I am wanting to do a trade. I would LOVE to try your: SOLAR FLARE variety and only need about 5 seeds. I have these varieties that I did not notice on your list: Burgess Lemon (only 5 seeds from Wintersown and several years old) Hovarth (only 2 seeds left from Wintersown and several year old) Peacevine Cherry (10 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) God Love (5 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) Abe Lincoln (about 10 from Livingston Seed Co, less than year old) San Marzano (about 10 from Organic Ferry-Morse, less that year old) I am rather new to this forum and unsure how to proceed. Is there a way you can message me to exchange addresses? I can send a SASE.

Patty: I have two Goldens. And a Bloomsweet. I grafted one of the Goldens onto a seedling that I grew from "Swingle" seed from Treesearch Farms. The tree was identified as Swingle but may be Citrus 4475, I'm not sure. Anyway, Golden budwood for that tree came from the Texas A&M Budwood Program and it is the better of my two. The tree is about 12 ft from the S. side of my garage and gets really hot in summer. The second Golden was grown by John Panzarella before the Texas Budwood Program started and grafted onto feral trifoliate from his farm north of Houston. That tree gets less sun and is in a cooler location. My Bloomsweet was grown by Hines Nursery at Fulshire, TX. It is on Rubidoux trifoliate. It is inferior to most other Bloomsweets I have tasted, not sweet and not juicy. I think Hines' budline is at fault. But the Rubidoux is not very well suited to my soil. I have begun grafting branches of this tree into more Goldens and standard Ponkan. Goldens grafted on this tree are juicy. The Ponkans are juicy but a a little less flavored than my other Ponkan. Bottom line here, rootstock, budline, and soil and shade play into wheather your trees are going to give top quality fruit. But you know that, just reminding you. I know of several seedling Bloomsweets that are much sweeter than mine. I have also heard Bloomsweet is a Kinkoji but that it is pumelo x GF. They were brought to Texas by Japanese farmers in the early 1900's. They setteled near Friendswood. Interestingly, one of the descendants of these settelers is now one of the few commercial growers of Goldens 300 miles to the south near Mission, Tx. I love good Goldens. I think most people are waiting to eat them when they turn fully yellow, which is way late. They are ripe when half green and yellow mixed. About 3 to 5 weeks after Chandler ripens is a time to sample here (before Thanksgiving). I don't understand the lack of flavor rap. They were described as 35% mandarin and 65% GF by botanist Dr. Stewart Nagle. It was discovered as a chance seedling at Monte Alto, Tx. It is not good to peel and eat by sections since it is so soft inside. Get a GF spoon and flick out the many seeds. The fruit are large and easy to juice. The blossoms have the most pleasant fragrance of any I grow, very complex and no yuk component that some strong blossoms have. They are not really sweet, but no GF is actually sweet. Well, maybe the Cocktail is. My younger son was taking John's grafting class class this past Sunday and came back with a glowing description of it. And he does not like GF. I hope you enjoy your trees Patty. My regards from Gulf Coast. Larry

Susan, You're welcome. You hill up potatoes when they're grown in the ground. When I plant in containers, I partially fill a tall container with soil and plant the potatoes. When the initial stolon emerges above the soil level, I add more soil to the container when the stolon is an inch or two tall. As it keeps growing, I keep adding soil until the soil is as high in the container as it is going to go...maybe 2 or 3" below the top of the container. That's one of the advantages to growing potatoes in containers---no hilling up, just adding soil in a container. Some folks on the vegetable forum have experimented with growing potatoes in bottomless 'frames' or 'trays' they stack on top of an existing soil-filled bed. As the potato plant grows taller, they add another frame and fill it with soil. They haven't had quite the results (tons of potatoes) they've hoped for as the potatoes will not form new potatoes endlessly along the stolons forever. I do not know if they had control plants grown in the ground to compare with the boxes or frames they kept stacking and adding vertically. To me, containers seem simpler than adding stacked boxes or frames. Potatoes make their best growth in our climate early in the season while the soil and air temps are cooler and while rain is (hopefully) falling. Research at Texas A&M University when I lived in Texas showed potatoes make their best growth when temperatures range between 60 and 75 degrees during the day and 45 and 55 degrees at night. We don't stay in that temperature range very long, so early potato planting is critical to success and also is key to getting bumper crops of potatoes. We get way too hot too early to expect amazing potato yields in our climate because once soil temps hit 85 degrees, potato initiation ceases. Our weather is really better-suited to sweet potatoes than regular potatoes. You'll notice that Oklahoma is not a hotbed (pun intended) of commercial potato growers. Dawn

Oh, wow! I WISH mine were that far along! I just can't wait to have a tomato sandwich! What kind are you growing? I'm growing some of the seed I had from old trades. Brandywine Sudduth's Strain Delicious Green Zebra Kellogg's Breakfast Better Boy Hybrid I really wanted to try Mortgage Lifter and Jet Star. Also going to try the Florida Weave method this year. I cannot wait to see how that works out!