Jon-When I lived in Arkansas I knew a lot of people who regularly rode horses. But I only knew ONE who always rode a mule; never a horse. The mules name was Willie. I commented one day since mules have a reputation of being "difficult" in a way few horses are, it surprises me that he rode Willie all the time. His reply made perfect sense to me. He said "Awe, Willies OK. You just have to smack a mule as hard as you can, right between its eyes with a 4 x 4, to get its attention first." It made sense because I never tried to ride a mule. The topic was not about killing a hosta to prevent HVX, or any other virus for that matter, from spreading. It was about what commericial growers, retailers, hybridizers, TCers, etc. actually do with their waste. Since we ALL CONCEDED it can be spread from hosta roots left in growing medium, it posed the question: Is it wise for them to recycle their hosta potting materials and waste by composting? I'd already conceded that I only presumed this is what they do with it, based on the piles I had seen, and was open to enlightenment. At the outset I had invited any growers, etc. to take part in this discussion. It illicited Chris and Rob to participate. Now they are not. I am afraid the string has been severed, repeatedly, and can't be recovered. I give up-Jon. Its your field now. Go ahead and run with it with my blessings! I have one statement to make to you JON, and will not respond if you have a comeback. During much of MY lifetime, engineers based much work on the hypothesis that the electron, proton, and neutron were the most fundimental elements of matter. This hypothesis was dealt with as if it were fact and the basis for much progress, while it was commonly accepted it was a very consistent hypothesis. Now we KNOW (at least I do), of course, that it was not fact. We learned this as scientific researchers developed greater technology that disproved the hypothesis. Their work is applauded, and their success was achieved because they DID NOT ACCEPT IT AS FACT and looked for better answers for unsolved questions. SO MUCH FOR ENGINEERS ONLY DEALING WITH FACT, NOT HYPOTHISIS(as your opinion clearly stated). This experience has created no hard feelings towards you on my part. I am frustrated because the question has not been answered. Back to Hosta Forum! Les

This thread is a bit old. However, the complaints about Miele are still valid. I have been a loyal Miele customer for 13 years. I recently spent well over $30,000 on new appliances in my current primary residence. I regret it. While in the process of that recent kitchen renovation, a Miele induction cooktop in a second home has failed. The appliance is out of warranty. Miele customer service for out of warranty appliances is essentially nonexistent. They use bots on their website for the chat function. Their replies to emails appear to be written by bots. No one at their customer service phone number can help other than submit a technician visit, which you can do on the website. If you do not live in a major metropolitan area (NYC, LA, Chicago, etc.) there are not adequate competent service technicians available to help you. Local appliance retailers will not help at all if you did not purchase the item from them, so good luck if your retailer no longer sells Miele. Several retailers have stopped selling ?miele due to the poor customer service Miele provides. If you do happen find a competent technician. That person will be booked up for weeks. If you are a capable do-it-yourselver, you may be able to diagnose some problems after getting a hold of the technical manuals. But then, you will spend hundreds to thousands of dollars and still have an inoperable appliance. I am currently out more than $1400 for parts and still don’t have a functioning cooktop—not since July 2022. If you decide to just go ahead and replace the broken cooktop with the current model, you may find that the cutout dimensions have changed. Do yourself a favor and don’t buy Miele. They are great when they work and their performance is amazing. That said, in retrospect, the cost and problems with maintenance and repair are not worth it. Customer service is appalling.

Okay, I have had a Bosch 800 series Evolution (SHE68M05UC) for a little over four years and am not terribly happy with it. First, it has had an odd chemical smell since day one. I've read reviews that mention this smell and often it just goes away in time. How much time? Will it take another four years? It is indeed gets the dishes clean and runs very quiet but unfortunately is punctuated with a most annoying beep beep beep that goes on incessantly until you get up and open the door. Well, a lot of good it does to have a quiet running DW that wakes you up or otherwise interrupts conversation, TV time or projects because the dishes are done. The dishes are clean, they will keep until *I* decide it's time to put them away. Sheesh. I've contacted Bosch twice about disabling the beep. They claim it can be done but the instructions they sent me did not work because they sent me instructions for another model even though I sent them a photo of the control panel and model number plate. Instructions I found online did not work either. So, we can only do dishes when we have nothing else planned, like sleeping. yawn. We also have Bosch wall oven and microwave and they too have annoying beeps that cannot be disabled unless you don't mind losing the timer beep sound. Found that out the hard way when I put something on the stove, set the microwave timer and went into the next room. The smell of smoke alerted me that something was burning. The timer had been set but did not sound off because I had disabled the bleeping beep that indicates whatever you are cooking in the microwave is done. And it reminds you every minute or so, again, until you get up and open the door. grrr. On the up side, I do love the nice clean European lines of Bosch products which are perfect for my simple, zen-like kitchen. Just wish I could get rid of the bleeping beeps. Jodi-

Electronic pH meters seem to vary hugely, and give only a very rough indication. I used one recently and found it had no correlation with the results I got using rigorous chemical analysis, so I would recommend using a full-blown chemical-based soil testing kit before pronouncing on your garden's pH. The general rule is that a clay soil is acidic. I used to garden Wield clay in West Sussex, which was criminally acidic (let alone badly drained and heavy to work). But then it does depend a bit on the parent material  a chalky clay may be alkaline, usually only slightly so. However, poor drainage, usually associated with a clay soil, can increase acidity. The part of the garden which has been regularly worked has probably had lime added to it over the years, which is why your preliminary results are reading as alkaline. Liming helps to create a good soil structure in a clay soil, and needs to be continued to be added if you regularly manure your soil in future to counter any increase in acidity which almost always ensues. Be sure to test your soil pH before liming, however, as it is possible to overcompensate. I have known old boys who have limed their allotments routinely annually and have ended up with a soil which was excessively caustic.