The limits of my citrus growing experience extend to rearing a couple of meyer lemons for a few years as potential bonsai. Later, I grew a couple of flying dragons. I gave the plants away because I didn't think the growth habit was appropriate to the quality of form I look for in my bonsai. IOW, I had concluded that the growth habits of citrus as a group make them difficult and not particularly attractive bonsai subjects, though I know there are some exceptions. Citrus growers - please don't take that as a slight. There are many 'groups' of trees that don't make good bonsai subjects, and that has nothing to do with what you folks are doing. I was just offering my 'citrus' background so you can readily see I'm not an expert on citrus. I am, however, well versed in tending a very wide array of trees in containers. At this point in my 20+ year journey growing trees in containers, I have about 75-100 tropical trees, and somewhere around 200-225 temperate trees. By necessity, I repot more than half of my (a guess) 300 trees each year. I say by necessity, because we can tell within a couple of months when our trees need repotting. Whether we repot them at that time is a different5 issue, but at the point where the root mass has become congested to the point the tree can be lifted from the pot with the roots and soil mass intact, the tree needs repotting. This is a much more reliable indicator than any other method, and has been scientifically verified many times in tests by nurseries that have a vested interest in maximizing growth. They know that the growth rate begins to slow at that point, and that it continues to slow as congestion worsens. Not only does the potential for maximum growth within the limits of other cultural factors evaporate with root congestion, so does the possibility of peak vitality. Tight roots are a stress, and that stress affects the entire organism - even to the point of increasing the likelihood of insects infestation and disease. You CAN pot up before the tree reaches this point with no ill effects or decline in growth/vitality, but if the tree HAS reached that point, potting up will only allow a PARTIAL return in vitality and growth, and will set the tree on a gradual slope of decline. Soil - No plant like any portion of the soil to remain saturated for more than a couple of hours. Deprived of enough O2, metabolism and root function is negatively affected and fine roots begin to die. The longer the deprivation, the larger are the roots that are killed. When O2 returns to the soil so normal root growth and metabolism/function can resume, the tree then has to go about the business of allocating either current photosynthate (food - energy) or stored energy to regenerate lost rootage. For this reason, you should always use a durable and well-aerated soil. You automatically sacrifice potential growth/vitality when you choose a water-retentive soil that supports any significant amount of perched water. Repotting - use your own judgement, but I have repotted my own citrus by removing the bottom 1/3 of the roots and then 3 wedges equal to 50% of of the remaining roots with no problems. I also have several friends in CA and 1 in TX that uses the method religiously. Use whatever method you choose, but removing the old soil and root pruning is imperative to best growth and vitality. Once a tree has been allowed to remain in the same soil/container beyond the point where the soil/root mass can be lifted intact, growth is permanently affected until the time that the limiting factor of root congestion is eliminated. This even applies to trees that are severely root bound and are then planted out. I have worked on trees that had original soil so compacted that the soil was harder and stronger than fully lignified (woody) roots. You guys recognize the growth spurts in your trees. Repot as a growth spurt is winding down, or early in the spring. These are the periods of most rapid root growth. Adopt your own methods if you like. I just explained the 'whys' of it and how I proceed. There's no reason it shouldn't work as well for you as it does for me, but you don't need to follow my advice or my procedures exactly. I suppose what I want to leave you with is: Your soil IS the foundation of your planting, and can certainly determine whether you'll have an easy time of it or a difficult time. The roots are the heart of your plant. You look at and fuss over the foliage, but it's the roots that are REALLY in charge. Roots come first - before the foliage, so if you keep your roots happy, the rest of the plant will be happy. Al

Electric my entire life. New build and went with gas. I wanted to run both gas and electric for the 'someday when induction prices come down' but dh would not have it. Gas it is! I agree with fishcow. My electric low would never be low enough and things left to just stay warm would always cook to the bottom of the pot, grrr. I was concerned with my kiddos just starting to cook and changing from electric to real live fire but they have done really well (10 and 13). I do have to remind them not to preheat the burner (after my own OOPS holy cow this thing is hot NOW) - be ready to cook when you turn that baby on. With electric it took forever so it was common to turn it on with the pan on the burner while preparing the food we were going to cook. And I did have to adjust to not seeing the idiot light that the burner was on. I did leave the burner on a couple of times when we first moved in. One other thing I didn't realize sort of is burner configuration. I did research and new each hob put out different btu's but until I used it I didn't really 'get it' as to how much different that really is. The high output boil this water burner is so much hotter that if I cook on it like browning meat it's just a little out of control it's so hot. That burner however is also my simmer burner (it has two fire rings) and it works awesome for that too. I initially tried to just stick with that one burner (as I pretty much did with my electric as the jack of all trades) but it just is that much different it's better suited for certain things. I use more burners now than I did before. We have adjusted relatively unscathed.

I did a taste test tonight. I bought one garnet and one of the light tan skinned sweet potatoes. I baked them along with a Russet in the oven. The garnet cooked faster than the other two and began oozing out its natural sweet syrup. The tan sweet potato took the longest to cook all the way through. The garnet was as usual -- moist, soft, and delicious. I was pleasantly surprised by the tan sweet potato. It was mildly sweet, not overwhelming. But its texture was fine -- creamy with a light yellow flesh. Since the tan potato took longer to fully soften, I think it might be a good choice for oven fries. It just might hold its shape better and stay firmer than other sweet potatoes. Also, since it's less sweet, it might be adaptable to a variety of applications. I think it's some sort of Jersey. Now that I've tried it, I'll buy it again. Here's a picture before the potatoes went into the oven:

Homepro1, Salti and Dadoes, thanks for helping diagnose my problem! I wasn't even intending on investigating. I had asked the LG repair center about the drain hose a while back and they said it couldn't be the problem, that it's not made of rubber or something. The details are coming back now! I just assumed it was the rubber gasket and my own repair guy said that replacing it won't solve my problem that the machines are just designed that way. So I chalked it up to just eventually needing to replace it with a top load. But the video on the Washer Fan website and stmt by dadoes leads me to believe it isn't unique to front loads. So every three years, I'll just check on the drain hose and perhaps invest in a washer fan. Don't want to mess around with mold! And thank you I will make sure the drain pipe is vented. I wonder if that is why I didn't have a problem until moving into this house. Or it could just be that the mold is getting progressively worse as years go on ( now 5 years old). To clarify, this machine was moved from Chicago, to our rental home in CA to our permanent home in CA. I should've just left it in Chicago! Lol and sorry to OP for hijacking the thread. But hopefully you learned something from this :)