I have been doing it for years! One at a time, my neighbors noticed that I would water my lawn, then that night, walk around with a flashlight and a bunch of gallon zip loc bags. They also noticed that my plants were rarely eaten by snails. One by one, they started soing it, too. Now, we make an event out of it! Two or three times a week, we are all out there with our lights and bags (and a bottle of wine!), and we go as a group from one house to another. We are having a hard time filling up even one bag, so we are definitely going to have to find more neighbors to get involved! It's gross, but fun! A glass of wine, a flashlight, and friends. Oh yeah, and snails, slugs and other slimey things. Fun!! Kathy

Next months swap for the IH Mystery Madness is gonna be so secretive. No one except me will know who their partner is! LOL I think that's such a fun twist the the swap. :) I wanted to spice it up a bit too so I won't share every detail yet but I've been working on it for the last week. I really hope everyone enjoys it. I really like the idea of a Rainbow swap! There are so many different colored edibles out there. That would be loads of fun! Awesome one Donna!! :D OOOH I really like the idea of the Make your own theme too! That's an awesome idea Becky! So creative. :D Heck! I love all these ideas! When you all get on a roll with them you really get on a roll! HAHA! I love it! :D Anyone else noticing that their posts are randomly missing? I am seeing this a lot with mine and it's irritating me cause I can't always remember what I responded. ~Kathy

I have been having the same problems here in Kansas. I have 102 plants in one hoop building. They have been there since March 28th. They are growing great, minus the ones that died when it was 18 degrees. It is 50-80's in the day and 32-50 at night. I have been covering them up with row cover every night it is suppose to be below 45. Then take it off each morning. It is alot of work, but I can tell you that I am seeing more growth this year than last because of it. I also have 400 seedlings in another hoop house. They are under one layer of row cover also. They have been out there for a week. They went straight from the basement lights to the hoop house during a cloudy 3 day warm spell. They were not stressed. I don't get too worried about 40's, with the hoops. I do start to worry when they say 38 or below. I just double up the row cover. After the 18 degrees and had a majority of everything come through ok, 32 doesn't scare me like last year. Do I worry, a little, but I still sleep good. Jay

My take on it is this is a lot of hype with some truth to it in better growing conditions, handling, etc. Root stock can make a difference. I just ran across an academic paper online the other day that was comparing the effects of different root stocks on juicing oranges, and based on their photos alone the difference in color and consistency of the juice was easily visible. Having said that, as I mentioned in another thread the other day, it is important to match root stock with local conditions, a root stock that performs well in western high calcareous soils may perform poorly in low pH sandy and sandy loam soils on the gulf coast and vice versa, this is before even considering disease resistance. As to the old line Washington Navel bit, I think it is 100% hype, Washington Navel oranges themselves are a relatively modern variety dating to the 1800's (likely a sport from about 1822 in Brazil and 1870 in the US), with some of the original US parent trees still surviving. (google Parent Washington Navel Orange) Also see http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/45/4/523.full