Hmmmm...I see that pansies are listed as biennials at some websites. Strange for a plant that doesn't act like a biennial in any sense of the word. Pansies clearly bloom their first season. Yes, they have a very short life span, no matter what kind of nurturing we may give them. Honestly, I don't see anything about this plant that qualifies as a biennial....a plant that grows vegetatively it's first season, goes dormant, then produces flowers and seeds in the second year before it dies. Not that it matters for this discussion, but it's interesting. I just dragged my Hortus Third off the bookshelf to see what was said about Viola in general and Viola X Wittrockiana (Pansy) in particular. All 500 or so spp. of violas are cited as perennial or annual 'herbs' or (sometimes) sub-shrubs. Viola X wittrockiana is categorized as a perennial, but it states that it is often TREATED as an annual or a biennial. Sheesh, we can list a boat load of plants that fit into that category, can't we? Boring, I know, but I love getting to the bottom of things like this. I hadn't hoisted my Hortus III around in a long time, so I thank you for the opportunity!

I'm not familiar with jujube fruit, but I have run the Omega 8003 juicer for some years. Any hard pits should be removed first if the juicer complains at all. A seed that you can easily bite through would be OK. For juice, the Omega works best on firm/hard items like quince, carrots, rhubarb, etc. It also works well on fruit that is basically all juice to begin with covered by a membrane (seaberries). Putting things like grapes or blackberries into this juicer results in puree, very little juice (maybe 20% by volume) is produced. Goumi berries resulted in puree. The Omega would not produce much if any juice from a fig or blueberries, for example. You can play around with the 0-1-2 adjustment on the screen retainer piece and try different exit caps (they have different hole sizes) and see what happens. Fruit puree can be quite useful.

Could you list what parts you used? I was at lowes today and was looking in the pvc parts for something I could put together. A 4'' canister and caps w/ hose threads. I didn't find any thing at all like it. Lucky (or unlucky) you! I found a picture. It looks like it was taken with an old Barbie camera, so apologies for the quality. You can barely see the gray colored thread adaptor at the right side. You can see the kitty litter I used, charcoal, and Scotch brite pad I cut down to keep the filter innerds from flowing out into the hose. If you have trouble finding the thread adaptors to go from hose threads to the pipe thread, ask a clerk. I had to ask everywhere I went looking for them. It looks like I did not use any PVC pipe at all but only used pipe fittings. This experiment was from June of 2003 so I've forgotten a lot since then. If you want to get an idea of a ratio of charcoal to kitty litter (zeolite), crack open a filter from one of those water filters you put into the container in your fridge (like a Pur). I was surprised to find only a few specks of black charcoal inside. Most of it is zeolite. Still luckier YOU! I just went out and searched the archives of my garage and found the filter. Here's a modern picture. As you can see I did use 2-inch PVC pipe in the middle. This picture shows the threaded parts much better. It has to come apart somewhere to fill, or refill, with the filter medium. The gray nipple on the left side is straight pipe threads, not hose threads. The female hose fits on the male pipe threads okay (not great), but at the other end I wanted a better solution. It is a real pipe to hose connector. If I had it to do over again I would use 3-inch pipe for more filter volume and less water speed through the filter medium.

I have managed to secure some seed.