Before you get jumped on by someone else, I think you made a little typo, Jodi. Light CAN, at times, be the most limiting factor in growing - it's just not ALWAYS the most limiting factor, or the most important factor, and it certainly cannot negate the effects of other limiting factors - you can't make up for a dry or over-fertilized plant by giving it more light. That would be a ridiculous suggestion, as we all agree, I'm sure. The most important factor changes, and if you're working on eliminating limiting factors you'll find they will arise in a succession, but it is always the most limiting factor that is most important. Example - A plant that loves bright sun is doing poorly. It is in the shade, but it is dry and malnourished, and has scale. The obvious most important potential limiting factor to correct is the moisture level. Then, we really have no way of knowing whether light, the malnutrition, or the scale infestation are the next most limiting. If we correct one issue, say light, we may or may not have corrected the next most limiting issue. If we did not, we cannot expect the plant to grow at beyond it's limits. If we DID - if light WAS the next most limiting factor, then the next most limiting issue, after light, becomes the most important. Light is just 'somewhere in the queue'. Don't get me wrong, I'd never try to diminish the importance of light and it's influence on healthy plants, but plants grown in perfect light die quite often from other limiting causes. Since I assume the viability of the organism is the measure by which we judge the importance of limiting factors, it can ONLY be concluded that when plants in perfect light die, light was NOT the limiting factor, it was not king, and it did not negate the limiting effects of other factors. Never, is everything exactly perfect, and as soon as you get one factor as close to perfect as possible, the factor that is farthest from perfect becomes the most important issue to deal with. It takes thousands of parts to build an automobile on an assembly line. The part that is in shortest supply will always have the greatest potential to bring the line to a stop. Replenish the supply of that particular part, and the next part that is in shortest supply claims the greatest potential to bring the line to a stop ....... and so it goes with plants. Keep us posted with pics, Mike. Where do you find the time to take & post so many shots? Good job! Al

I put the goldfish down, I got him into a 10 gallon tank so I could really get a good look at him. This formerly white/pink fish was brownish/orange all over. You could see every capillary around his scales. His eyes were totally covered over with who-knows-what. I just felt so bad for him, I though the best thing for him was to let him go. I don't like doing that at all! I've been testing my water every day or two. With the drop version of the tests, the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all at zero. The pH is 8.2. How long do you think it might be before the fish start to actually feel better? They are still hiding out in the shady part of the tank. I put some plastic over the end of a large diameter white tube so I could get a peek at them. Of the ones I can see (dang green water!), it looks like their fins are not clamped down but they are still just hanging out in the corner. I feel like we have turned a corner, water quality-wise. I'm just wondering how long it will be before my fish are happy again. Go figure, but standing outside worrying about my pond and fish hasn't made it all better yet. :)

NZ, no dishes of water (West Nile virus) but I do occasionally wash down the plants or the cement floor under the arbor. Plus there are grape and passion fruit vines above it and grass in front of it, not to mention lots of plants. I do have plans for drip lines and probably micro misters for early morning or evening (no direct sun). Yes LL, they are from Juan's pulasan tree, I try to pretend I dont care about them, so they wont die. It would be a complete miracle if I can get them to fruit and even more outrageous if they taste as good as Juan's. Some of the PR seedlings are growing pretty well, plants in the photos are in 5gal pots. Even the mangosteen are growing moderately well, the slowest growers.........herrania umbricata and kwai muk. Charleslou, all of the lychees except the Mauritus are in pots.

We spent an eon agonizing over how to incorporate a computer into the kitchen -- the computer is where we get all of our recipes, all of our music, as well as all of our news/movies/info/entertainment. We came _this close_ to buying an i-mac and putting it on an articulating arm mounted to the side of the pantry (which is next to the prep area). Our thinking was that it could face someone seated at the island for t.v. or could be used for recipe sites in the prep area, while also being able to play music or podcasts over the in-ceiling speakers. In the end after visiting the Apple store and talking at length with an APple guy (who happens to be a lawyer by day and about to embark on his own kitchen renovation), with his help we went an altogether different route, although the new i-macs are beautiful, we realized that we'd rather search for recipies (and music, and everything else) on our individual laptops while seated in the living room and then carry the laptop into the kitchen as opposed to doing this while sitting or standing in the kitchen. By our way of thinking, the hours that the kitchen computer would get used would not be enough to justify buying a new computer for the job, and most of what we wanted it to do could be better done on a laptop (and I'd argue even better done on a brand spankin' new i-book, but so far no dice). Thus this is the route we chose instead: 1 - speakers installed in the kitchen ceiling (and living room ceiling too)and wired to the back of the pantry, we had our electrician put an outlet inside it 2 - a shelf installed in the pantry that holds the following: 2- powered amps (0ne for each set of speakers), and an Airport Express that my laptop (or any computer in the household) that allows me to opt to play through the in-ceiling speakers (I-tunes, or Pandora mostly, but could play anything the computer can get to). 3 - a slate lazy susan (ordered from Amazon) to hold a laptop on the island while cooking, the thought here is that it keeps it up out of spills, and also turns as the cook changes positions while cooking. 4 - as for the t.v., there are lots of small, high-res lcd t.v.'s at Sam's Club/Costco that would do the job and fit nicely in a small space for less than $300, it didn't seem to make sense to buy a dedicated computer to primarily be a t.v. (at 3x the cost of the t.v.). We don't actually watch t.v.(just Netflix, I-tunes t.v. shows and Hulu) so it hasn't been an issue, but if we did, say want t.v. going while in the kitchen, II think I'd buy an inexpensive one rather than buying another/dedicated computer to be a t.v. (though that could be done as well). 5 I'd till like to add a wireless keyboard and mouse tothe laptop because they're under $100, cute as a button and would allow me to not worry about having messy hands on the keyboard while cooking. Although the island is still under construction, the speakers, amps and airport extreme are up and running, and we're...