I saw the thread you referred to & didn't comment. First, when you're talking about a micro-nutrient deficiency, you're talking about elements that are generally not mobile. Sulfur, chloride, copper, zinc, manganese, iron and molybdenum are marginally mobile in plants, but only under certain circumstances. Most of the mobility in the elements listed is usually associated with the breakdown of amino acids and proteins in older parts of the plant, only under nitrogen deficient conditions. IOW, they're only mobile when the plant is robbing nutrients from old tissues before they are shed, and translocating them to other tissues via the phloem stream. Since these elements are essentially immobile during periods of adequate N supply, a foliar application (spray) really doesn't do much good. It can alleviate the deficiency temporarily by supplying Mn to the leaves it contacts, but unless it rinses off the foliage and enters the plant through the root pathway, it won't be present in the nutrient stream to ensure the normal development of new growth. This is the reason that, no matter what advertising claims are made, Ca spray supplements are so ineffective at eliminating BER. Ca is considered immobile in the plant, so if Ca is not in the nutrient stream as new cells/tissues are forming, the tissue will form abnormally, with weak cell walls and other issues - BER. In the same vein as what you were mentioning, I don't like to advise people to use this element or that element to 'cure' an 'apparent' deficiency. Many 'deficiencies' aren't deficiencies at all, only symptoms of cultural inadequacies; or, they are deceptive, varying widely in symptoms, and even then, many of the symptoms overlap. One of the first things experts will agree on is that diagnosing many nutritional deficiencies is little more than a crap shoot w/o the benefit of tissue analysis, so there is a good chance the diagnosis will be wrong. Second, adding individual elements can easily affect the uptake of another or create a toxicity. E.g., if someone had applies an Fe supplement to try to 'green up the leaves', he might have unwittingly have caused a Mn deficiency. Fe and Mn are known as classic antagonists, and a deficiency/excess of one can affect the uptake of the other. Adding Mn only can affect the uptake of Fe, P, N, and other elements as well. It just makes much better sense to me to use a fertilizer that supplies the elements most apt to be deficient in container media, or to use a fertilizer like FP, that ensures all the essential elements plants take up via their roots are available in a favorable ratio. Ideally, when one element is getting to the point it is in short supply, they all will be - at the same time. Using fast soils that allow you to water so you're flushing excesses out before you fertilize again, helps to keep the ratios in balance, so there should never be a need to supplement individual elements. Plants DO take what they need and leave the rest, but it is decidedly in our favors to keep 'the rest' at a minimal level. If the person is actually using FP on a regular basis, it's unlikely there is a Mn deficiency unrelated to pH. Like Fe deficiencies that occur when using soluble fertilizers (they all contain Fe), the Fe is in the soil, but unavailable. Mn is affected by pH in the same way as Fe. My advice would have been to flush the soil thoroughly and fertilize; or, if the grower really was using the fertilizer regularly and at adequate solution strength, to add enough vinegar to bring the irrigation water pH down to 5.8-6.0. Al

Sue, I have IE, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. Right now I am using FF. I have not closed the browser nor have I deleted cookies nor cleared my cache or anything since opting out. Sure, it is not rocket science, but it is beyond me how to remedy this. I have resigned to just give up hope on the matter. I originally was going to let it ride and accept the ad links figuring that since this is a free site that I should tolerate it. But they are soooo annoying and useless. In the past I have occasionally clicked on a side bar ad that looked like it would be of interest to me, but these links don't tell you where they are going and they don't pertain to anything relevant. At least with the sidebar ads you know where you are going when you click them. I am never going to click on a highlighted word link again.

I got an email back and will cut and paste the suggestion here: (I did it and it's working so far.) I apologize for any inconvenience these ads as have caused you. We appreciate getting feedback from our members, and I have reported the pop-up issue to our community manager. In the meantime, you should be able to opt-out of the in-line (green underlined) texts by following these instructions: 1. When you're on a GardenWeb page, hover your cursor on the double-underlined word, but don't click it. You will see an advertisement open in a pop-up box. 2. In the upper-left corner of the box, click the 'V' logo. A new browser window will open the Vibrant in-text advertising page. 3. Scroll partially down this page, and click the 'Disable' tab. Click 'Click here to disable.' The page should update to now say 'Click here to enable.' 4. Close the Vibrant in-text advertising browser window, then once you refresh your main browser window the Vibrant in-text advertising should disappear.

Thank you, olychick and ravencajun! I've been cussing these green underlined ads ever since GW started adding them. I have opted out of Intellitext so many times, each time clearing cookies and cache. Initially, it worked but then it didn't and no matter how often I went to the Intellitext opt-out site, I couldn't get it to work again. So, like nanj, I kept my cursor to the side to keep them at bay but that trick failed me in recent weeks as the ads popped up on their own. Grrrrrr! I thought I had Adblock Plus already installed but either I didn't or what I had was outdated. I just installed it again and, oh, happy day, the wretched green underlined ads are *finally* gone!!! Thank you, thank you! I will NEVER buy from companies that use this type of obnoxious advertising.