Yes Amaryll: I agree. I never soak freshly bought bulbs before planting. The soil provides more than enough humidity to hydrate the roots sufficiently. I did not experience any disadvatage. I like the idea that these dried roots are remoistened slowly / "sparingly" (is that the correct term ?!) - and it is more practical. My only pretreatment is to cut away all completely dried roots using sharp scissors for that prupose. I put more emphasize in very carefull planting. That includes that I hold the bulb and its roots respectively in the nearly empy pot so that the roots are hanging as far as possible not-bent. Then I fill the pot gradually up with coco peat substrate - simply unbeatable jusqu'Ã ce que someone finds something still better. I distrbute the soil carefully by knocking on the pot wall etc. -all the time having the bulb suspended in my one hand until the basal plate is covered. Meanwhile, being so consequent in my reflection I do not even follow any more the Inglishmaen's suggestion: "Water well then sparingly - no; I stuff the uppermoist layer of soil a little bit so that it won't dry out so quickly. I put the pot on a saucer and apply approx 100 mL of lukewarm water for a 2L substrate stuffing volume - which - *shllllllrrrp* is quickly absorbed. In our region the fungus gnat terrorism has meanwhile gotten so disastrous that I always spray the substrate surface with a ready for use insecticidal agent with immediate and prolonged (remanent) effect. Taking the opportunity I also spray the bulb's surface, too, But only very little and carefully on the "head": The new growth and the florets which emerge between the leaf bases might be damaged if the solution runs deeply inside the bulb. The bulb spraying potects against bulb scale mites which finally cause this famous red blotch I wish you good success and - never let the bulb surface become wet Hans-Werner

According to the literature that comes with the gel, the product "provides the right concentration of rooting hormones, suspended in a sterile gel medium that protects cuttings from pests and pathogens. Cuttings root speedily without damping off or needing water and you can watch progress every day. This new system has received rave reviews from the Royal Horticultural Society and English Garden magazines for ease of use and reliability." I can vouch for the fact that you can watch the roots grow, which is fun. The only thing that never grew were Geranium leaves, and I'm not sure if I was doing that right. What I mean is, I'm not sure you can propagate from just sticking a Geranium leaf in anything. Below I have left a link to the site where I found the gel if anyone is interested in looking it up. It's called: Gel-2-Root. Anyway, I'll have lots of cuttings to play with, so perhaps I'll do "half and half" -- put half in the gel and dry out the other half. The plant I'm working with is so HUGE that I'll probably end up with more plants than I want anyway, which is what usually happens! LOL! MacThayer Here is a link that might be useful: Kinsman Company

Hello! This is my first time canning cucumbers to make pickles. I followed one recipe which told me to soak the cuces in salt water for up to seven days in the fridge before canning. I soaked them for maybe about 15 hours and then canned some. However, when I took them out of the cold salt water they were bloated and softer than when I put them in there! I am using field cucumbers from my garden (not dill pickle cucumbers) and I had also cut off both ends of the cucumber before soaking them (as the recipe suggested). I know I only need to cut off the blossom end but wasn't sure which was which so just cut off both ends. I would think that cutting off the end(s) would leave the cucumber open for more salt water to get inside (and hence the waterlogged result I got). But reading online a bit I see that the idea is to get the salt into the cucumber so as to draw out the liquid - moisture. I think that my result was just the opposite. I washed them off and cut them into spears and canned them. They sure seemed mushy though. I still have 6 medium/ big cucumbers salt soaked but now washed sitting in a collander in my fridge. Might can them or may just compost them....or ??? A shame really bcs straight out of the ground they are really yummy. I watered regularilly and we had a sunny summer. I just cant eat so many of them raw! I am thinking next time just to skip the salt water brine and pickle them straight from the garden. Thoughts and ideas welcome please and thanks :) Jade in Vancouver Island,BC, Canada. Pacific Northwest.

Soaking garlic in a vinegar / seaweed / baking soda bath followed by an alcohol soak has been known to decrease the chance of fungus and mites infesting garlic plants.