If the post was current, I'd say: #1 suggestion would be to stop using any household cleaner (dishsoap) as a way to clean leaves or in an insecticidal capacity. See something I wrote about it below. BTW, disregard any argument that goes something like "I've been doing it for years and have noticed no adverse effects ......". The fact is, it destroys cuticular wax, and if it gets to the roots, root lipid membranes. So, it prevents or limits roots from taking up water/nutrients, and destroys the mechanism by which plants limit water loss from their foliage and protect against insects and entry of pathogens. If you need a product to clean leaves or to use as an insecticide, insecticidal soaps are made from long chain fatty acids, formulated to be safe for most plants, though there are a few plants sensitive even to insecticidal soaps. A mix of 70% isopropyl/rubbing alcohol and water at 1:1 or 2:1 (2 water: 1 alcohol) if all you need for mites. Spritz the plant thoroughly at 4 day intervals, making sure you coat the entire surface of the plant, including inferior leaf surfaces and and leaf axils where they tend ti hide in the dark. A change in watering habits or a change in your grow medium are usually all you need to be rid of gnats. Unless your pot is 5" deep or less, avoid the advice to water when the top inch or two of the soil is dry. It's a recipe for over-watering and the very idea is enough to make a gnat's eyes spin in anticipation of the orgiastic frenzy induced by media the surface of which provides a never ending supply of wet/rotting organic matter. This should be helpful, as would be changing to a highly aerated medium, the surface of which dries quickly, and using a "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water. Detergents Dishsoap/ detergent’s effect on plants varies with the mode of exposure. Dawn, Palmolive, Joy, ...... dishsoap, as an example, are each and all a mishmash of chemicals, at least eleven of which are phytotoxic. If the top of the plant is sprayed thoroughly with even mild detergent solutions such that all surfaces including leaves are covered, the detergent can easily dissolve the protective coating of cuticular wax on the leaves of the plant, causing abnormally high rates of water loss and possible necrosis of all or part of the leaf. Cuticular waxes prevent leaves from drying out, and help stop pathogens from attacking the leaf. Strong solutions will even dissolve cell membranes, causing death of the cells. If a detergent solution is used as a soil drench or makes its way into the soil as a consequence of over-spray or run-off, the effect on roots is immediate. Because one of the main function of roots is to absorb water and nutrients dissolved in water, they lack the waxy protective coating that leaves employ. Detergent solution in contact with root cells can quickly dissolve the lipid membrane surrounding cells, killing the cells and inhibiting water/ nutrient uptake. Hair cells growing as appendages off larger roots do the lion’s share of assimilating water and nutrients, and these very delicate cells would be the first casualty of any detergent in the root zone. There are widely available insecticidal soaps, designed to be used topically and made mixing potassium with only long chain fatty acids, carefully selected and specifically formulated to be safe for mammals & birds, death on most insects they contact, and most important, safe for plants. If you need something "soapy", it would be much better if you selected a product intended for use on plants than one intended for other purposes. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. What I use for grow media: Al

My favorite is a stainless steel 3 qt. bowl I've had for so long I don't even remember where I got it. It's as wide at the bottom as it is at the top and makes mixing cakes and things that need to be blended well so easy. It has a pouring spout and a handle. All it says on the bottom is "Stainless Steel" "Made in Korea". If the house catches fire, I'm grabbing that bowl before I leave!! I have another smaller pottery bowl I bought at a craft show. It has a spout and handle, too. Good size for whipping up enough pancake batter or macerating fruit for the two of us.

aptosca/Clare- -Be careful how much VWG you add. Too much will make the bread tough, not just give it loft, and it often takes longer to knead and develop the gluten the more you add. -Gluten absorbs moisture like a sponge, so you may also need to use less flour if you add VWG - so go by the "feel" of the dough and aim for a well-hydrated, soft dough. Stiff dry dough will make a dry, squatty loaf. Personally, I think you will get more loft by using King Arthur Baker's Special Dry Milk in an enriched loaf of bread, rather than adding VWG. Additional VWG is generally unnecessary if you use bread flour or even all-purpose flour. If you've never made rye bread before, rye flour in bread dough will cause the dough to be characteristically sticky, and because of this people tend to add too much flour during kneading (especially if the rye flour is 20% of the total amount of flour, or more) to off-set the stickness - a big no-no.... A simple way to solve this problem, if you are making the dough by hand, is by placing the dough in a large freezer zip-lock bag (use a freezer bag because the plastic is thicker and takes more "abuse" from kneading). Place the dough into the freezer-bag, press out as much air as possible before closing, and knead the dough while it's in the bag, from the outside of the bag (a la Bread-In-A-Bag - see link below). You can still adjust the hydration, but this should help keep from adding too much flour because the stickiness from the rye flour won't be sticking to your hands. There are also kneading gloves that can be used for sticky doughs, but a freezer zip-lock bag an easy fix (and probably less expensive). When the dough has been kneaded enough, press the dough into one corner of the bag; open the bag and turn it inside out to get the dough out. BTW - this is one bag you won't want to wash and save ;-). A mistake often made, and why the dough doesn't seem to raise as high as you'd like, is from using the wrong amount of dough for the pan size. This is also the cause of over- or under-proofing. As an example: if you make a recipe that makes 1-1/2-pounds of dough (about 3-cups of flour in the recipe) and place it in a 9x5" pan (which are generally designed to be used for loaves of quick breads), that's the wrong pan for that amount of dough - a standard-size loaf pan is a better choice - 8-1/2x4-1/2". Jumbo pan - 10x4-1/2" - approx. 4-5 c. flour - 2+ pounds of dough Quick Bread Pan - 9x5" - 4 c. flour - 2# dough Standard Loaf - 8-1/2x4-1/2" - 3 c. flour - 1-1/2# dough Medium Loaf - 7-1/2x3-1/2" - 2-1/2 c. flour - 1# dough Small Loaf - 5-3/4x3-3/4" - 1-1/2 c. flour - 8 oz. dough Here is a link that might be useful: Easy Yeast Breads In a Bag

Ok, it is not melamine! Melamine doesn't ding like crystal, nor would there be a white rim on the bottom, nor would it chip with white underneath. I do have an old Pyrex mixing bowl that is the same size. But notably, the Libbey feels denser, and rings more like crystal when pinged, than the Pyrex. Also, Pyrex doesn't have a white rim on the bottom, like porcelain and stoneware. Hence why I think the only viable choices here are porcelain or stoneware. The porcelain tableware I have however, doesn't really look or feel like this bowl (aside from the fact that all the porcelain I have is white). This is heavier, thicker, and doesn't have a shiny glaze for example, but a very matte finish. However, I have some dinner plates from Noritake, circa 70s, made of stoneware. That comes the closest to the feel of this bowl. The Noritake is dense and heavy, has a white rim on the bottom, and matte finish (except for the interior, which is glazed). Differences are that the Libbey's finish is way smoother/slipperier than the Noritake plates, and while the Noritake will make a ding sound when you ping it, the Libbey will ring like a tuning fork when struck with a finger. Still, they seem like they belong more to the same family than porcelain. I'll give it to "Gramarows", that it must be stoneware!