It was said: "I really wonder what rust it is. I did some diggin on the 'net, and can't find any mention of rust on strawberries in the US." I found my reference to rust on strawberries in the "Compendium of Strawberry Disease" from the American Phytopathological Society, the author J. L. Maaas, USDA, Beltsville, MD. As I said, that source stated it was rare. They cited the disease as in Florida. That said, kurtg, from MD, reported seeing rust while growing up on a PYO strawberry farm. So, unless kurtg is smoking something funny, I'd say that strawberry rust does occur in the US but perhaps it's not widely spread enough to be reported. (Just a thought.)

Thanks for the replies. It would be awesome if I could get everything organic (the no chemical no gmo etc organic) but I guess that's not necessarily what I've been buying. I've been replacing all our chemical stuff with non-chemical stuff for pests and cleaning etc for many months. So, I'll just take progress on the organic front where I can get it. I wish I didn't need to buy soil at all. But we have a lot of erosion and our dirt is almost all on top of concrete riddled backfill. Plus, the house was a meth lab before we bought it, complete with burn pits, etc. The neighbors even told me the garage blew up once. So, we've bought the field next to us, so I can plant some trees there. But, everything else is going in the big raised beds we've been slowly building. I'm focusing on perennial food plants for now. And, I'm still more comfortable buying the organic stuff from Lowe's slowly to fill the beds, even if it isn't the type of organic I hope it is. I still feel like it will be better for the plants to grow in and my family to eat, than what may or may not be in the soil here from the previous yahoos that cooked meth. Thanks toxcrusadr and gardengal for taking the time to help me sort it out.

I can't tell you how many things have gone into 5 gal pots. No, I cannot stand to toss plants, everything needs to be planted...well, I think I've gotten over that one. I have a couple of friends who did benefit quite a lot this year from stuff I was getting rid of and happy to see someone else take it...lol.. There are 15 year old, very large trees here that were set on the ground during moving, eventually rooted through the pots and are now huge. Turns out I liked all of the spots where they rooted also...lol. I would not have chosen to plant them there. I will NOT go to a nursery again for a very, very long time. Why is it impossible to plant just a few seeds of what you want? Why must it always end up as a full flat? Why is this so hard to give up?

Which varieties of citrus do best for own-root, grown from seed? I think there's something to be said for being natural. And I refuse to believe it is absolutely impossible to grow any type of decent citrus fruit without having to use grafting. Edit: Another discussion in this forum says that many citrus varieties can be grown own-root, but some maybe less sweet, and the roots require more frequent irrigation and are more vulnerable to disease. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg012036217931.html And for some citrus varieties, the fruit resulting from the seedlings may be significantly different from the parent. It's all luck of the draw with the genes, and once the breeders found a winner they simply resorted to clonal propagation. For planting citrus seeds, one of the really helpful things is to carefully peel off the slimy covering over the seed, it helps the seed begin to grow much sooner, otherwise it takes time for this protective layer to rot away in the soil. This post was edited by Socal2warm on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 21:14