Fixed it!!!! I had a good case out of nowhere, geographic tongue for 5 years, starting at age 53. I am 60-1/2 now I fixed mine, and it was by accident. I had a cold, and drank Delsym cough syrup. I have always taken cough syrup, no biggie, no issues, but likely pre-geographic tongue. This time, it burned my mouth badly. The geographic spots themselves, most of the top of my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and several spots in my throat. Just one or two sips of the syrup did this as I felt some pain within a day, and I took probably 4 more over a couple of days before I associated the cough syrup with this and stopped taking it. I hated this cough syrup, and thought something was wrong with it. It felt like very severe pizza burns. The pain increased, peaked, and took 2-3 weeks for the pain to subside, but eventually it did. What's crazy is that the geographic spots were gone. A year later they started to come back, and I did the same with Delsym because I still had it in my desk at work, and had the same result. It was during a cold, so I wasn't doing it just for GT, but for the cold mainly, but curious if it would help the GT. As the cough syrup before had such a painful result, I wasn't pumped up about doing this. The associated upper pallette and throat pain were there, but less, on this second time. Since then, I have done this with other cough syrup brands, so there is nothing about that brand, but I haven't compared and isolated the ingredient to know exactly what is doing this. I had a cold last week, and have Equate Cough DM on my desk, and took some sips a few days ago. Some pain on my tongue, and the roof of my mouth, minor, but I wasn't showing any geographic tongue spots. Likely this is nipping it in the bud before it really starts up is my guess. What's kind of key to me, and what everyone in the medical establishment appears to be missing, is that it apparently isn't isolated to the exact geographic spots. When I took the cough syrup "that served as medicine to treat" the GT, it created distinct patches or areas of pain on the roof of my mouth, in my throat and my tongue in general that weren't showing GT. Cough syrup in prior years never caused this pain. Only after the GT, and the pain was on the GT spots, and other spots I mentioned. So they HAVE to be associated, even though they weren't showing spots. That tells me whatever mechanism is present on the spots, is also present elsewhere in the mouth and throat, but not showing as spots. This might not work for anyone else, but I'm darned curious to know if it might. Please let me know if anyone has tried this. This is one heck of a nuisance disorder to have, and the medical communities inability to tell us anything about it is hard to believe in this day and age. I lucked out. Since other people have done other things with positive results, and nothing seems to be universal, probably the same here. But there has to be a link.

This isn't really a trading forum but anyway .... Manuka is Leptospermum scoparium, a pretty common shrub in mild climates. I'm sure you can find it quite easily in commerce in the US. If you were intending to grow it outdoors you might find it unsuitable for your zone. Here is a link that might be useful: Leptospermum scoparium

Hi Jan I am trying all my old tomato seeds this week: Bloody Butcher, Crimson Cushion, juanne Flamme, Summer Choice, etc just to use up the '13 still in my stash. Stupid, I know, since I don't have room for the big buckets in my yard! I also started lettuce, wildflowers, wallflowers, alliums, lobelia, and more. The seeds I sowed last month are up and I'm fixing to pot them up so I can reuse those trays. I got alot of seed packs from the Santa Swap and I'm just chomping at the bit to try them. What kind of mater's and peppers did you start? Susie

Found leaf roller type caterpillers IN my kumquats. Hand picked for now (fun) and am debating a spray. I don't have any Bt on hand, so I'm pondering neem. Found a small anole on another kumquat. It was evening so he was tucked in for the night. Would like to think they are out there looking for those cats. I think I've seen them eat moths, so that's good. My other plants get patrolled by the small wrens, but they don't seem to check out the citrus. If the turtle could climb, I suppose he'd take care of those cats. The cats are quite speedy, but also if that turtle, actually. Very, very few frogs this year. Very unusual. I need to review the specifics as to what benefits these have: ProTekt (or similar) , foliar kelp. For a 'strengthen the plant' type approach.