I'm sorry, Rebecca, but IMO there's a lot of unsupportable information and conjecture in the advice you've received on this thread so far. Allowing the plant to dry down is going to cause leaf tip and marginal leaf necrosis (dead tips & leaf edges). The plant needs almost NO fertilizer indoors, so it's dangerous to the plant to fertilize one week with fertilizer 'A' and the next week (even the next month - especially "all through the seasons") with 'B'. With this plant, that type of fertilizing virtually guarantees greater leaf burn unless you are growing in an extremely fast soil. IF you were to adopt that regimen, you could only use a tiny amount of fertilizer in each gallon of water - a drop or two, or you should expect burn. This plant actually tolerates low humidity (to about 15%) IF the plant is fertilized properly and not over-fertilized. It's NOT the lack of humidity that causes leaf tip & marginal necrosis (though when the plant is over-fertilized, it IS a contributor), it's a high level of soluble salts in the soil that makes it difficult for the plant to absorb water that is almost always to blame. Over-fertilizing, as suggested, will simply exacerbate the problem. Alternating fertilizers with a bloom-boosting blend would also be very counter-productive. The plant uses about 6 times as much N as it does P, so there is no way to justify adding fertilizers with unnecessarily high levels of P to the soil that cannot be used by the plant. The added P simply causes more burning. Allowing this plant to go 2-4 weeks w/o water will force it into an 'environmental dormancy' as a drought response. This kills the top growth (leaves) which are making the food for the blooms in the next bloom cycle. I don't think that's what you need to promote blooming. IMO, Superthrive, used as a tonic is useless. (I'll provide a link to some experiments I performed if you're interested). Misting the plant, IMO, is also counter-productive and more apt to cause problems than solve them. It's generally accepted that the presence of 'real soil' in container soils is best avoided. It compacts, slows drainage, and greatly reduces the most important characteristic of container soils - aeration. I'm wondering why, if someone "... learned this trick several years ago. Alternate fertilizers. For instance, fert with an All Purpose one month or week, however often you fertilize, then use a flowering type fertilzer [sic] the next feeding. Continue doing this throughout the seasons." there would be this offering just a little up-thread: "... I rarely fertilizer PL's, though I'm not suggesting others do the same. Last year (2008) mine got one spring feeding, before that, they went two, possibly three years without. Other than once a month Superthrive and fresh soil, (true soil, not soil-less) they were on their own. Yet they bloomed, several times, in the last 3 years." That seems like a complete contradiction to me. May I suggest: A south window behind window treatments that diffuse a good part of the light or an east window. Keep the plant at 65-90* - no lower than 65*, very low doses of any 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer whenever the plant is growing robustly, whenever you water - water thoroughly and flush the soil of salts each time - then allow the plant to dry just to the point you notice the slightest bit of wilting and water again. Watering with deionized (distilled) water when you're not watering with fertilizer solution will go a long way toward curing the burn problem and you wouldn't need to flush the soil at every watering, either. Take care - wishing you well with your plant. Al

I just wanted to post my experence with an old Echo. About 6 months ago I was given (for free!!!) an Echo PB-300E by a buddy I work with. He said it had been sitting in a barn of theirs untouched for years. His dad left it there when it became difficult to start. Well I got it and performed a general clean up of the exterior to get the grime/debris/dirt and crudd off it. Then I looked at the fuel. It looked like burnt coffee! So I dumped it then filled it about 1/4 the way full with fresh fuel and shook the crap out of it 3-4 times till the gas was clean (looked like it did from my fuel can) when I poured it out. I then removed the plug that was in it and gave it a thorough scrubbing till it looked almost brand new. I then filled it with fresh fuel and added the recommended amounts of Seafoam and also Licas upper cylinder lubricant. Reinstalled the plug, pulled out the chocke, turned the throttle to full blast and pulled the cord. It started right up! After it warned up (maybe 2 minutes) it blew some nasty nasty smoke for about another 5-7 minutes. Then I let it rip till that half a tank of fuel + additives was no more. I have been using it this entire season roughly 2 times a week and it starts first pull every time!!! It smokes for a min or two after its started at full throttle and for a min or so if at full throttle after left ideling for roughly 3-5 minutes too. The only thing I have a problem with is restarting when it's warm. Maybe I just haven't found the right combo of throttle/choke but I have tried many times and it just seems like its flooded. Any comments/ideas on that? I still have try to remove/clean the carb and I'm sure that would remedy the hot start, rather hot no start issue. I am just completely blown away with how great this old blower is and wish I could actually find some specs on it.

Ive installed Thermosoft floor heating mats several times in the past ( I am a contractor). I donÂt remember any problems with them, even with support. The first time I installed it 5 years ago at my friendÂs house in couple bathrooms and kitchen. It still works fine and he is very happy with his warm floor. Unfortunately, there are no systems in the world that are 100% fail-proof. Anything can fail. Even Toyota, which is one of the most reliable car manufacturers, has recalls... I did have several failures with Suntouch and Warmly Yours in the past, the same with Nuheat. And those are very expensive! I don't know why... But sometimes, the failure happens because of mistakes during installation, which is hard to admit... I had to fire one of my workers after I found that he dropped a very heavy tool on the heating wire, nicked it and continued installation... After such thing the system may easily fail after a few months in that spot... However, I would definitely stay away from Floorheatech ( who also works under easywarmfloor.com, heatingonline.com, heavenly-heat.com, etc). They got "F" in BBB for the reason and I truly had a very bad experience with them several times. I would also avoid Warming Systems, which is a very small company, buying their heaters somewhere in Eastern Europe without UL approval and mostly doing business on ebay... I hope this helps.

This has turned into a wonderful discussion! I have my mother's old juice extractor; it is in excellent condition and works perfectly but it is lemon yellow rather than white. And despite decades of being used regularly, it shows no sign of rust or discoloration. Oh, and I have Mom's old cast iron frying pan as well. She got it at her wedding shower party in 1948. I also have my original Oster blender from the early 1970s. This thing is a real workhorse and so far has handled everything I have thrown at it with no sign of slowing down. And when I bought my mobile home (in a wonderful senior park), it came with the original 1978 O'Keefe & Merritt electric wall oven. The upper door was slightly ajar and two different contractors told me that to close it and cook I needed to slide the latch over to completely close it. Idiots! Only if I wanted to burn the house down along with the chicken. I soon found that there is a vintage appliance repair store in town. They came out for $65 and told me all it needed was one small part. Twenty dollars and a few minutes later--perfection. They also said it was a top notch oven, had probably not been used more than a half-dozen times, and to never get rid of it. I promised, LOL. And the washer and dryer are the same age. They were missing a couple of dials and the turnstyle in the washer needed a new part but once done, again perfection. They work perfectly.