I will add a little that I know...if your used to cotton sheets Linen will take getting used to as it feels completely different from cotton. Linen will also take numerous washings to start to feel great...Linen also requires ironing, you may find a system like partial drying in a machine than line drying but they still won't be smooth and Linen wrinkles a lot. I'd be prepared to iron them, however 100% cotton sheets also wrinkle a lot and feel much better after ironing. Can you send to one of the manufactures for a linen sample? I know Rough Linen will send linen samples out. Finding great sheets today can be a real chore even spending big $$$ is no promise of quality. Good Luck

pH affects the uptake of nutrients and it looks to me, as you probably concluded, that it is iron chlorosis. This is from University of Illinois: Iron becomes more insoluble as the soil pH climbs above 6.5 to 6.7 (7.0 is neutral - below 7.0, the pH is acidic; above 7.0, the pH is alkaline). With most plants, iron can only be absorbed as a free ion (Fe++) when the pH is between 5.0 and 6.5. My tap water comes from four town wells. The pH varies during the year because the town varies which wells are used and I suspect that the pH may vary during the year in individual wells. At any rate, my tap water pH varies during the year which necessitates my testing the pH once in a while. I adjust the pH to 5.5 to 6.5 by adding vinegar. I would not add an amount of vinegar suggested by someone on the forum because the chemical composition of your water may be different from that of a forum poster. Do as I do: add vinegar until you have reached the desired pH while measuring the pH.

I used to be just "gazania" because I love the plant and it is a 'fun' word to say. Then when Houszz got involved, for some reason I had to reup to the forum. I chose lgmd for the disease that was responsible for the disability I have and added gaz so maybe I would still be recognized by some. However soon after doing that, my disease was reidentified by new available DNA testing. I haven't changed the lgmd part because it seems it would be too much hassle. To be correct I should now be sma3_gaz.

While wiping out the gasket is a good habit, if your goal is prevention of fungal and bacterial growth it is only a minor form of prevention. The most important things to prevent microbial growth along with leaving the door open are: 1) Wash in true hot water on at least a semi-regular basis. Once a month is the absolute minimum, once a week is preferable. The water must reach 60C / 140F for significant antimicrobial effect and if your machine does not feature a heater it will not reach this temperature. A machine cleaning cycle is a good option if you don’t otherwise need very hot washes. 2) Wash regularly with a detergent and/or machine cleaner that contains activated oxygen bleach (AOB). The label must contain either sodium carbonate peroxide (also called sodium percarbonate) AND either TAED or NOBS activator. The activators form a chemical complex with the oxygen bleach that makes it far more effective at cleaning, whitening, and disinfecting regardless of temperature. Only powder detergents contain AOB and few are still available in the US market but include Tide with Bleach powder and Miele Ultra White powder. Both are superb detergents for whites. Doing both 1 and 2 is optimal but even one or the other should largely prevent microbial growth and any smell issues.