Super Thrive is a liquid concentrate containing nutrients for plants. It is not the $10/gallon root stimulator sold at many retail nurseries. I have been using a one pint bottle for about 10 years and still have some left.There are web sites where users and detractors duke it out over anecdotal experiences. For me, I use it in many ways with seeds, scions, potted plants, bare root plants, plant 'first aid', etc. The guy who persuaded me of his reason for using it commercially said that of the many hundreds of bare root fruit trees that he would get shipped in each Spring, that he expected a certain regretable percentage of them would not survive. Once he began soaking all the bare root fruit trees in a huge, shallow plastic-lined 'pond' containing S-T for a certain amount of time before potting them,.....that the mortality rate shrank to "about 1%" only. Although I have seen lots of results, the one that sticks out the most for me is regarding a store-bought Christmas tree that I got several years ago. After cutting off the bottom 1" of the trunk, I used a 1/4" spade bit to drill multiple horizontal holes in the lower 6" of the trunk to allow more water to be absorbed by the tree. When standing the tree up in the basin/tree stand combo, I put a whopping 2 tablespoons or so of S-T in the basin with the water. By the time February arrived, the tree had grown 40 to 50 new sprouts with new needles that were about 2 to 2-1/2" long. I took some photos. Regretfully, the trunk bottom did not make any roots. By late Feb. the sprouts began to dry and die. Maybe I should have added another tablespoon of S-T along the way....No, I do not work for that company. I did call them to tell them about the Christmas tree, and a worker there told me that they not only knew about that use for their product, but they also packaged a small container and marketed it for Christmas tree use. None of the other Christmas trees that I got ever got S-T, and none of them ever grew new sprouts. As many plants as I have unwittingly killed, I need all the help I can get. I can sometimes hear the faint sound of whimpering from plants as I stand at the checkout line to pay for them.Know what I mean? ?

I found the Mulberry Jam recipe Penn State Food Science Dept sent me years ago. Mulberry Jam 5 1/2 Cups washed Mulberries ( about 3 quarts fully ripe mulberries) 1/2 Cup Lemon Juice 8 1/2 Cups Sugar 1 Package Full Sugar MCP Pectin Boil Jars on rack in a large pot filled with water 10 minutes. Bring to a boil, remove from heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to fill. Drain well Place flat lids in saucuepan with water heat until ready to use. ( do not boil) Throughly crush mulberries one layer at a time. Measure 5 1/2 cups into a 6 or 8 quart saucepot. Add lemon juice. Measure sugar and set aside. Mix fruit pectin into fruit in saucepot. Place over high heat and stir until mixture comes to a full boil. Immediately add all sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat remove foam with metal spoon. Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with 2 piece lids. Screw down bands. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath canner, check seals. (WB all mine now at 10 minutes) Makes 11 (1cup) jars. I have a side note on the paper where I added 1/2 tsp Cinn per batch at one time. That batch recipe was smaller, only 1 quart of mulberries. Best guess for hot pepper flakes might be 1 teaspoon, or to taste. Hope that helps

Hi, I have a couple of questions regarding Mulberries: 1. I read that Morus rubra (the US native mulberry) only grows to 20' in the northeast - that it only grows to 50 or 70 in the south or mid west? I live in NJ and hope that the tree is a small one (as in around 20'). 2. Will the taste of Morus rubra's berries be significantly worse then the commercial M. alba x M. rubra hybrids, such as 'Illinois Everbearing'? 3. I really want(ed) to stick with the native variety (M. rubra), but don't want to significantly compromise on taste - could I graft a M. rubra limb onto my non-native M. alba x M. rubra hybrid (sapling) so that I have both varieties - I'll actually end up just keeping most of the tree M. rubra and only a single maintained limb of the original hybrid. 4. Will grafting the M. rubra onto the M. alba (x M. rubra) rootstock minimize the risk that M. rubra often experiences of root disease (spread by M. alba)? I figure that since the roots are not M. rubra's (at least I think they don't use M. rubra to do grafts) this would be an advantage. 5. Is M. rubra self-fertile - some sites say yes - and some say that it varies. I guess if it's female, the M. alba x M. rubra self-fertile limb would fertilize it. 6. Do you think that a 10' tall and wide Mulberry tree provides all the fruit one would want; if so, I might keep it pruned small. Thanks, Steve

As some of you know, we had some rain storms roll through last night and gave my barrels their first test and they worked GREAT! I was really quite surprised at how fast they filled up.... From bone dry to overflowing in less that 1 hour of rain. The rain gauge said I had 0.86" before midnight. But, I know I was overflowing well before we got all that (becuase, much to my wifes' chagrin, I was standing outside in the rain "monitoring" the progress, while she was commenting on the state of my mental health.) According to my rough estimates; based upon my ca. 2,000 square foot catchment area, and being that one inch of rainfall provides approximately 600 gallons of water for a 1,000 square foot catchment, even if I'm only collecting @ 70% efficiency, I had the potential to collect 722 gallons of FREE WATER. But of course "The Boss (Wife)" does not want "those ugly blue industrial barrels" in the front of the house, so I'm restricted to the 3 downspouts not entirely visible from the street. Still, I think about those 557 Gallons that just washed away.... Not that I'm ungrateful for 165 Gallons I did catch mind you. But hey if it's free for the collecting, why not collect it? Next step is to get a couple of cans of Krylon Fusion paint and get her and the kids busy decorating barrels so they are not "those ugly blue industrial barrels", then perhaps she will let me hook a few more up. Maybe. Also I need to rig up some sort of gauge so I can easily and accurately determine the water-level in the barrel.