Yes Val, Lloyd does have a big one... um, compost that is. Got to keep on topic here, so yes, moderators, we are talking about compost and women do like them too. :O) I knew that response to a previous post would come back to haunt me one day Lloyd. Taking photos of the evidence was an OOPS moment. Me bad! As I said, I'll return the milk pail full of compost they produce to you in a couple of years. :O) Thanks Terrene, and for Karen, here's a couple of encore pics and one of 39 Monarchs which they helped raise this past year. This was my last 'baby', a male, released on October 8th. Paul, Nothing like a Cape Bretonner (I think you are...) lashing out at a mainlander!! LOL! Yep, I show them on my garden tours. They are part of what I do and actually the interest is quite amazing. Especially when you tell them they can do it for free. It's funny because I actually migrate towards compost piles when I visit other gardens... Folks sometimes think I'm up to no good. They probably fear me taking their compost away, and rightfully so. So you'd better keep that watch dog out when I visit, eh? :O) Idaho, My husband and I get along quite well when it comes to the compost. We have an agreement. He doesn't touch my compost and I don't touch his books - he's a worm of another kind. As long as my compost results in an increase in property value, which it has, and his books stay organized, then we are all good.

Mitanoff - mine's in a pot, but it's outside right now. It's been there since mid May, and it'll stay there untill the first frost warning in the fall. I leave it right next to the window it spends the winter in, so that the change in light levels isn't as severe as it would be if I summered the Hibiscus in a slightly sunnier spot. A five gallon pot sounds a bit big for a Hibiscus that's only two and a half feet tall - it might cause it to be too wet and develop root rot. Here's a pic of mine (well most of it anyway, there's a bit on the top I didn't get into the photo)- I left my flip-flops next to the pot for some scale: Mine always loses leaves during the winter, and it seems to finish losing the rest of the previous years leaves right about now. It's already put out tons of new leaves, so you can't really tell the old ones are going. By September it will be about twice as bushy as what you see now. I could really use a slightly bigger pot, but then my plant would get bigger - it's at the maximum size I have room for, so I don't want that. I do root prune the plant every couple of years though (in the spring) - I could do it every year, but it's too big of a task for me to deal with every year! It makes a huge difference. I cut the plant out of the pot, lay it on it's side, and remove as much soil as I can (having the plant in soil with a lot of perlite makes this much easier). I remove many of the bigger roots, and about a quarter of the other smaller ones. I repot it with fresh soil and away it goes. This isn't a root pruning year, and I can see it's not nearly as quick to fill out, nor does it have as many flowers as in the years I do it. I also fertilize it quite heavily once May rolls around. BP

Pommy, soy should be grown in full sun. Just plant them about an inch deep, in well worked soil, and keep them moist until they come up. They are pretty trouble free after they are up. For years my family and I lived in Mexico just about on the 20th parallel. During 8 of those years I taught in a Bible Institute and helped them with their agronomy program. Early on, the Mexican government began to promote soy as a nutritious manner to improve the diet of the poor. They would actually send out extension agents to give seminars on how to process the beans and produce soy milk, soy meal and soy cheese (tofu). They would also give demonstrations on how to used these products in tasty recipes which were culturally acceptable to the palate. We invited one fellow to give us a seminar, and it was really good! Unfortunately, soy beans, sold in the market, were expensive. I got to thinking: "Most of these folk know how to grow beans and corn. Why not have them grow soy beans and then they can use this technology and these recipes for next to nothing. I purchased soy beans from the market and planted them. At that latitude the plants, grown from seed produced in the northern USA and in Canada, would only attain a height of about 4 inches, produce a half dozen pods and dry down. It wasn't worth it. I tried growing out samples purchased in different towns and at different times of the year, hoping to find one which would prosper at the 20th parallel. As Zeedman has already observed, the problem was day length sensitivity. But none of them worked. One day, when I was thinking about this (this was what I call a "slow burn project), it occurred to me to take a globe, put my finger on our town and then rotate it West, heading for China, to see where soy was grown at a similar latitude. Before I got to Asia, my finger ran smack into Hawaii. So, I got out my Seed Savers Exchange yearbook and looked to see if anyone in Hawaii was offering seed for soy. There was! So, I requested the seed and planted it. It did super! Here's a picture of me, with some of this soy. It was listed and labeled as "Kahala," and had been developed at the U. of Hawaii, specifically for nematode resistance. Here's a picture from when I grew it in Hidalgo, Mexico in 2000. I don't know why, but at least for seven years now, it has been listed, even by the fellow I got it from, as Kohala. I haven't taken the time to try and figure this out. I grew it at least twice in the state of Hidalgo, at the 20th parallel. It performed beautifully. When we returned to the USA I left seed with the brethren at the Bible Institute. They never planted it, eventually losing it. I've tried to find my way through the bureaucratic mire of the S.A.R.C.H. (Mexican bureau over the promotion of such resources), and that over the Internet; without any success, hoping to get them some seed to distribute to the rural poor. Since then I have grown it ... in NEW JERSEY! And it produced very well there! I've grown it two times, now, in Oklahoma, and it is very well adapted to this climate and latitude. So, I'll keep it going and use it. Kahala (Kohala) grows like a hay type soy. The plants are pretty tall. Here in Oklahoma they reach about 3'. They are bushy and crowd out weeds when planted in a wide row. Last year I planted it on July 30 and it was ready to harvest October 25. Last year I planted Jewell, a northern adapted soy. I put it in on July 7 and it was completely dried down by the first of October. The plants were only about 15" tall (not bushy) and had a much closer pod set. Jewell produced very well. Pommy if your seasons are at all like what they were in Hidalgo, you have some latitude in planting times. But I planted in February and March. Can't say what would happen with a summertime planting. I never tried it. George Tahlequah, OK

Sometimes there are pathogen strains or environmental conditions increasing suspectability isolated to localized areas. I often have trouble with "Black Beauty" zucchini, but no other squash, even when right next to an obviously diseased BB, though I've also found that I have better luck when using BB from a big name rather than the $.10 packs. Was your compost home-grown, or purchased from one predominant source? Also, what was the seed source for those KW beans? I'm suspicious there is something else afoot, that bean is bulletproof in my experience, you shouldn't be having issues with it.