Hey Josh, I have been been using Pro-Tekt with my Foliage Pro all winter and i can say that my plants have definately been happier than in the past... When i take my rain water and place it in my watering cans, i add the Pro Tekt first to all of the water and then stir it in. (1/4 tsp per gallon) Then i go back and add my Foliage Pro to the water. I keep it upstairs and let it warm to room temperature and then water. The combination of the two will definately help your plants and im so happy to have found my Pro Tekt. My Hydroponics dealer had to order it for me. I still can't find or he wont (says he cant..) order it for me. He looked it up and says its not available. Hmm? I still order my Foliage Pro from Ebay. They have free shipping anyway. Have fun with your Pro Tekt!!! Hope you are feeling better!!! Happy Spring AL!!! Take Care, Laura

"It looks like you switched to the Dyna grow 9-3-6 last year. Do you still use CRF in your soil mix if you are still using this fert?" Actually, I rarely use the CRFs at all. I like the near complete control the soluble fertilizers give me in containers. I'm pretty diligent about fertilizer applications, so I really don't need the CRFs to cover the 'in case I forget' base, or for any minor elements they might supply. I included them in the soil recipes to make it easier for others. As long as you're faithful to your nutrient supplementation program, you can easily do w.o them. If you think you'll be lax at times, I'd include them. 109 ppm alkalinity is nothing to be overly concerned about with fast container soils. It would be interesting to learn how the Ca and Mg levels are though. Alkalinity is related to pH because alkalinity (practically speaking and for our applications) determines your water's resistance to pH changes. If you have water 'A' at a pH of 9.0 with an alkalinity of 75 mg/L CaCO3, and water 'B', with a pH of 8.0 (a full point lower to begin with) and alkalinity of 300 mg/L CaCO3, it will take about 4 times as much 35% H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) to bring the water with the lower pH down to That aside - your water is better than mine, so I really doubt you'll have Fe/Mn issues if you're using either the 9-3-6 or MG. I will say though, that bark/peat soils have a potentially high Fe:Mn ratio, so applying Fe w/o Mn could easily create a deficiency of Mn. If I were in your shoes, I would do nothing until I actually saw evidence of an Fe deficiency. Then, I would acidify. Oh - the other likely cause of an Fe deficiency is too much P, which combines with the Fe to form an insoluble precipitate, so avoid the high P fertilizers - they are useless unless you are using them to supply the exact amount of P needed while intentionally (severely) limiting N. I used this strategy last year: I fertilized with regular dosages of 9-3-6 until the plants were well established. I then cut way back on the dosage and added ProTeKt to the solution. I rather like to envision that I used the added K (and got the benefit of the added silicon) to change the fertilizer ratio to 3:1:3 from a 3:1:2. This allowed me to reduce the dosage of N (reducing vegetative growth) while still having adequate P and K. Take care. Al

There are 2 different ideas of thatch in grassy lawns. The dead grass blades that cover the soil between plants is not a serious thatch issue. The other thatch issue involve the roots and stems growing above the soil simply feeding on the water and fertilizers as they are applied. The problem with this type pf thatch is more severe because there is very little root growing into the actual soil. Your last photo just has some grass and a dark spot on my screen, so a caption of what we are looking at would clarify which type of thatch you are concerned with.

Quote 1: Does not qualify for the tax credit, if that's what they're leading you to believe. Good outdoor unit, but it bothers me they are not including a variable speed air handler. Quote 2: This company may just have a lower overhead and overall lower prices. If your realtor has had good experience in the past, I wouldn't have a problem. But I would suggest stepping the outdoor unit up to the Amana line (subsidiary of Goodman), which is a more premium product to compare to the other units you've been quoted. In general I would avoid Goodman/Amana because I think there's better out there, but if it's what fits the space and qualifies for the tax credit, then it would be worth considering. The Carrier units that would qualify are huge physically outside. Quote 4: Sounds like they're oversizing the equipment--not a good thing. I would avoid. 800 sqft. in our area shouldn't require 2 tons, and if the old 1.5 ton did the job in the past, that's what I'd install. Also they are not informing you that if you register the units with Trane within 60 days of install, warranty should be 10 years on all parts. And yes, a humidifier should give an added sense of warmth to the air and hence allow you to set your thermostat lower.