I have a Longan and Lychee I received about a month ago from a nursery in Florida. The Longan is suppossedly a Kohalo variety and the Lychee is a Sweetheart. I'm not happy with the trees at all but that is due to the seller and that's another story! Their idea of a nice tree is far different than mine...and far different than the pictures of the trees that they ship. I did a lot of research on these... especially the Lychee. I think they are the best tasting fruit in the world after a Mangosteen. I was introduced to these in Thailand and I had to have this tree for my own. There is a ton of info on the web all you need to do is a search on Google. The following sites are great sources of info as well as obtaining the trees themselves: http://www.lycheesonline.com/index.cfm http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/ The Lycheesonline has everything possible on lychees and articles as well. The Emperor is a grafted variety. Slow growing and great container choice. Fruit is suppossed to be very good. I wanted a variety grown in Thailand so I was looking into the Hak Ip, also known as "black leaf". Well sought after fruit in Thailand. There are some others even better. Looking back here at the choices, you have to take into consideration the characteristics of the tree itself, size of fruit, size of seed, taste, and production. The Hak Ip was pretty good but I ended up deciding upon the Sweetheart instead. The production was better and more consistent. As for the Longan...research showed that the Kohalo variety would probably be the best choice. Tropicalfruitnursery requires a minimum of two trees with the order. This may work out well for you in this instance since you are looking for one of each. You should call them first and inquire about the specific variety of Longan they have. The lychee varieties are covered in their "variety viewers". Doing it over again, Lycheesonline would be my first choice for a lychee tree.

I'm getting bids to resurface my 20+ year old pool and am having a tough time selecting a finish. It's a dated 80's pool/spa combo with tan safety brick coping. I'm hoping to go from "dated" to "classic". I'm planning to swithch the coping out to a used brick bullnose and I'd like to upgrade from standard plaster while retaining the light color.(not necessarily white but, the pool is in the hot sun all day dark pools in my neighborhood get really warm) My kids and their tender feet don't like our neighbors' pebble tec/river rok/gemstone pools. So, I'm honing in on DiamondBrite, 3M Colorquartz and PebbleFina. Honestly though, I'm not clear on the difference. It all sounds like marketing fluff... maybe it is. Can someone help me compare/contrast these materials? In particular, abrasiveness, durability, colorfastness, etc. I'm also curious how it stacks up agains plain old plaster.

Thanks - this is good information for dog owners. When I graduated from college I worked for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. One summer I did testing in a lab for aflatoxin levels in corn. Some of it was gross - with most of the kernel covered in a gray-black mold. I always wondered where that corn was going - I think much of it went to animal feed - perhaps for cows.

That water needs to run through the water softener/filters but that is going to be a problem since back washes take time and a fill MUST be continuous. The only other proper solution is to truck water in from somewhere that doesn't have the pH and iron issues. With iron in the water, a sequestering agent is needed. I would also add CuLater pouches to the skimmer to remove the metal. The sequesterant will only keep the irom from causing stains but will break down and more needed to be added. AFAIK, CuLater pouches in the skimmer are the only product that will actually remove the iron. The result will be less sequesterant will be needed as your make up water will reintroduce iron. Scott