Trop Thought - In prescreened sizes, I've been using Gran-I-Grit (crushed granite) for about 20 years, Cherrystone (quartzite) for about 12 years, and silica sand on and off for 20 years as well. I generally use material mostly in the 3/32-3/16 size range. If you want the advantage of added aeration without sacrificing much in water retention, opt for products like Turface MVP, calcined DE, Haydite, or pumice (lava rock). It does little good to use these materials if you're looking to improve aeration or drainage, unless you combine them, with like-size material. Mixing BB-size sand 50/50 with peat or compost leaves you with the same drainage/aeration characteristics as the the finer material alone, but you do reduce o/a water retention by adding material that lacks internal porosity (hort sand). Here's the soil I use for all my long-term plantings - houseplants, succulents, bonsai, material I'm growing on as future bonsai ....... The material(s) you're looking for are out there - I buy it by the pallet - you just need to know where to look. Turface MVP is one of the mainstay's of my soils. You can find that at any of the Ewing Irrigation outlets near you. You should be able to find Manna-Pro poultry/chick grit (crushed granite - 2 sizes) at farm supply or rural feed stores. Let me know if you want more info/discussion about soils and how to make them work FOR you. Al

Ann's recipe is similar to what is made in Mexico and used as a condiment for almost every meal. It is spread on split bolillos to make tortas (Mexican sandwiches). I make a spicer bean dip that is somewhat closer to what comes in a can: Ingredients: 1-1/4 cup dried pinto (or red) beans (about 2 cups cooked) 1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped 2 tbsp cumin 1 bunch of cilantro, large stems removed, about 2/3 cup chopped 1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes (10 oz.) or similar tomatoes, diced with green chilies, drained, liquid reserved 2 (or more) Serrano or Jalapeno chilies, coarsely chopped and seeded 6 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 2 tbsp dried oregano) 1 tbsp soup base - vegetable or beef (or salt to taste, about 1 tsp) Place dried beans in large pot and cover with water to about 3-4 times original depth. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes, cover, and remove from heat and allow to soak for one hour. Discard the soaking water and rinse and sort the beans. Cover with fresh water, with about two inches above the soaked beans, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for one hour, or until done, and discard the cooking water. Place all of the ingredients except the beans in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the beans, and if needed, add a bit of liquid from the canned tomatoes to aid in processing. I remove the seeds from the chilies and save them, in case it comes out too bland. I make these at least once a month and use it when I make Migas, tostados, and burritos. I make several types of burritos with this dip, including breakfast burritos that include scrambled eggs (which I cook more like an omelet). Lars

Phil I come back and look at this thread a lot to see your pictures. I wish I had seedlings like yours. I don't think I give mine enough nutrients. The leaves are SO small I dont know what I am doing wrong. They are now between 1-2 months. I may have to look into using poop. I will try to get pictures up later from my phone. At what months did the leaves start to getting big maybe there is still hope for mine.. How long have you been growing with lights? Jericson I just took a couple of my seedlings out of the aerogarden and wanted to plant them in a hydroponic media of growstones and coir croutons. I carefully removed the moss around the roots some of the roots got pulled off and I put them in low light for now with some bush doctor boomerang. I also added some slow release fert. My other ones have such massive roots systems I am afraid to damage them, Would they rot if I put them right in the hydro mix and leave them in the rooter? I dont want them to rot. I was thinking maybe there are enough feeder roots that I wouldn't have to worry if I let it dry out between waterings... I knew I would have to deal with it one day. I hope the ones that got their roots pruned do okay, they were mostly feeder roots. I cut some tap roots but left most of it. I wanted it to fit into the net pots better. they are 3-4 inch net pots in hydro mix and it drys out in about 24 hours. I am going to start treating it like an ebb flow.

My Queen has the manual dials...James you will laugh at my laundry practices. .LOL..I always felt top loaders needed longer wash times however with a agitator the clothes would be beat to death so I usually let the clothes agitate half way than I shut them off for a soak for 30 minutes to several hours or all night depending what I'm washing. This has given me excellent results . Whites I usually always do a lukewarm prewash using the regular wash cycle just to remove heavy soils...than I turn the dial back around to the wash cycle and fill with hot, its true hot tap which for me is about 125, great for enzymes and I allow them to agitate 15 minutes..turn dial around and drain a bit out and add a soup pot of boiling water getting the temp well above 140 degrees F add a bit more Tide with Bleach powder ..agitate a minute and shut off for a night of soaking. The enzymes had time to work before boosting the temp so the oxygen bleach can do it whitening. And I don't have to agitate the clothes to death. Yes its more work..but my whites are brilliant and my colors bright. I enjoy doing laundry. I always say I don't let an automatic be automatic...I think I would have been a good launderess back in the day they took the laundry to the river and used a rock. Lol. Your right though there are quite a few over on AW that love Speed Queens, reguardless if its manual or electronic. There's rarely a water shortage where I live otherwise I'd have to do things differently.