I'm always glad to hear from you, Kippy! Thank you, Nastarana and Campanula for your info. Hi Camp: you are right about "a few handfuls of native topsoil into sterile potting soils". Two books on roses in container recommended the same. ... (one by Douglas Green in Canada and the other by Field in Texas). Since I love to do experiments, I'll going to try the 2-20-20 low-salt index of 7.2 (compare that to high salt index of other soluble fertilizers with urea at 74 index, and ammonium sulfate at 88.3 index). Kelp4Less sells 2-20-20 at $14 per pound. I tried the Schultz Bloom plus at 10-60-10 on my petunias in pots. That was GREAT! Triple blooming and triple root growth. That's sold at Lowes food on-line for $2.99. If I see that at Menards, I'll grab it (my soil is tested low in phosphorus.) What's special about 2-20-20 formula, besides being organic and low-salt, is the blend of Mycorrhiza fungi added: Soluble Inoculant powder Mycorrhizal fungi and 19 beneficial bacteria inoculants. Beneficial Endo Mycorrhizal fungi species ..... They also added molass, which fungi loves. It would be interesting to compare the results on petunias using chemical 10-60-10 plus my clay mixed with potting soil, versus organic 2-20-20 with endomycorrhizal, bacteria, and molass. Here is a link that might be useful: Low-salt & organic 2-20-20 at Kelp4less This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Wed, Mar 6, 13 at 12:31

One more 39 year high school reunion photo. It was 39 years because it was a multi-class reunion and everyone in this photo graduated in 1971. That's me in the yellow and white tops. The guy with his arm around me and the guy right behind me with the enormous grin are guys I hung out with in high school. My very best friend in the whole wide world is the tall blond wearing the black top on the other side of the guy next to me. The other two in the photo are acquaintances. Jodi-

on gardening australia's latest show they had a fungii bloke, i learnt a lot! there is a mushroom that is "brown" under and white on top that is now dominant where the field (safe) mushroom used to grow but it is a poison mushroom, so maybe the colour i first described might be the go from pink to a dark purplish maroon (never brown). as mention there before there is that yellow one that looks like and edible but you get the yellow stain on your fingers if you rub it also dangerous. so if you are new into fungii eating then do your research first, and i still say the best way is to find a club they are out there. i only know a couple of varieties and there are many more edibles than that. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

I brought this thread up to thank Jim for posting an excellent article on the danger of high phosphorus: "Phosphorus carries a chemical charge that competes with other micronutrients for plant uptake. Excess amounts result in leaf chlorosis because iron, manganese, and zinc are not available to the plant. Leaf tissue turns yellow while veins stay green." http://www.rose.org/phosphorus-fallacies-too-much-of-a-good-thing/ From StrawChicago: Agree with the above, except for the quote "Commercial growers of roses for cut-flower production typically use fertilizers with a 3-1-2 NPK ratio." That applies to pots or sandy soil, but NOT for alkaline clay. Alkaline clay has more beneficial bacteria to fix nitrogen from air. I used that ratio 3-1-2 before and got a 5 feet tall own-root Scepter'd Isle, plus a giant Charles Darwin (own-root). I gave both away since they got too big & less blooms. From Wikipedia: "By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen." Agree 100% with the quote "Phosphorus fixates, or becomes immobile, in the soil quickly after application. This fixation is minimized at a pH level of 6.0-7.0. So all the extra phosphorus in fertilizer will become unavailable at pH levels above or below that range." With my foolish experiments of bone meal (top-dress or in the hole) ... I notice that high phosphorus induce foliage diseases, due to the suppression of zinc, a very strong anti-fungal agent. Bone meal has 24% calcium and 11% phosphorus, that's NOT as bad as higher % of phosphorus in MG-Soluble. I tested MG-Soluble before: more blooms, but more fungal diseases, plus more pests. High phosphorus induce foliage problems in my Thai basil. That hole was previously occupied by Sharifa Asma, it's right under a rain-spout, so nitrogen get leached out (10 mobility), potassium also leached out (3 mobility), but phosphorus stay put (1 mobility). I put too much Encap cow manure (high phosphorus) in that hole. Sharifa was blooming great ...6 blooms for a tiny plant (6 inch x 6 inch). But after blooming, it broke down in black spots. So I moved Sharifa out, and put a Thai Basil. Here's how Thai basil looks like, tons of blooms, but very thin foliage, with black spots, plus potassium deficiency in lower leaves. The leaves are much paler, smaller, and thinner due to zinc and iron less available.