***"added benefit of not drowning the engine, if that IS what is happening."***"first the plug: The pictures were taken BEFORE running it at all, after it had sat from the night before"*** OK, so, "sat from the night before"??? Does that mean you parked the tractor immediately after running, while the engine was "hot from use"??? OR you had been trying unsuccessfully to get the engine started and running....prior to it having sat through the night??? This detail is quite important because: If you stopped the engine while "hot from use", there "should not" have been ANY wetness (unless from oil, but you say engine does not smoke) or "sheen" visible on the plug. The heat from use would have left the plug completely dry and any soot or carbon (from rich mix) would have been "dry and powdery". But, on the other hand, if you had been repeatedly cranking the engine (unproductively), and then just decided "to heck with this!!!! I'm done for today and I'll come back tomorrow"........and then next AM pulled the plug and photo'ed it, I'm afraid we still can't say for sure if your carb is "drowning" your engine, or if the wet condition of plug is simply from all the unproductive cranking. I'm thinking that "drowning" might already be taking place, and may be contributing to your present problem. One thing kssue should do at this point is to "pull" the oil dipstick and: (1)Smell the oil for the presence of gasoline. With so much unproductive cranking of the engine, plus the indicated "over rich" condition of the carb, even if the engine has not been "drowned", it certainly has been "flooded", and gasoline "might" be present in the fuel.(2) Do a "runny test". In the "old days", if a mechanic suspected gasoline contamination of the crankcase lube oil, he might perform a SWAG "runny test" by pulling the oil dipstick and then touch the wet end of the dipstick to one of his fingertip or palm callouses. Then he would observe how the oil "dispersed" from the central drop, into the swirls and whorls of the friction ridges in the skin. If the oil was thinned or contaminated with gasoline, he would see a relatively rapid spread of "color" into the network of tiny grooves that are the "trough" counterpart of the friction ridges of skin that comprise our "fingerprints". If the oil was not thinned, the drop of oil would tend to remain in the form of the single drop that was deposited on the hand. I no longer suggest that anyone perform the "runny test" in the manner of putting suspected oil on human skin. A similar test can be done using a piece of "unwaxed" or "unfinished" cardboard. This "plain ole cardboard" is the kind most packaging boxes are made of. All you need is a clean, dry piece of this cardboard. Using the oil dipstick, deposit one or two drops onto the cardboard. After the oil is put onto the cardboard, lay the cardboard on a flat surface, oily side up. Use a watch or other timekeeper to measure elapsed time. If the oil is very thinned (high gasoline content), the entire amount of oil will be absorbed into the cardboard in a matter of 3 minutes or less. The less gasoline in the oil, the slower the drop will be absorbed. Because there is no way to control all the possible variables of this test (moisture content of specific cardboard, type of cardboard, ambient temperature, etc.), it helps to also use an identical (or the same) piece of cardboard and test some other "oil samples" from different sources to compare the time it takes for the oil to absorb. Even that will be inconclusive unless the oil samples originally were the same product. But, if you use a couple drops of suspect oil, a couple drops from a different engine (believed to be ok), and a couple drops from a container of fresh, unused oil, you can get a pretty good idea. When I do this, I use a pencil to "graph" the growth of the "halo" that will spread outward from the center of the initial drop. Using the "timer", I mark the progress of the "halo formation" at one minute intervals. If you plan to test other sample for comparison, do them all in about the same hour using the same source of cardboard. Realistically speaking, the "runny test" is kinda "long and drawn out" for using to determine if oil is fit for service or not. It mainly serves as a way to get an indicator of gas in the oil AT THE TIME OF THE TEST only. In the case of the engine in this thread, I would probably be inclined to just say, "I don't know if I have gas in the oil, but with all that's been going on, there should be some gas in the oil. Therefore, I'm going to install the inline fuel shutoff valve and then change the oil for "peace of mind". ***"first the plug: The pictures were taken BEFORE running it at all, after it had sat from the night before"*** Oh, you mentioned "Have read of that under some other post as well but forget the circumstances...too many hours of sifting thru posts". In response to that, I am going to create a new thread to outline a "trick" I use a lot to "streamline" researching and saving found information. I'll probably come back to this thread and post a "cross link" to the new thread as well.

that in Graham Stuart Thomas' book on antique roses he specifically mentioned that RDV was in his mind the bluest rose he had ever seen, and that it was notably more "blue" than many of the modern so-called "blue" roses. Obviously since RDV's coloring varies a lot that "blue" only shows up when it's growing in the right soils, however Thomas must have seen it because he wrote that he often wore RDV as a lapel flower to rose functions to remind people that the rose existed and that it could be an unusually "blue" rose.

Gardnerzone4--I experimented with non-pruning this past year and got some funny results. I had a couple of HT's that had very little die back over last winter, so I did minimal pruning. I started the spring with plants around the 4 or 5 foot mark. I ended up with a couple of beasts. Blue Girl grows upright for me, and continued upright, to about the 9 foot mark by the end of the year. Yes she was big & impressive, but 80% of her blooms were over my head (and I'm 6') for most of the summer. This coming spring I'll take her back down to a more reasonable level. She looks downright silly next to her younger siblings. Garden Party grows outward--into a more rounded & full shape. By the end of summer, it was about 6 feet wide and 7 feet tall. It looked like it would reach out & grab small children as they walked by & we started calling her Audrey. I loved the way it looked--a big, fat globe of a bush with beatiful fat, smelly roses. Where I live, I think it depends on the growth habit of the rose & the amount of winter kill. I prune mainly to shape and to take off dead pieces, but I imagine things are much different in Chiswell Green than where I live. I have a friend in that region of England and she says it's much milder there in the winter than here in Central IL.

Maybe not but it is hard to tell since you do not state the pH of this amended soil. Just remember that the roots which absorb the soil minerals are only growing in the potting mix now and they will not immediately react to the changes.... it may take until Spring for the roots to grow into this amended soil. In the meantime, you may just see gradual changes. In other words, change will not occur quickly. It will take years. You have not mentioned how you are monitoring the soil pH changes. Get a soil pH kit so you do not overdo it and so you can monitor things more accurately. If you acidify the soil too much (say readings below 5.0), the plant will not be able to absorb some minerals. Similar to what happens with iron chlorosis but it will happen with other minerals like pottasium, phosphorus, etc. Do not exceed the label application directions on the aluminum sulfate as this can damage the small roots and make the process take longer still.