Katishooked and Sapphire, now you know why our lists stopped being To Do ones and became Too Long To Do Lists instead. So many great ideas abound on this place, daily, we better all live forever to make even half what we want. As for where are we going to put it.....LOL, I'm not even going there on that one. Kirk's post is a great one to remember. Lots of folks 'forget' we have a conversation side where we can chat about everything else and really get to know one another. Lots of support and fun there too. And photos not garden junk. Pets, kids, silly stuff, you name it. No one can say we don't have fun on this Forum. LOL And if you need any prayers or support, this group is the BEST ever and can work a few miracles at times. Can you tell, I LOVE our little family here! This is my "other" home. hugs, Karen

Hi, I live in Oregon and have had success with a Meyer lemon tree and cflâÂÂs. I have my tree in an east facing window with two 23 watt cflâÂÂs. I rotate the tree everyday so the canopy gets light from the cflâÂÂs regularly. It flowers and grows during the winter. Your biggest problem is going to be the soil it is in and over watering. I use AlâÂÂs gritty mix now and 511 in the past. Both soils are great for growing in the house since these soils prevent over watering. Look these mixes up using the search function. I also heat my trees from the bottom to keep the roots warm, it works for me and I have very little leaf drop doing this. Good luck, Jack

Ehtno, If you hold the test strip right up against (or beside) the comparison chart, it shouldn't matter what light you're in as they'll both appear the same under the same light. At least that's how I do it with chlorine kits. Cole, While a 0.1 swing may be a big difference at the molecular level, I'm not sure how much it affects things globally. What I mean is the difference between 5.8 and 5.9 might be 10 times more free hydrogen ions, but from the plants ability to uptake nutrients, a 0.1 difference is not that much. If you're a fastidious person (which I am in some areas of interest: just not hydro) you can continually monitor and adjust your pH to keep it ideal. But for the average Joe hobbyist hydroponic grower, letting the pH fluctuate a bit isn't going to have dramatic effects on the plants growth.

Chef, The Tomato Man was Darrell Merrell, a long-time seed saver from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who preached the gospel of growing heirloom plants and was a driving force behind the heirloom tomato movement in Oklahoma for many years. He passed away last year after a battle with cancer. He sold heirloom tomato plants every spring (and some other veggie varieties as well) from the old home place near Jenks where he'd grown up. A couple of years ago, Mr. Merrell's daughter, Lisa, returned home to Oklahoma and joined him in the family business. At that time they changed the business' name to The Tomato Man and Daughter. After Mr. Merrell's death last year, Lisa continued the business but has changed the name to The Tomato Man's Daughter to reflect reality. She continues the tradition of raising and selling heirloom varieties and is, in fact, hard at work on expanding the business. (I think her dad would be so proud of her.) Long before he became known as The Tomato Man, he also saved and shared heirloom varieties of garlic, which led to one of his nicknames "The Tomato Man With Garlic Breath". His mom's rocambole is one that he grew for decades and passed on to others to grow by generously sharing the garlic with them. If you visit the website Carol linked above, you can see the business location and hours. If you are interested in heirlooms, check out the Top Ten list. My favorite Darrell Merrell tomato is Royal Hillbilly. If I wasn't so far from the Tulsa area, I'd buy some of my plants from Lisa every year just out of appreciation for all her dad did to encourage folks to grow heirloom varieties. Since I'm way down south, though, I just raise my own but always recommend Lisa's business to anyone in that part of the state looking for heirloom tomatoes. I don't know if Lisa carries garlic in the fall, but I certainly hope she does. Dawn