bpgreen, thanks for the response. My lack of chemistry knowledge is probably showing. When I said something about our bodies not being able to digest corn syrup I was vaguely remembering reading that all cells can metabolize glucose but only our livers can metabolize fructose, and the particularly bad corn syrup is high fructose corn syrup, HFCS. Ok, I have no idea how to tell what sceince is reputable or not, but I did a quick search and found this article which talks about how HFCS is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. And that the fructose contains both glucsoe and fructose, but that when testing rats (of course) it's the fructose that was harmful. Whew. Like I said, sceince is not really my thing, especially the part of sorting out what is valid and what isn't. If you are scared by everything you read, you'd live on rice and water, you know? But just intuitively I feel that coffee is a much more "natural" and less processed drink, so it is currently my vice of choice. Of course, on a nice hot day like today and being at the grocery store looking at the great deals on Dr. Pepper, espcially Diet Dr. Pepper which really does taste the best out of all diet soda when we are so close to swim-suit season, I am tempted, really tempted. But then my intuitive part kicks in and I wonder why I would avoid putting chemical fertilizers in my garden but then pour artifical sweeteners in my compost, I mean my body. ;) But then again, I don't even put sugar in my coffee, much less artifials sweeteners, I use blue agave. That is what happens when a southern girl move to California. ;) Ok, enough rambling. Here is the one link I found quickly searching just to get the jist of what freaks me out about corn syrup. Here is a link that might be useful: The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

I'm still here, there just been a wholeeeee lot of life in the way the last couple weeks. bdrusse, This looks pretty normal to me for a first year spring planted maple tree in the open. I see this allot in the area on Red and Sugar maples. It varies some with cultivar (i.e. Legacy seems to adjust a bit better than some of the others), but that is just a gross generalization. We have two Sugar Maples. One Commemoration and the other Fall Fiesta. The Commemoration was planted toward late spring, and eventually developed substantial leaf burn. Eventually I ended up use gallon jugs (about 1.5 gallons of water) with a pin size hole to water slowly every other day through the worst and driest part of summer. That prevented the burn from getting any worse, and the following year, it was fine with normal size leaves. The Fall Fiesta was planted in the fall. The following growing season leaves were near normal size, was some very moderate growth, and no burn occurred during summer. All of which is to say your tree looks about as expected for the circumstances for the amount of time it had to grow roots before leafing. It simply can not support more until there is an increase in root mass. IMHO the burn you are seeing is due to the hot and windy days we have had for the last month, and not enough root mass as of yet. Our Sugar Maples have been frosted almost every year (I live in a cold spot) to as low as 21-22 degrees, and have not suffered apparent freeze damage, so I don't think that was the problem. Just keep taking good care of it, and it should be fine next season. And in way of FYI, don't expect fall color this year, and you probable won't have allot next either. It takes a few years after planting for them to develop something like color. Three years for our Commemoration, and last year our Fiesta appeared as though it would have, but high very dry winds destroyed the show. Also be aware there is one flush of growth a year in the spring. Mine start in mid-April, and shoot elongation is done by 3-4 weeks, thought the leaves aren't yet fully mature. Lastly, leaf size varies with cultivar. The leaves of our Fiesta are significantly larger than the Commemoration. Do you know if and what cultivar you bought? Almost looks like Commemoration to me, but it's only a guess. Arktrees

8b!=8a. Since I'm not an idiot, I never said that sugar cane can't be processed without slaves. I implied that no sane person would CHOOSE to process sugar cane BY HAND unless that person had a level of desperation not likely to be found in a first-world country. Got a few extra mules and a whole lotta free energy (like a big pile of brush to burn)? Knock yourself out. Below is a link with info about how sugar cane is processed. For each stage, there is a low-tech tool that was used historically. You just MIGHT be able to find some rotting away in some Florida barn. You can try agricultural antique stores. You can also try making your own. In some (really miserable) parts of the world, sugar cane IS still processed partly by hand--the milling, for example, is done with something like a hand-crank mangle. (I've seen videos. I'd take hand processing of rubber over it any day.) So what you could do is grow the cane (if it grows in your area and you supply it with enough water), harvest it by hand, chop up the canes, run them through a mangle from Lehman's, strain it in a hand strainer, figure out a supplier for food-grade clarification materials and clarify it, boil is down until it's super-saturated (days????) (repeating last two steps as needed...), throw a handful of sugar into it, and BAM! There you go. Raw sugar, with all molasses included. Here is a link that might be useful: Have fun!

We don't have any trees in our yard, we are basically a house and lawn in the middle of the trees. Well I can't compare to any other organic lawn. My nearest neighbors lawn looks emerald green already and last year it was tragic. I don't think he's organic although I can't swear to it. I really wasn't unhappy with our lawn coming in for year two last year or through the summer that's why this is such a shock. A few are heavy snow spots. Snow side of the snow fence is one example. I am putting SBM down tomorrow. I have one more area to loosen up the flat grass still. We may have rain Sat or Sun so it will be decent timing and a warm spell, very warm for my area. So is 250 lbs too heavy a feeding? I notice you mentioned 200 lbs. Again, thanks for the start I do appreciate it.