my apologies in advance for not getting my pictures posted as promised last week. also apologies for some of the pictures revealing a few pet pyramids as well. this is actually my first attempt at posting. the first 5 pictures were taken last thursday morning. i cut the grass on thursday night and the final 3 pictures were taken about an hour ago. the brown circles you may see are where i hit the grass with roundup the weekend before our snow (4 weeks ago) and they are not fully recovered yet or from pet urine. thanks all! http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00896.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00895.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00894.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00893.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00892.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00902.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00900.jpg http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm142/ajones222/DSC00899.jpg

Last year, I started with four cages. I found some plastic stakes that had a hole near the top. I used four stakes per cage and attached them with shower curtain hooks. It was a bother to keep unhooking the cages to access the bushes. I didn't notice any movement with the cages, unhooked, so I left them unhooked. The deer sick their tongues inside the cages and will eat anything they can reach. I need at least six inch clearance from plant to cage. I have increased the size of some of the cages to get the clearance. They are all around four feet in diameter and four feet high. I have observed through deer damage that the deer can't eat anything higher than 3 1/2 feet. About 25 years ago I rebuilt a wire fence between my property and a creek bed. The fence was 50 feet long, six feet high with 2/4 pressure treated wood in concrete. The wire fencing was attached with u shaped staples. The fence was not intended to keep deer out. One day a deer in my yard felt trapped and kicked the wire until an opening was created. I haven't bothered to repair it, since it would happen again. If a deer pushes against a cage, it flexed but doesn't move. It is more of a psychological than a physical barrier. A dog or a raccoon would need about three seconds to get under the cage. Fortunately my problem is with deer. I have what is known as urban deer. A few small families that stay in the same area. I rarely see a buck. Last year, there was a one that hung out around mating season and they are much more wary than the does. I now have a cluster of 8 cages that offer more protection than a single cage. They go all the way to the right side of the photo. As you can see, they are not as obtrusive as a fence and no gate is required.

I choose to enjoy my plants when I can. I live in China now, so I have a good friend who is taking care of my collection for me. I have him send pictures during the growing season. I am trying to figure out which ones of my relatives are into c & s, so I can decide who to 'leave' my plants to. I start most of my plants from seed, including saguaros and pachycereus pringlei. So I have no hope of ever seeing them grow arms. I plan to be cremated and thrown into the Atlantic off Maine along with my dog's ashes. I can't validate, but I believe VT was one state that took up the issue of being buried on private property. The school I teach in was on a former cemetery. The bodies were dug up and moved somewhere else. China has a very large population and cemetery land is being reclaimed for second uses. The government is encourage people to consider 'green funerals' such as cremations and burial at sea. The whole area was once a rural village. Traditional Chinese want to be buried in their traditional hometowns, so many want to be buried here. Where do they bury them? Along the median strip of the boulevards under the electrical towers. Last Christmas, I saw one burial right out side the school gate. Coffin and all, along with one guy digging a hole and the other lighting off firecrackers (the ever preset firecrackers). I was told there was another funeral yesterday. You see mini cemeteries along the roadside. Walk along the road and you'll probably bump into a grave. Maybe I use part of my ashes as a growing medium for my pachys or pachypodium rosalatum!

Italian and you're in a tomato place ;-) I'd be happy to translate it for you and found it historically very interesting ...thank you for this great piece of history...., there are no smoking gun clues that we might hope for. It sounds much more like a sport was found in the field and no one really cared where it came from or maybe just didn't want to tell others what they did. IMO, it sounds like they just crossed two common US varieties and got a good selection and put the Ingegnoli Brothers name on it without further ado. I don't believe the catalog actually; as catalogs usually a full of it, it is probably an F2 that was subsequently selected till it bred true at a later date, but that's my speculation at risk of getting thrown off the bridge with concrete boots and a broken face. I'll do it one paragraph at a time since I'm on vacation this weekend and even though I follow it, to get the nuances near perfect takes work. Probably many can read it better at first glance, but let me start... ================================ Ingegnoli Tomato - New for 1902 Some years ago we had found in our tomato fields a specimen of very large fruit, of a bright red color, firm fleshed, endowed in short, with all of those traits demanded of an ideal tomato. Happy with this event, and sure we could create a marvelous thing from that specimen, with true passion, we took a task that wasn't easy, and made selections that continued to successfully fulfill our work and reward us with a perfectly great tomato, that we could call our own, and were sure that we would not make a mistake by putting our name on it. The Ingegnoli tomato is the answer to all the demands: for the uniformity of the fruit, in the color, meatiness of the flesh, productivity, or resistance to disease. The plant is vigorous, tall, has heavy green foliage, and perfectly formed fruits, oval, very large, that can even reach a weight of 500 grams (18 ounces), smooth brilliant red skin with no ribbing, nor cracks, meaty flesh, and a full, firm interior with very few seeds. It is an early tomato that fruits right up to frost. These characteristics make it especially good for sauce, because when the flesh is peeled it always keeps a sweet flavor and deep red color. Now that many are canning whole tomatoes for the winter, the Ingegnoli variety is the best one that lends itself to this and here's how it's done: The whole fruits from the flower stem are put in a container (ed. note, tin was available at that time though subject to corrosion made it smart to use within 6-8 months or glass jar like now) with brine (water saturated with table salt); then to prevent contact with air you pour over them a layer of quality olive oil, about 1-2 cm thick that floats on top of the brine (3/8 - 3/4 inch). Tomatoes preserved this way won't lose much of their flavor, but before you use them, rinse them in fresh water or else it will make the food too salty. To the farmer, we especially recommend you dedicate yourself to growing tomatoes, because it is a very profitable farming if done logically and by choosing an early variety or productive one, like the Ingegnoli tomato. Here are some numbers to convince our readers: Each hectare can have ten thousand plants. Each plant yields an average of 2 to 3 kilograms of tomatoes, which if sold give from 10 to 15 cents per kilogram. This provides a gross income per hectare as follows: Minimum L.2000 ... Maximum L.4500 ... Average L.3250. (Ed. These figures correspond to the following in acres, dollars and pounds: 4.5 to 6.5 pounds per plant; US cents, 0.9 to 1.3 cents per pound sold price; Gross income per acre: Minimum $157 ... Maximum $352 ... Average $255. ) Considering the debts, that the goal should be after expenses to keep an average net profit per hectare of L.1625 ! (Ed. $127/acre) Cost of a bag of seeds of the INGEGNOLI TOMATO Cent . 50. (Ed. US, 10 cents) ======================================= Ciao! PC This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 19:57