Lordjezo, Of all the points I saw in your response, two jumped out at me: "Then every couple of weeks I used a Miracle Gro thing that attaches to a hose and sprays on." What are the numbers on this fertilizer? There should be 3 hyphenated numbers (should look like 10-10-10, etc.)... Odds are, the first one is too high and your pumping your garden full of excess nitrogen. "Do the tests cost a lot of money?" No. Well, it's relative, but I think I paid $30 for my soil test from the Penn State extension office - I tend to think that's pretty cheap. From what I've read, you add manure and fertilizer, but there are other factors to your soil besides fertilizer; Soil PH, Organic matter, etc. If you get one, there are people here who can help you understand the results (probably better off in the soil forums than here though). As an aside, I'd like to point out, that, in my humble opinion, tomatoes are not heavy feeders. Compared to a lot of crops (corn, melons, pumpkins, etc.) tomatoes demand fairly little. If you add fertilizer before planting, that should have you set until you see the first fruit setting (tiny tomatoes showing up) and then you can add more. After that, you should resume some sort of feeding regime to give them just enough to keep them productive for the remainder of the season. I do organic and no-till, top dressing all of my amendments (homemade compost from kitchen scraps, leaves, grass clippings, etc.), and I cover all of that with 6-8" of hay from a friends farm. When I plant, I poke through the mulch and put a little organic fertilizer in the hole at planting time. I don't fertilize them again until fruit set, and I usually do that with an water soluble organic like fish emulsion. After that, I'll do some occasional foliar feedings to give a boost here and there as needed and a soil drench every 2-3 weeks until the season ends. Basically: 1.) Make sure you're using an appropriate (numbers appropriate) fertilizer. This is very important. 2.) Fertilize at the start of season / at planting time. 3.) Fertilize again at fruit set. 4.) Fertilize every 2-3 weeks to keep the plants productive.

In a nutshell, the biggiest worry in home canning is low acid vegetables and a few fruits that are low acid. When they are canned, a low or zero oxygen environment is formed inside the jar. Under these circumstances, botulism spores which are normally found in the soil and COULD be in your jars, and are not killed by the temperatures of a boiling water bath or just heating the substance being canned, can start to produce a highly toxic substance called botulinum or something like that (it's not exactly that, but something spelled very similarly). That can KILL you! And there is no off smell, etc. for that. However, it is easily avoided by either adding acid and or sugar to low acid vegetables (such as many cucumber pickle recipes, for example), or by pressure canning, which if done correctly reaches a temperature inside the jar hot enough to kill the botulism spores so they don't start reproducing. Tomatoes are on the border of what is considered and acid fruit/vegetable and acid levels vary with the tomato, so it is tomato recipes that often cause the most discussion and controversy with home canners. As far as "safe" goes, one way to insure safety is to follow recipes developed by folks who have tested the safety of the end product in a regulated food lab, such as the National Center for Home Food Preservation at U. of GA (I think that's where it is), or commercial labs like Ball has. That doesn't mean that an old family recipe isn't safe for sure, but it means there is no way of telling for sure. Many home canning recipes are so similar to commercial ones that you can pretty much tell they are safe. Others fly in the face of safe canning practices with regards to acidity and processing, so you can pretty much tell they are unsafe. Some are on the fence. Also, there is no gauruntee that if you eat something unsafely canned you will get botulism poisoning, it is just a considerable risk. And since the consequence is death, I don't think it is worth the risk if there is any question as to the recipe or methods followed by the home canner. When done properly, home canning is absolutely safe, and the quality is far superior to what you would get in the store. It is no more dangerous that preparing meat. However, you can't mess around and expect it to be OK, just like you can't leave meat sitting out and think that you are not taking a risk.

there is a plant propogation book i have wherein the author describes his own mist system. that author has a large black coil of hose in the roof of his greenhouse so that water can be heated before reaching the mist nozzles. that's at least one vote for using warm water and keeping the cuttings reasonably warm as they root. just thought i would toss that in! lol. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: mosaic z8 LA (My Page) on Sun, May 11, 03 at 11:59 With such a setup you could probably root roses under mist all winter here in Louisiana. And then as an added bonus, you could save on your power bills all summer by using it to steam your veggies :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: tammyinwv z6/WV (My Page) on Sun, May 11, 03 at 16:05 i have been unable to find the mist heads even within an hr from my home.Someone mentioned here they found them for .50 each.would anyone be willing to get me a couple and mail them? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: wild_garden virginia z6b (My Page) on Sun, May 11, 03 at 16:32 at my lowes store the mist heads where in the indoor gardening area next to the register, i doubt the people at lowes would have even know what to look for. it was with the drip irrigation supplies, as i said in the indoor gardening area next to the big outdoor area where they sell trees and things. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mist heads supply source Posted by: RoseHawke 7b AL (My Page) on Mon, May 12, 03 at 10:37 For you folks that haven't been able to find the heads locally, try going to this site: Dripworks or here's a direct link to one of the pages with some heads:Misters . I just a couple of weeks ago ordered some irrigation supplies from them and received them quite quickly. About 4 days if I remember correctly. Haven't had a chance to put it together yet, which is probably just as well as the flood we had last week would've probably washed everything down the creek ;-). I also have the Melnor timer, and it does seem a bit confusing about its ability to do a mist cycle, but what you're doing is programing it to do one cycle (on in the am; off in the pm) and punching in a choice of watering pattern, in this case the off for 10" on for 2" pattern. I believe the idea behind the pattern was/is actually to help prevent water run-off when doing overhead watering by allowing the water to soak in between the on phases. I bought this particular timer though because when I looked at it my mind said "Ah! Mist!" (heh), even though the reason I bought it at the time was to keep a new patch of zoysia sod watered until it rooted in. My batteries did last all season last year, but it was only opening that valve 4x a day for 3 weeks, and then 1x every 4 days for a couple of months. I can see where a misting pattern of opening and closing that valve many times during the day may eat batteries, but as ShamanSherpa pointed out, it's still cheaper than a $100+ misting timer! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: patclem z7 (or 6) TN (My Page) on Fri, May 23, 03 at 8:32 Regardless of how much water it wastes, etc, I decided to experiment with misting. I am TERRIBLE at rooting cuttings. I've tried baggies. I've tried jars. I've tried special cutting trays with plastic domes. I've had one rooted cutting out of probably 50. I had the same problem finding true super-fine mist systems in the south. None at Lowe's, none at HD. They're not popular here because they don't have the same evaporating effect they have in less humid areas of the country - they make you wet here. Here's where I found mist heads. They didn't charge me anything for shipping. They were super-good to deal with online. Web Page - Phone/Fax 888-693-0578 Local/Fax (719) 495-2266 Qty: 4; Sku: 6W401; Product: Monarch Misting Nozzles M-1; Amount: $7.40 Qty: 4; Sku: 6W519; Product: Reducing Tee for Monarch Misting Nozzles; Amount: $4.40 You have to go to Lowe's or local hardware store and get a hose adapter, timers, 1/2" PVC, PVC caps, etc. I have mine set up with 2 mist heads, and about a 6' diameter section of my grass is soaked! I don't have mine on a timer yet. Results? I don't have any yet, except none of my cuttings have turned black yet. PS - I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH THIS BUSINESS IN ANY WAY! Here is a link that might be useful: Mist Heads -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: fuselighter 7/WA (My Page) on Thu, May 29, 03 at 21:41 I am so excited about the misting bed. I went out and bought all the supplies today. Total cost was about $15 (my husband had PVC and elbows left over from installing the sprinkler system). I would like to go to an intermittent system eventually, but for now I am going with continuous. The water bill is not an issue because we have an irrigation system (there is an annual fee but it is not based on usage). I set the whole thing up in about an hour. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: debbinard Z4CO (My Page) on Sun, Jun 1, 03 at 10:54 Shamansherpa -- I could not open your picture! I live in Colorado, it gets very warm middle of June (up to upper 90's) and stays low humidity. We are on outsidewater restrictions 2xweek, so I'm not sure this method would fly. Am wondering how visible this is, or if inside is an option under lights. At any rate, I would like to propigate some rose cuttings now (is this a good time?) My daughter in law is moving and would love some plants from a rose with sentimental value. Is the rooting hormone used just the usual or special for roses? Thanks Deb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: mytrid Zone8b Florida (My Page) on Sun, Jun 1, 03 at 13:48 Deb, Maybe you could call your water extention office and see if you can get special permission, exsplain to them how little water it uses. Yes you use rooting hormone, there are many available. Dip and grow I here is supposed to be really good. I got some of the more exspensive stuff from a friend whom bought it threw rose imporium on line. But you can always use something like dip and grow. Deanna -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: rose_enthusiast z7 TX. (My Page) on Sun, Jun 1, 03 at 15:47 Hi there Deanna! It seems to me you've managed to help a lot of people with your invaluable info. And I would like to thank you for inspiring me to start a misting bed to root my cuttings. I have one question to add to the many others you've been getting though... What rose company is it that you get your rooting hormone from? Is it Rose Emporium or the Antique Rose Emporium? I would like to purchase this product as well, since you and this company are using this to successfully root your cuttings. Thanks Again, Carlos -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: mytrid Zone8b Florida (My Page) on Tue, Jun 3, 03 at 1:31 Carlos, Thank you but we should all thank AngieAnders, she is the one who did all the research and work to discover this method and then post it here for us last year! She truly diserves all the credit. I just wanted to keep any new people aware that have just started rooting this year. Best of luck all and don't forget to post your sucess! Deanna -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: epiphany z5b PA (My Page) on Tue, Jun 3, 03 at 9:28 I found the Arizona Mist system which is by Orbit as mentioned at Wal-Mart. It has 12' of tubing, end cap, six misting heads and hose adapter for $14.95. Of course, it is once again cold and wet here,......all of a balmy 56°. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by: auntnana 6 TN (My Page) on Thu, Jun 5, 03 at 13:06 I ordered the misting heads mentioned above from Dripworks last year and they don't put out a fine mist as much as they do a fine spray/droplets. And even though I had a pressure regulator on there, I kept having a problem with the heads blowing off! (Their drippers work perfectly by the way so it's nothing against the company) I ordered foggers from Misty Mate this year and they put out a super fine fog. Perfect for propagation. They are a litte more expensive than the ones from Dripworks but worth it. And if you ask they will ship the misting heads for $1.50. I went to HD and bought a 10-24 tap and drill set (3.00) and drilled holes in my 1/2" cvpvc and the heads just screwed right in! I bought a Melnor timer at HD for $39 and it has 1 minute spray options so I've got it set for 1 minute every 10 minutes. Can't remember the model number but it's not the one on the HD website. I hope to finish my new propagation box soon. I built one on a stand this year so I can move it around easily. Wouldn't you know, HD has plastic sheeting made just for greenhouses that I used! It's not the real thick heavy stuff either. It's only 4mil and is crystal clear see-thru! Hopefully I'll be finished this week!

I am a diy housepainter, and what I've done with the high ceiling is to paint everything up to where I can reach with my ladder (and I certainly don't put my ladder on stairs). By the time I'm done, there's just the high walls and the ceiling, which covers our large-ish living room and the stairs. I had a crew sent by a professional contractor come just to spray the high ceiling and the walls of the stairway at the top. I used the same color as the wall paint, same eggshell sheen, and I provided the paint. In my HCOL area, it was, as I recall, $500, and this is a 22' ceiling with wide staircase (2 guys, 1 day), which looks much bigger than yours. In the interests of safety, I would explore options like this. It is easy to test your existing paint to see if it is oil-based or latex. You can google it. If it's oil-based, you'll do an extra step or two, but it's not hard. Another thing to note is that you can do a LOT of prep work in advance of the painting day. You can sand, spackle, and especially tape off the trim, unscrew and prepare the switch plates and vents and light fixtures. You can peek at some diy videos for how-to best prepare. I'd buy a couple canvas tarps, and some of that paper on rolls to cover the walkways to protect your floors. And lots of painters tape, primer, and good quality paint.