Toofast,I made an executive decision yesterday and dismantled the cover and support frame from over my ponds. I lost two fish over the winter. One a beautiful Shabunkin about five years old and a small goldfish from last years breeding frenzy. All the rest look good and of course have grown over the last five months, since I covered the ponds over. This is the earliest I have ever uncovered the ponds, but since the long range weather forecast seems fairly good, I went ahead and opened it up. If we get more snow it will not stay long and any ice the may form on the surface should melt pretty quickly now the temperatures are rising above freezing during the day light hours. The winter bubbler/aerator, I will leave in place for now to continue doing it's job. Depending on, how the weather actually turns out, will determine my next moves. I may start up the filter and waterfall next week, we will see? It is not the day time temperatures that are my concern. It is the low night time temperatures, that could still possibly freeze a line and bring on much gnashing of teeth and tearing out of hair. If it all goes west! The main pond is due a complete emptying, so as I can cull out some fish and do a general inspection of the liner and pond in general. I will not attempt that for a few weeks yet and allow the fish to build up their immunity and stamina after going through winter. I'm going to take it one day at a time and keep an eye on the weather forecasts as they come out. With this lovely weather we are having at present,living in the "Banana Belt" of Southern Ontario, it is tempting to throw caution to the winds and go full speed ahead and get everything done in and around the pond. Remember that the fish are at their most vulnerable state, after coming through the winter. Stirring up gunk from the bottom of the pond can release all sorts of parthenogenes and other evil doers, that can harm winter weakened fish. "Horton"

Glaswegian-did you know that the sweet potato vines are very easy to propagate from cuttings? Since you have some grow lights indoors and have a few of the plants, you can increase the amounts by taking some cuttings, dipping in #1 rooting hormone and poking them into some pots of ProMix. You can increase your numbers every year by digging up the plants to bring indoors and hold over the winter and then as spring approaches, taking cuttings and growing on.

While compost is wonderful stuff, and I wouldn't dream of growing tomatoes at home other than in a bed or container chock full of decomposed organic material, one still should remember that no nutrients whether "organic" or "chemical" are taken up and used by the plant until they have broken down to their elemental form ... their base chemical form ... nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, mangnesium, calcium, iron, sulfur, whatever. As said in a post above, the nutrients must be water soluable before they are of any use to the plant. One also should remember that while the compost is breaking down, certain organic components like leaves, bark chips, sawdust, and other rough cellulose materials will rob the compost of nitrogen as the rotting process advances. So, some finished compost, while looking wonderful and providing a fantastic growing medium, may be deficient in nitrogen and other essential nutrients for that matter ... and the addition of those particular nutrients is advisable. The choice of whether you add organic-source or chemical-source boosters is yours. But regardless the source, you should provide the initial needs before and when you plant the seedlings, and then feed your tomatoes what they indicate a need for as the season progresses. Bill

Hmmm... It's been a while since we started, but here's what I remember. We ran the pump continuously for the first week. There were no chemicals (that means no SWG) for the first couple of days as the plaster/pebblesheen cured a bit. Then, the PB added a bunch of acid to bring the PH down to where it should be, and added liquid chlorine - also known as bleach. I'm pretty sure that we didn't run the SWG until 30 days after start-up. Not sure why... At some point, you'll have to check and adjust the Calcium level, this'll likely be a month or two after water goes in. Not sure exactly when that's supposed to happen, our PB's start-up guy just quit coming. I finally did it myself. You'll also be adding a stabilizer to the pool, so the chlorine doesn't get broken down by the sunlight. Again, I had to do this one myself, I'd imagine you'll be adding that almost immediately since it's summertime. Our water went in just before Christmas, so we didn't need it until Spring. Your PB will (should) give you specifics, it'll depend on your installation. Please understand that liquid chlorine/bleach/chlorine tabs/chlorine from the SWG are all the same. It's chlorine! It's the stuff that sanitizes your pool. That is, it kills the germs. The salt somehow seems to 'buffer' the chlorine, allowing a better feel on your skin and eyes. (There are plenty who will dispute that on a chemical basis - I'm going by what I feel) You'll have the same amount of chlorine in your pool as a non-SWG pool. In fact, you can mix and match. Once things get going, you'll have your SWG creating most or all of the chlorine that the pool requires, and you can shock the pool when necessary by either using the SWG, or store bought "Shock," or by using good old household bleach - unscented. Head over to www.troublefreepool.com for a forum that's easier to search, and you'll find loads of info on how to take care of the chemistry of your pool. That info's here, it's just very difficult to search for. The chemistry really is easy, it just takes a little learning. I strongly recommend learning a bit about the "BBB" method - way cheap, and available at the grocery store!