House guests, so sorry for late reply: I've been foliar feeding with seaweed extract, and not watering (soil wet enough) and the leaves are greening up a bit, could be the soil was waterlogged, or iron in the seaweed or that it's been warmer-probably the last. I'll definately try the vinegar solution, but I know the soil itself is well buffered, so I don't expect much of a pH change from watering it, but I will try (when I next water). A nursuryman told me that we could pour pure muratic acid on our soils and the pH would bounce right back. But maybe it'll help long enough to get nutrients into the roots. I don't think our water is alkaline, I did pH test it a while ago. Username_5 Don't you figure that an acidic shock with 'iron and soil acidifier' would kill a good bit of the current alkaline-lovin microherd leaving the survivors to repopulate and in the meantime the soil depleated in microorganisms and so less able to provide nutrients to the plant? I agree in the long term that's gotta be the way to go though, just that I want a few tomatoes this year. Good to know it won't hurt worms-I like those guys and they all just moved in. Albert, I based my determination on a couple things, course I could be wrong: --Chlorosis is in new leaves and not on old growth. --This is the best site I've found which shows pictures of each different deficiency. Plant Physiology Online: Visual Symptoms of Nutrient Deficiency In Plants --Based on the pics, it most looks like the iron pic (but not as severe), the youngest leaves are showing chlorosis, not the older ones, and mostly at the center of the leaf stem. --Manganese "They develop a light chlorosis along with gray specks which elongate and coalesce, and eventually the entire leaf withers and dies"-I'm not seeing any grey, and chlorosis not all over the leaves, not speckled looking either. --Magnesium: "show advanced interveinal chlorosis, with necrosis developing in the highly chlorotic tissue" I don't see any necrosis, and not all over the leaves. Epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate) doesn't help either soil or foliar fed. --It's really common in our area and TX in general Hmm, thats a shame, I thought foliar feeding would work well. Article about iron chlorosis in texas that recommends foliar feeding I read about some sort of iron chelated in sugar or something like that, instead of a synthetic (H)EDTA complex, but I don't know what the product is called or if its even on the market. Maybe I can just mix copperas-I can't find this though--with molasses + heat? Username_5: My personal goal with organics is to grow my home vegies, without synthetic or toxic pesticides, without causing a runoff problem or fish kills(I grew up on a lake in FL that had at least biannual fish kills resulting from runnoff and algal blooms that infected an entire lake chain whenever they fertilized/or whatever-I can't be even a small part of this if I can prevent it), while encouraging beneficials and soil health--all this to my best ability. I understand the chemical deffinition of organic/inorganic I ment organic with respect to the above.

Working in the sewing/quilting biz, I have had many irons and anecdotes pass me by. Rowentas have very mixed reviews - I've heard about enough leaky ones such that I wouldn't invest in one. My current fav type is a gravity feed iron. This is an industrial item, and unlike many industrial kitchen appliances, works very well in a home environment. It is a simple system whereby a tank of water is hung about 1m above the ironing board, and connects by flexible tubing to the iron. The iron itself sits sole down on a silicon rest, so your wrist never aches from tipping it onto its end. This system delivers billows of wet steam at any temp setting, and I can easily erase set-in wrinkles in linen without pre-dampening. The tank can be refilled without unplugging or cooling the unit. Cost-wise, these tend to be considerably cheaper than steam generator irons, and they can be repaired if required. I've had one for over 6 years, and will never go back to a household type. There are many brands available, particularly from tailoring/dry cleaning suppliers, and I've never heard complaints about any particular ones. Mine is a Silver Star, a fairly cheap Korean one. Here is a link that might be useful: Gravity Feed Irons

No, we had a separate steamer that burned out, so we used the Sapporo held sideways AS a steamer. I don't know about a special ironing board, but I have one here at home that isn't solid, it looks like metal mesh kind of and I have double padding under the cover. Any board will have some holes, but the more it can "breathe", the better if you use a lot of steam. I don't know what you mean about steam vents. Can you send me a link to what you're looking at? If you mean on the bottom of the iron near the point, then yes, it's fine. The idea is to press in that direction, lead with steam, dry with the rest, though if you have the teflon sole plate, it's vented all over and spreads the steam evenly. And I really do recommend that plate, it won't interfere with your steam in the least bit and will keep you from burning anything.

I have a Sapporo gravity feed iron. The tank is roughly 1/2 gallon capacity and the filtration crystals sit in the bottom in a filter. I open a valve to permit water to pass down the clear plastic tube to the iron. The iron has a temperature setting and rests flat on a heat-proof pad. There is a button that operates a solenoid and allows water to be introduced to produce steam. When I'm working I turn the iron on in the morning and leave it on all day. At the end of a day, I turn off the valve on the tank, depress the steam button and flush all water out of the tube and body of the iron (prevents corrosion). Simple! I've had the iron for over 12 yrs. now and it still performs flawlessly. Names to look for in gravity feed irons: Naomoto (high end, but worth every dime), Sussman, Sapporo (lower end). I worked for a dry cleaner for several years... Rowenta was not a "player" in commercial grade pressing equipment, neither was Sapporo.