I don't know if McDonald's food will rot or not, but Dolly Madison's Red Coconut Zingers will not rot. I worked as a computer network administrator before my retirement in 2000. At my last job we had an on-going joke in the department where ownership of a package of the red coconut Zingers was passed from one person to another whenever they earned our honorary "Super Geek" junk food trophy. Photo taken 31 Aug 2010 Whoever had last been awarded the Zingers, would at their discretion, award them to the next recipient based upon that person performing some feat of extraordinary technical brilliance. When I first awarded this trophy to one of my coworkers, I had planned to use a package of plain Twinkies which we would often share a pack of when working late, but the vending machine in the break room was sold out that day. The dyed red coconut Zingers looked even better for the purpose, so I dropped in my quarters. After 5 years being passed respectfully and gingerly from one recipient to another the trophy had made it to everyone in the department. Every recipient kept it on display in a prominent place in their cubicle. The Zingers are still red and all the coconut is still glued to the surface of the cakes. The cakes were as hard as a stone after about 3 years. The cellophane was beginning to turn yellow, and the writing on the package began to fade, so everyone avoided displaying it in a sunny location after 3 years. When I retired in 2000, the department retired the trophy as well and gave it to me to take home. These Zingers are now 15 years old and do not have a single speck of mold on them. They are every bit as un-wholesome looking now as they were when they were brand new.

Thank you for all the compliments and help! As for soil, it does include some bark components, but is not a specific recipe or anything and does contain some regular soil. Now that I know of some good soil recipes from the forum, I was going to amend it with either the coco-husk or 5:1:1 recipes. Although, it does seem to be doing great in what it is in. Yeah, the only huge lemon I know of is Ponderosa also, so I assume it can or is a Ponderosa. But since every Ponderosa I have seen or grew always fruited when young, I often have wondered if it is not, and maybe some weird Italian native that I do not know of? Mgk65, Thank you! I have learned something new again from you! I really have to find some info about leaf node #s and counts. Hopefully there is a thread here explaining it here in more detail on the forum? So, are the # of leaf nodes to fruit numbers pretty much the the same within one variety? Or, does the # of nodes before fruiting vary greatly even within the same variety? Does the leaf node count apply to just fruiting, or does it apply to when it starts to blossom also? Does a tree have to have a certain amount of leaf nodes before it just blossoms also? Thanks again for all the help! I will be back soon! Christy

Barton, I hand raise my tomato and tobacco hornworms. I have a large pretzel jar that I'm using. I put about 4 inches of potting soil (dry) in the bottom of it. I set a small jar (about the size of a large baby food jar) of water in the middle and put the cuttings of the tomato leaves or datura leaves in it. I have to put new leaves in every day because they do have prodigious appetites. You can leave them on the plants like Randy does, but hornworms are very susceptible to parasitization by brachnid wasps. You will know it because the hornworm will have lots of little white cocoons all over it. By that time, it's too late and you might was well destroy the caterpillar. That happened last year to my eumorpha achemon moths I was raising. The wasp lays its eggs internally when the cat is very tiny. The eggs hatch inside and begin eating the insides of the caterpillar and you don't know it until the cat is large and the cocoons pop out all over. I have also raised the clearwing hummingbird sphinx cats, too. They are beautiful moths. It's early enough that mine will probably emerge. If it was in September they would probably pupate during the winter and emerge in spring. Barton, if you dig in the dirt, just be careful. You will know if you come across any of them because the cocoon is fairly large - about 2" long - a kind of mahogany brown color, kind of shiny, and has a loop at one end. If you find any, you can just put them in some potting soil and leave them to emerge in spring. Randy - your flowers are always gorgeous! Susan

OK, you guys are gross. :) Back then, I would just buy some Better Boys or whatever from local nursery that has never heard of heirlooms. Wow, what a dork I was back then. Anyway, those fruit really would not be worth growing out. Or eating. I knew that when I posted this, there would be some responders that would say, "Hey, what's wrong with eating them?" And while they might be technically correct.... eeeew. But if I did grow it out.... I would call it Colonic Survivor. :)