Hman, one seaweed study I found is below - it is a study on pears. I have also seen many studies that show neem as at least some effect, but the oomph factor is always on the low side. For the Effective Microorganisms, it is well-known that having other microbes on the leaf surface will give the bad guys more competition and lessen disease impact -- thats the simple idea behind EM and it makes total sense. What has not been studied much is whether spraying on more microbes will appreciably help tip the balance. I spent a lot of money and time dipping my fruit tree starts in mycorrhizal fungi, but proceeded to not notice much difference and subsequently learned that most of those microbes are already in the soil. So for that reason I am somewhat skeptical of the impact of EM sprays. I just did some Googling and there are more studies out there than I had found last time I looked - I think I used wrong keywords last time. Here is a study which shows that both foliar and root applications of EM helped persimmons. This study was done in Egypt; in general nearly all of the EM activity is outside of the US. Hey here is another positive study, on roses from Poland: study. This latter one looks to have somewhat better methodology than the Egyptian one. Another one from Laos: study -- there is only a brief summary and apparently some EM formulations helped and some hurt tropical fruit trees. Here is a negative study on Taiwan cherry seedlings (whatever that is). Here is a study from Austria which shows EM had significant positive effects on apple tree growth as well as decreasing scab incidence -- see Figure 1 for the scab data. Here is an interesting pro/con viewpoint. Overall I have to say the pro-EM case looks stronger to me after having read these studies, I may give it a try this year. It is far from conclusive but there is a glimmer of some pretty good stuff. Scott Here is a link that might be useful: pear seaweed study

I don't need any thanks for doing this for this sweet and classy lady. She truly was one of a kind and yes we became very close friends. I had the pleasure of meeting her in person along with her late daughter-in-law, of whom she thought the world (and deservedly so). Harrietta of course was the one who got Dotmom posting here. But being the classy person she was, she welcomed a new DIL with open arms. Thinking about Dora this week I remembered how she was so helpful to the people in her apartment building. She loved living there. For a while it looked like she'd need to move since she and her husband couldn't handle the steps anymore and it was a very sad thought to her to have to consider leaving. I was so glad to hear when it worked out for her to get a first floor apartment enabling her to stay in the building she so enjoyed. Dottie had trouble walking and her husband had his share of health problems too, but who was one of the first there when a neighbor was sick and couldn't cook? Dotmom! She'd bring food, make needed phone calls, take people to doctor appointments, get things for them. Generous doesn't describe her. Others who were lonely or had other issues would enjoy Dottie's company and yes, every now and then a verbal boot-in-the-butt when needed! Yes, we could sure learn from her. Dotmom SO hated cancer, as do many of us, and so many of us have had close people lost to the disease. I had planned to attend the funeral but unfortunately I wasn't up to the trip. Probably more fitting that we all sort of attended in a cyber method anyway! If anyone else managed to attend, I hope you'll let us know.

Ann, try saving it to your Clippings. Look to the right of your last post (just above this). You will see the word Clippings in green letters. Under that it will say Clip This Post. For each recipe or comment you want to save, click on Clip This Post. Another way to do it is to highlight the entire thread, or the parts you want, right click with your mouse and then click on Copy. Start a new document in Word and paste the thread into that document, then save it to your computer. If you want me to do that for you and then email it to you, let me know.

I remember him well and looked, again, in awe of his amazing talent as a photographer. Thanks for sharing.