Norma, lol, you are hilarious.. Sux = succulents..sorry, I shouldn't be so lax, just type out the darn word. How did you get away with typing bast*** in your post? Does GW not consider this word vulgarity? A few wks ago, I typed the word bi*ch in a post, after clicking submit, a window opened warning that word wasn't permitted. IMO, b**ch, 'like bast**d' have a few definitions, one meaning a female dog..yet it was denied. hmm.. Regarding parrots/macaws, Citosa pretty much explained. The last 15 years, I bred Cockatiels. Are you familiar with this bird? They're larger than parakeets, but smaller than, a breadbox..lol, j/k, I don't know which bird to compare to..Let's say from head to tip of tail, they're at least 9". Some a little larger, others smaller. On top of a cockatiels' head is a crest. Did you ever see the bird on the show Barreta/Baretta..sp is incorrect. Baretta has a Cockatoo..if you ever saw this bird, you might recall he too has a crest..the crest sometimes stands erect, especially when a bird is excited or frightened. Anyway, when we bred cockatiels, (not a big business, more of a hobby and to help people who couldn't afford big-time prices.) One pair, description. Male/common gray..his body, mostly gray, some white, gray and white wings..cheek, circles of bright orange. Female/white-face-pearl..no orange..mottled gray and white from head to bottom. Cockatiels can lay anywhere from 1-10 eggs..ours averaged 4-6.. Per every clutch/eggs laid, 1-2 were all yellow babies..some had orange cheecks, others were w/o. The remining chicks mostly looked like dad, but every so often, one resembled mom. My other pair are white face pied/male, and white face pearl/female..Gray babies are without orange.. His wife is number 3..he's outlived, and hope he lives another 20 yrs, 2 wives. Number one was a Cinnamon gray..when they had babies, most were gray w/light orange cheeks, males had deep orange cheeks. The first couple mentioned, somewhere along the line, an all yellow male or female/yellow = Lutino, got in the act..lol. Norma, now for plants, lol, a good number of my succulents are what you call, bast***s..lol..problem is, I do not know their ID's.. I get mixed up with Alow/Haworthia, and yucca/pandanus.. One succulent bought locally looks like hanging baby aloes..It was only a year or two ago I found it was a Sanseveria. Do you know which Sans I'm referring to? Thanks for the help..btw, why Blue & Gold bred with Scarlet macaws produce orange and blue Catlalina's is an enigma..The DNA maker knows for sure..lol..Toni

rok, difference is the quality from HD usually is chincy at best. I can also buy a solar light set of 6 for 24.99 for my front path but in a year at best they'll be gone or lawn ornaments. Disposable lighting. hmmmm nice marketing concept homey D; stamp out the cheapest product possible, consisting mostly of poly and cheap steel materials, along with chinese sweat shop engineered electronics etc under misleading names like "Hampton Bays" Did you know that HD IS hampton bays? homedepot=mickie mouse lighting period. do it right the first time. Extraordinary lighting stores and supply houses in our area that have staff on hand for field-educated face to face explinations anytime include Aetna-hicksville, Creative Lighting-mineola, star&son-franklin square, Duplex michaels Revco out east too many to list but i have had terrible experiences at just about all nassau county HD, the lighting center, national, expressions, walmart, kmart, and countless others. nowadays its hard to find a real old time store with cutting edge product that can help like these. You will have no problem finding wire, ballast,nuts,and sockets for custom reflectors/boxes and greenhouses where a remote ballast is golden. Lowes stores seems to be a better place to start though they just started to pop up recently round these parts so i can say little. creative is where i have shopped for 30+yrs. Good luck on your journey into lighting hope this can steer some folks into the light it took an hour to write up i hope you can appreciate what I am getting at. peace LS

Gabby, If he has an small weak roots, even if it is all he has cut them off. Put him in some dry pumice or something similar, like lava rock (not nuggets) or grit. Put in indirect bright light with no water for a few months. If you feel it needs some, as soon as you put in some water and it comes out the bottom. Which is instant. That is enough. Other than that don't look at him. It's okay if the leaves completely dry up. In three months, look at the roots. It should have started to put out some bigger roots (like aloe & agave roots). Then start watering as above, but more often. Meaning 1 a week at most. Once it starts to really put on roots, pot him in the smallesst pot, he fits in nicely (probably 2") Use the pumice add 1/4 soil-less organic & 1/4 perlite. Or just skip the perlite. Increase the light, but cut down on water, maybe once a month. Within 6-12 months he will no longer be a wart on your nose. I bought 5 little Gasteria today. They are in just barely 2" pots. I would like to be able to grow them fully in my 2" (almost 3") and sell off a few to pay for them all, but I paid too much $4 CAD ($3 USD). Instead, I will have to keep them all for propagation stock. The one in the front already has a pup. The one in the back right, might be a Haworthia, an Aloe or a x Gasteraloe. It will have to grow up some more to identify. Looks similar to my x Gasteraloe 'Royal Princess', but the markings and growth are just different enough to be another genus? Artificial lights are a lot of trial and error. Actually plants are a lot of trial and error. The only good gardeners are those that have killed many plants. My lights 300 watt LED are perfect at 12-13". At 10" the hot sun loving Senecio serpens & articulata start to look just a little off. It's something only a parent would notice. I have a Aeonium 'Kiwi' that was looking great then after a small shift it started going to shit quickly. I moved it over 2" to the next spot in the flat and it has improved greatly. Where my Stapelias grow like gang busters directly under the lights. My Perperomia nivalis is only happy at 1' down and more than 1' off to the side. I have had a hell of a time finding white light LED lights. They make them all for pot growers that don't love staring at their plants for hours. The newest version of 300w I have now have a pink hue. At least it's not blurple. The new 600 w coming out in January will be white. I will be buying my 4th light. Unfortunately my spouse hates the fans. I thought I was being sneaky when putting in the 3rd, but super ears clued in immediately.

Christina welcome to the funhouse :) 1- for growing from seed I try to do a mostly inorganic mix - propagation pumice, horticultural charcoal and some akadama or coir. If you're going with a soil of a high organic content and you're not 100% on it's origins microwave it to be safe. Ive seen lots of different mediums used. 2- I've seen some expert growers keep their seeds sealed for 3-4 months but they've often sterilized their soil and applied a fungicide so it can go on that long without problems. Otherwise I say at most 3-4 weeks sealed off or when germination rates are good. 3- Ideal time to sow is when you can get a nice temperature difference and cool nights (your 50f is perfect) ! Haworthia seeds do not have a very long shelf life, if you want store them for a short while a dark, dry, cool environment is best IMO. 4- Days ranging from 60-80f is fine so long as they're able to drop temp wise at night and keep them out of direct sun or they'll roast in that container. 5- fungicides, that depends. If you plan on keep them sealed for several months then yes, otherwise no. Certain fungicides are germination inhibitors as well, but more importantly for your safety take all the precautions while using them. 6-box method might work great if you're road tripping ! http://haworthia-gasteria.blogspot.com/2008/01/propagation.html?m=1