I've been using alfalfa for years and reading this forum for years and I've never heard of triacontanol. I have read on occasion that there was a growth stimulator in alfalfa, but I would never use a material simply for that reason. The reason I use alfalfa (or corn meal, or corn gluten meal, or wheat flour, or coffee grounds, or soybean meal, or cottonseed meal) is that it feeds protein to the soil microbes. If you want to feed protein to your soil microbes indoors, I dilute milk in water and water with that. If you water a pure peat mix with milky water for three weeks, the soil will completely change as the soil fungi take off. The soil will even smell different (after the slightly sour milk smell dissipates). It will smell incredibly fresh and clean. I tried dusting the soil with coffee grounds to get the protein from them, but the milk worked 1000% better.

I hope I don't insult anyone here. If I do, it's really not intended and I apologize in advance. The only thing in common between coffee and tea is both have caffeine. Although, some more than others. Other than that, please don't compare coffee with tea. One is a bean and the other is a leaf! Beans, you may freeze them, leaves, you don't. Think about it, would you freeze lettuce? Even if they've dried up? The moisture created in the freezer will ruin the tea. As for floral tea, if the flowers are not mixed in with the tea leaves, it is not tea and of course, do not contain caffeine. It's considered under tea in a sense that you'd add hot water to the dried flowers for serving. To preserve tea, as beanthere_dunthat mentioned, keep in a dry, cool and dark area (away from the sun). If you can, vacuum pack the tea in smaller quantity, it's the best way to preserve them longer. Then, place the tea packages in double-lid containers. Avoid clear glass containers which allow light going through. Ceramic or stainless steels are fine. As for how long they'd last? That depends on the type of tea. Remember, Pu-erh tea is priced as they aged. Similar to wine, the older they are, the more costly they are. As with any food, leaving the tea leaves in whole would preserve its flavour longer than chopped it or grind it down into small pieces. That's one of the reason that many of us serious tea drinkers prefer whole tea leaves vs. small chopped up tea leaves in tea bags. Although, I do drink various types. As for preparation, use spring water if you can or filtered drinking water. This would help to bring out the most flavor and aroma of the tea. Avoid using tea bags or stainelss steel strainers for these do not allow the tea leaves to expand enough in order to release the flavor. The temperature of the water depends on the type of tea. cloud_swift had mentioned it above. You can find more details from tea vendors website. Most would recommend you the water temperature for your choice of tea. Do a Google search and you'd find plenty of info. Most important thing to remember, when the oxygen content in the water is reduced, the tea will taste flat. This is the reason why you wouldn't want the water to boil too long. Black, Pu-erh and Oolong teas are washed in hot water (barely boiling if you don't use a thermometer) once or twice before serving to allow the dried leaves to open. Basically, pour hot water into the tea leaves for about 20 seconds, then, pour the water out. Once they've been infused once or twice, you'd be able to taste the true flavor better on the next infusion. The more they're infused, the more intense the flavor and aroma would be. Of course, there's a limit of how many infusions each tea can have before the flavor is used up. You wouldn't need to do this with Green tea. When infusing green tea, use barely boiling water, then let it sit for about 5 minutes to cool it down a little before adding the water into the tea. If you have an interest in tea, I'd recommend watching the history of "Tea" that was shown on Modern Marvels by the History Channel. You can purchase the DVD at the link below. Tea is a wonderful and mysterious drink. It inspired many famous poets in the Asian world. It warms you if you're cold; yet, it also cools you when you're hot. It releases all of your stress and relaxes you. It calms you down when you're overwhelmed. It satisfies you in ways that no other drinks can. Next thing to learn is which teapot to use with which tea =o) I have one for Osmanthus Oolong tea, one for jasmine green tea and one for other flavor teas. Ok, that would be another thread. In the mean time, take time for Tea Time and Enjoy! =) Here is a link that might be useful: http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=77087

I've only used them to make jelly. Dehydrating fruit is dealt with over on the Harvest Forum if you need any tips on that aspect.

That’s interesting .. I already have some spinosad but didn’t realise, it is marketed here as a fruit fly control, see the blurb below. Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control has been included in this range because it’s based on spinosad, the naturally-derived insecticide found in Yates Success. Yates Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control works by tricking the insect into absorbing the spinosad that’s been combined with an irresistible bait. After she emerges from her pupal case in the soil, the female fly looks to feed on a source of protein before she lays her eggs. When she eats the protein and sugar bait in Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control, she also ingests a dose of the insecticide, which means she never makes it to the egg-laying stage. Fruit fly baits are nothing new but many have used a hormone that only attracts male flies (they’re the ones that don’t lay the eggs!) or have been based on a nasty chemical. Now Yates Nature’s Way Fruit Fly Control has a low toxic formulation that really works. also found this because spinosad is highly effective against diamondback moth, but because it also controls several other important lepidopteran pests such as heliothis (Helicoverpa spp.), cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae), cabbage centre grub (Hellula hydralis) and cabbage cluster caterpillar (Crocidolomia pavonana) at rates which provide growers with excellent value for money. Spinosad is highly active against loopers (Chrysodeixis spp.) and affords some control of cluster caterpillar (Spodoptera litura) and onion thrips (Thrips tabaci). So so if my rose slugs ever start on my buds I’ll use this. Might even do it on the climbing nahema as I can only squish so high! And they do shred the leaves to pieces ...