THE COLOR OF PLASTICS: I have been doing some reading on the subject of "PLASTIC MULCH". There 4 colors that are used more than others. 1- WHITE: It reflect most of incident waves/energy. This can be useful if you don.t wat your soil to get any warmer from direct sun. That is why they wear white turban in the desert. 2- RED: it is mostly used for tomatoes, as a reflector. It has been said that the light reflected from it can improve tomato production somewhat. BLACK: It is mostly used as barrier against weed and evaporation. It is also belived by some to be effective in heating the soil underneath. According to physics, black absorbs almost all the energy from solar radiation and reflect negligible and transfers non. So the only way for black plastic to warm up the soil is by CONDUCTION ; ie by contact. CLEAR: It is often used as a means of SOLARIZATION, to kill weeds and various vegetation. If then if it can kill the weeds by building up high temperature, it can also heat the soil. BINGO ! Clear plastic has similar properties to common and plexy glass that are used in greenhouse. The important property of it is high transmission rate. Once the solar energy is transmitted, it will be TRAPPED and cannot escape. So if I want to heat my garden bed, EARLY SPRING, clear plastic offers a clear choice. It is mostly soil temperature that is responsible for plant growth. At cooler temperature most plants cannot draw enough nutrients from the soil ; seeds will hard time to germinate and develop root system. JMO

Hehe....black raspberry NUT here. I start picking in early July - here in IL. last year (2010) I picked 18 gallon bags. Froze the whole bunch. I made jam in Dec. and still had 7 bags left over. I think I made about 40 1/2 pints of jam. It's SOOOooo good. Use it in plain yogurt, on vanilla Ice cream (be sure to buy a GOOD ice cream so as not to insult the berries) This year (2011) I picked only about 9 bags. Just too HOT out! But I still made over 30 half pints. Good stuff. If you cut the amount of pectin in the jam recipe, you'll get a nice 'syrup' that's not to thick and not to thin. Regular batch with about half the pectin to make syrup. I also made popcycles. Took one pint and mixed w/water. Froze up well, tasted even better. Call me a nut, but I approach the plants with great respect. I've made it ritual to go picking at least ONE time a year in shorts and short sleeve tee shirt. I figure I should give the plants respect enough to approach them on THEIR terms rather than mine. A way of saying thank you I guess. Surprising how delicately you treat the plants while meandering through a black-raspberry patch considering you're physically threatened by it. Try it sometime. HAHA I love these beautiful vines and they're so productive and delicious. I'm glad they haven't been domesticated by Monsanto....yet! Let's hope they never are.

Probably should have tossed an onion in rather than that green Tigerella to suggest salsa ingredients. Or, a tomatillo - if'n I had one. Littlest guys are Thai Hots. Little larger ones are Super Chili. We also ran some thru the small food processor as soon as they came off the plants. That made a "mash" (there's probably a better term) that went in a sandwich bag and into the freezer. The plan is to scrape the frozen contents whenever a spoonful is needed thru the winter. I don't know how well this will work. Avoiding the milling of the dry peppers was the reason for trying the freezing process. Things can get kind of dangerous working with this dynamite, dry! Steve

<I was researching compost tea a lot last month and it's been praised by many and others say it's a waste of time. The more I read into it, the more I was excited to try and brew my own batch. I read that pumping enough oxygen into it was very important though. What are your thoughts on compost tea?> Aerating compost tea is good if you can do it however it is a relatively new aspect of using compost tea, not the be all and end all as some would claim. Plain old compost, allowed to steep in a bucket of water in the sun for a couple of days is still quite beneficial and has been used for centuries in that form. Of course the better the quality of the compost (diverse ingredients), the better the tea. It can then be used, diluted to the color of weak iced tea, as a root drench for plants. And if diluted even more many use it as a misted foliar feeding. That is the simplest approach to it. Above and beyond the basics you'll find all sorts of recommendations for additives and making it with different methods but it all still boils down to compost tea. There is also "manure tea" that some make in the same manner. It is richer in nutrients but is also higher in pathogenic bacteria so it should be used as a root drench only and only when it won't come into direct contact with the edible portions of the plant (like lettuce). Dave