look, so I asked Mom for the Longchamp and I loved it. Now we have replaced it with something else yellow, because I don’t see this delicious shade in any of the similar patterns, but I have kept the salad plates (3) and bread-and-butter plates (5), because they are such a nice, useful small size. I also kept the soup plates and we do use them. Plates and bowls have gotten HUGE. Longchamp, similar to Bumblebeez Mikasa. There is something about that scallop, isn’t there! Edit to add, I was rather pleased with myself for actually getting rid of the last of the Cordon Bleu. I loved it, but was glad to see it go. I'm glad Mom kept the Longchamp! But now I have 3 sets of her everyday china plus the formal Lenox to sell.