I've heard about these long soaks, but didn't have very good results last year when the weather refused to cooperate with my free days for planting. As a result, 6 of my new bareroots ended up soaking 2-3 weeks. When I finally got them all planted, the first batch (which soaked the shortest time period) grew fine. The second batch (which soaked 2+ weeks) grew weakly for about 6 weeks and then began giving up the ghost--all dead by the time the really hot weather got here. I don't know how typical that is. I just know I'm replacing the 3 lost ones this spring--and hopefully they won't have to soak more than a few days. Kate

I don't know if this is the official "right" answer, but here's what I do. . . 2 or 3 hours after I take anything out of the canner, I check the seal by gently touching the middle of the lid. If there is any give, I know that that jar has not sealed. So I take my sharpie and put a little dot on the lid. The next night (I do all my canning in the evening), when I take off my rings and wash my jars, any jar that has a dot on the lid, I check those jars extra carefully for the seal. Anecdotaly I have found that if a jar doesn't seal within an hour or 2, most likely it isn't going to seal. Based on the system I use, I would feel comfortable letting my jars sit an extra day or 2 before removing rings, washing and putting away for storage.

I agree the "Stain Test" isn't fair. I am staining / finishing a wet bar using Waterlox (as recommended on the Woodworking Forum )& the part I "frogged" was Wood trim edge against ceramic - the tape being on the ceramic. So, it's just a fun experiment. I was really disappointed it didn't work on the boat. I also wanted to repaint the Boot stripe - which is the decorative colored stripe above the waterline - the antifouling bottom paint is below the waterline. It must be perfect! I have painted it once before and if the frog tape worked it would have been such a help. Maybe I'll conduct another experiment since it is a different formula. The Frog tape chemist should consider perfecting the tape for the marine industry - we boaters always pay more for products that are sold in the boat stores, because anything that says marine / boat on it costs more just 'cuz. I got my locally owned TruValue to carry the Frog Tape - so I hope it sells for them! Thanks for your recommendation.

It varies on temps. Soemtimes they can just barely sprout and then it gets cold for a week or two, so they slow to a crawl. In general w/o any cold, I'd say 7-10 days.