It was June last year that I commented on this thread. Some updates: Falstaff was removed. I had enough after some serious pampering this spring without a single flower. I did love those (rare) flowers though. Madame Isaac Pereire died. It was in too dry a spot after all. My tears dried after putting my nose into Alnwick Castle. Evelyn. Moved to a sunnier position and they have taken off. Keeping them. Alexandra Duchesse de Luxembourg. My opinion hasn't changed. Doesn't thrill me. I don't hate it. From a distance it does catch the eye since the flowers are so large. She's in a holding pattern for now. Claire Austin was removed. I just didn't like yellow color fading to dirty newspaper color. Blech. Old Blush. it's still there. I'm getting used to those flowers with poor form and strident color. Pure Perfume. I discovered that they need more sun and water, but I have no place to move them to. Keeping them for now. Radio Times, moved to a pampered pot, grew a little, but never seems happy. Will not stay in my garden. William Shakespeare 2000. I discovered that the problem really is that they need more water. I may put them in pots. Off the chopping block. So I was somewhat right: some of the "eh" factor was due to cultural factors. But not all. These are now in the "eh" column: Sonia Rykiel. Flowers don't take the heat. Not very fragrant in my yard (maybe next year). Doesn't produce those glorious flowers that Fragrancenutter shows. Doesn't really want to grow. My second plant died and I've already replaced it with another Alnwick Castle. Dee-lish. Happy to grow, happy to bloom, lovely fragrance, but to my eye, not very pretty. Winchester Cathedral. It's there, it blooms well in the spring, with very short-lived flowers, then a few flowers here and there the rest of the summer. Weird fragrance. Doesn't wow me. In my garden it's just a nondescript white rose without a lot of flowers. Iceberg. I really like the fragrance, but after the spring show, the flower form is lost, and the leaves always look sickly yellow. I may replace them with Desdemona, or Bolero, or ...

Graywings, Bibb lettuce is the type I see here sold in those clamshells. As long as the roots exist and have been kept moist, they can be planted and will grow more leaves. I planted the remains of our local hothouse Bibb variety about 2 weeks ago and they are almost ready to pick. My daughter allowed red leaf lettuce (greenhouse purchased) to go to seed last year and this year she has several beautiful heads. here's my lettuce surrounded by pepper plants in the grow box. We can’t have a garden here because the deer, rabbits and other critters have a field day.

I live in Northern Michigan, zone 5, and I plant onion plants in May, they are harvested in August or September. I do try to plant onions that will store well, and last year the red ones took longer to mature, but they kept the longest, well into December. Grandpa grew up in Canada, north of Toronto, so colder than here and so I imagine he farmed in Michigan much like he farmed in Canada, as that would be what he knew. I remember he would build "cold frames" out of bales of hay or straw, make a square with 4 bales, fill with dirt, cover with a sheet if it got really cold. He was a widower with 7 children to feed, so I think early and late crops were pretty important to him. I also remember he had some old salvaged windows that he used to put on top of some of those bales, building a makeshift "greenhouse" to grow more fragile plants. I also get onion plants from Dixondale, as well as leeks, which do extremely well here. Annie

Photone isn't very reliable as it isn't cosine corrected like a proper lux meter would be. Get a lux meter. A cheap but good one is $20. A better one is $35. For high CRI value white LEDs you can roughly approximate 70 lux=1ppfd. And even by the app readings, that's not really crazy high. Based on the chart you link, full sun vegetable crops grow at 600+ ppfd. Cacti and succulents are also in the same range of light requirements as full sun vegetable crops. So 700 ppfd is definitely up there, but not ludicrously high. The totem pole definitely needs probably in the range of 800 to actually grow a decent rate and not become super stretched out. The others can handle 500+ ppfd easily.