Sorry to bring up an old thread but I was searching the web to see pics of a plant someone was talking about in the Name that plant forum. Turns out I have an amaranthus that is a weed in the yard. We planted three of them last year from a neighbor and they came back this year on their own. So we took siz little seedings from one area of the yard and moved them to another. The darn thing spread like crazy and now covers the entire front yard right behind the fence and it is over 6 feet tall. It's in really bad soil/full sun and only gets watered when I see it wilting. I realize it may be a different variety that you guys/gals are talking about but this darn thing is a weed. I know this is silly but are you sure this is an annual? I thought perennials came back on their own and this one sure did. Here is a pic, maybe I have something mixed up. My googling says it is called Amaranthus Paniculata. Here is a link that might be useful: pic of one third of the area it is currently covering.

Quotes can trip you up, but that's not at all what I said. What I actually said (in another thread) was, "BTW - Soil temperatures are determined by a LOT of variables. Growing in black cans in z9 is going to kill roots if you can't shade them - period." That's quite different than the misquote "..... all plants in zone 9 in black cans will die if not shaded". The thousands of plants in black cans are placed strategically in rows and packed tightly together so the top mass of the plants (foliage) shades the plants near it. Look closely next time you go to a nursery and see how the owner is very careful to arrange the plants so the cans are shaded. There is a chapter covering that and things like blow overs (because that exposes the entire can to a much larger sun load) in every nursery ops manual to help growers understand how to prevent $ losses due to high root temps. I then went on to offer further explanation about what drives root temperatures so other growers wouldn't be misled into thinking that the gritty mix was somehow the cause of high soil temps. It's not - it's actually a much cooler soil than darker soils and soils with inferior gas exchange. The rest of what I said: "What drives soil temperatures is sun load on the container, area of container surface exposed to direct sun, the container's color/light transmittance (degree of opacity/translucence), the color of the soil at the surface (dark soils absorb more heat than light soils), and how well the soil exchanges gases. The two characteristic of the soil that actually matter most are soil color and rate of gas exchange. The lighter the soil, the less heat it absorbs at its surface. The greater its gas exchange, the greater the effect of evaporative cooling. The gritty mix is lighter in color than most other soils and has better gas exchange than anything you've grown in, so with all other things being equal, there isn't anything you're apt to grow in that wouldn't find you dealing with much warmer soil temps than the gritty mix. It runs 10-15* cooler on hot days than even the 5:1:1 mix, which is another well aerated soil." If you can't shade black nursery cans in zone 9, and they get a full sun load, you can expect root death on the exposed side of the containers - mainly the south and west side. That doesn't necessarily mean the death of the entire organism, but it certainly isn't good for the plant's vitality. We talk about that with great regularity on this forum and on many others as well. As I read through this thread and looked over the poor reviews you give the gritty mix and the problems you reported starting in June of last year, and as long as we're doing research into past posts to check what the other said, I sort of remembered you giving the gritty mix glowing reviews last summer, on this forum, even. Does this sound familiar to you? •Posted by powderpuff 10 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 22, 13 at 18:08 "mrbutcher... Your tomato plants look great! I am in shock over that video and must show it to my husband!!! I found the products, including Pine Bark Fines. However, the bark inside the bags was wet so we had to spread a tarp and let it dry. Then sift it once to get the small pieces, then again to eliminate the dust and tiny particles. Then sift the grit and turface. Turface and grit are heavy, so he has to help me. It takes a lot to fill 5-7 gallon pots. If I even mention gritty mix he glares at me since he's the one that has to load and unload 50# bags of grit and Turface and move the pots. I love the mix [my emphasis] but in pots over 5 gallons it's just too heavy to be practical unless you are very young and/or a body builder and he is neither. Maybe if I show him what you did to get the mulch, he won't gripe so much. lol! I have potted over 100, most in 3-7 gallon pots and I'm out of the mix and some need re-potted. When I mentioned that 4-5 needed to go into 10-15 gallon pots he said don't even think about using that mix for those. The next day he came home with a yard of potting soil and put it in a big pile in a corner of the yard..... sigh. He said you want those in 10-15 gallon pots, there is your soil. :(" color> Quote ends ****************************************************************** By this report, it really looks like at the end of last July you were quite happy with the mix, but your helper balked at the effort it takes to make it, and you couldn't do it yourself, or wouldn't. I understand that completely. For some, the effort it takes to make it just isn't worth it, but that doesn't make it a bad or unproductive soil. Just sayin' ..... Al

So yesterday buddy comes over to look over things with the a/c system and I think we've got things nailed down properly now. The superheat for the given ambient temperature and heat loading from the indoor coil was way off (5F) vs. the 14-15F that it was supposed to be so he had to remove some of the refrigerant (I was quite surprised how little he had to remove to get the superheat up) and we even went as far as measuring the furnace's CFM flow rating using a differential manometer. I'm pushing roughly 1000CFM across a 2 ton coil so which is a tad bit on the high side but my colleauge says it's a margin of safety for the a/c to not freeze over as we have relatively little humidity in the air would means that on the cooler days we wouldn't be heat loading the coil enough which could lead to freeze up. I personally would like to try running my furnace on the lowest speed to get the 855 CFM but I'm not sure how that will affect the superheat. Presumably I would imagine that if a system is charged properly using the superheat method for fixed orifice systems that blower speed shouldn't dramatically impact the superheat values to the point where they're completely out of whack. I would guess that superheat would rise but isn't that sort of a given? I mean hotter days for example would increase loading so therefore superheat should rise no? For the record the pressure reading on the manometer with the furnace on medium low with a 3M 1500 series filter installed has a -0.44 in wg static pressure difference. With no filter the static pressure diff changes to -0.55. Humidity was still somewhat of an issue yesterday night when it was raining but it was quite cool outside. I had to drop the tstat to 21C to force start the a/c on but after just 20 minutes the house was nice and dry and less stuffy. Just for the sake of my understanding does TXV technically do any better or worse job of temperature/humidity control over a fixed orifice system IF both systems were installed properly and charged to near perfection? I have a friend that is looking to install a/c and his contractor insists on having TXV and says that fixed orifice is evil and should never be used. I find that rather extreme to make a claim like that. I've tried to do my own research online and although it's a given that TXV is the way to go I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it will better protect the compressor from liquid flooding + it's more forgiving for techs that do an incorrect charge on the system - critical charge isn't nearly as important on a TXV system vs. fixed orifice. Thanks,

I am not being used as a chauffer or babysitter. I offered... it was my decision. I saw it as helping the two of them see each other more often. But I guess then I didn't realize the harm that it could be doing. As for mom, she is kind of a strange parent. It seems as though a lot of you women have a strong maternal instinct and wouldn't even let your DD SM pick your daughters up. However, BM has asked if I could pick up her daughter (we meet in the middle of our houses) because it was more convenient for her to drop her off at that time. If we don't accommodate her schedule she often tells us then she won't be able to drop her off at all. She's never around to receive her daughter either. Most of the time dad brings her with her grandparents because mom isn't around. This weekend was a perfect example. Mom told us she would receive her daugther at 6pm on Sunday. She called and told my BF that she left town and wouldn't be able to pick her up until Monday sometime, and that either she would pick her up with dad at his work or mine. HAH. So dad didn't go to work in the morning because mom decided she had better things to do than pick up her daughter, and he ended up bringing his daughter to her grandparents because mom wasn't answering her phone. Sometimes she leaves to the beach for the weekend and decides not to come back until Wednesday, leaving her daughter with her parents, and no one to bring her to school. Not very motherly if you ask me. As for our relationship, it's fine. I am not getting involved in baby momma drama... we see each other, say hello, everything's cordial, then we talk about the girl, say goodbye no name calling as far as I know etc. I never say a bad word about her mother to anyone.. ever. As for my bf we met 11 years ago in the US. I came here to Mexico to be with him a year ago. Maybe I use the term soulmate in a way you don't understand. I know I could find someone else if I wanted to. I don't. I'm here to stay with this man and this girl. We may not be married but we are committed to each other as if we were. We are talking marriage... and it will happen some day. What else... oh to answer a question dad and mom divorced when daughter was 2.5. Sooo... 1 year and half before I showed up into the picture. Their relationship sounds like it was verbally and emotionally abusive, probably from both parts but she also sounds like she was physically abusive towards him... but never to their daughter. Dad never had a serious girlfriend after that before me. I don't think dad ever introduced any women to his daughter before me either. But I don't know that for sure. As for the bed thing, I know. Dad and daughter used to sleep in the same bed before I arrived. I think it's weird. So when I came into the picture and she was over on the weekends, dad had daughter sleep in the same bed as us. I put a quick stop to that. NOT OK. I expressed to him that it's uncomfortable and he talked with her, though I don't think he really understands why it's a problem. He sometimes asks if she can sleep with us still... I don't understand why. As for this weekend little girl was throwing up and had a bad temperature in the middle of the night so she came into the bed in the early morning so dad could keep an eye on her. I didn't think it was inappropriate in that case. I don't want to be an in your face sm. I honestly feel like dad is trying to force the situation and really I was over doing the favors just to try and get to know the girl and make it easier for them to see each other... to be nice. I know that I need to back off now. Anyways I left and did my own thing on Saturday and part of Sunday and when I came back things were much nicer. I think the girl does like me when she wants to see me, but I was around too often and intruding on daddy daughter time. Today she was very talkative to me, sweet... gave me a little kiss goodbye and they left. I think I found my answer. I agree with the playing house thing being a rush, I'm not moving out now... so I have to find other ways to fix this. To answer someone's question it is not the house of his previous relationship... and when I say house I mean apartment.. a small one. I think it's kind of hard to stay out of each others business when we are all there... leaving is probably necessary to give them proper alone time.