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,

This is an interesting conversation. I, at age 34 currently, have never in my life used gas, and I am an avid cook on my crappy electric coil. I only say crappy cause the thing is FILTHY and disgusting and soon to be swapped out for a smooth top. However, regarding simmering, I have zero issues there, and people are always asking my trick to such great rice, which as you know requires barely a simmer sustained over a duration of time. However, I have a stroganoff recipe that calls for a long and slow simmer and when my friend with gas tried to make it, and said she couldn't because her gas cooktop doesn't allow for a slow simmer - it kept leaning into a full boil no matter how low she turned it. That leads me to believe it's all a matter of experience. There are probably better and worse performing stoves in every catagory - induction, gas, or electric - and that can certainly shape experience and preference also. So this is a case where nobody is right or wrong, and thank God we all have different preferences or else we wouldn't have choices.

I’ve used Gorham Melonbud 18/10 flatware for the last 26 years. It has left TONS of gray marks on our 1) expensive Mikasa stoneware, 2) Target Threshold porcelain, and now 3) Mikasa bone china. The only surface this 18/10 flatware hasn’t destroyed is a newer set of 4 Target Threshold porcelain salad plates that I bought to replace some of the original set that broke. Got others in that style thinking I’d found the perfect match … nope, only those 4 can defend against the Melonbud. I’m giving up. It must be the flatware but that goes against everything out there that says 18/10 is the “hardest” and shouldn’t leave marks. Might switch to plastic, lol. ;0)