wildflower, I am sorry that I have not gotten to respond to your post before now, but I have been trying to figure out how to post a picture or least a link to a picture in my post. Anyway, what you have posted a picture of is: the classic signs of broad and/or cyclamen mite damage. You notice how even the very small leaves at the tip are a brownish color and the plant is no longer growing at that tip? That is what the broad/cyclamen mites will do to a brug that they have infested. I am going to attempt to post a picture of one of my brugs that is suffering from the broad/cyclamen mite damage. The tips of my brug look almost identical to yours. Everyone has given you excellent advise from treating with heat, the polymers and the horticultural oils. I have been using the ultra fine oils to try to keep these critters under control. But it is a war in which they always come back. I spray with the oils at a heavier than recommended rate, it knocks them back for awhile, but they always come back. Now, if you want to treat a cutting with oil to totally wipe them out you can. You just have to dip or spray the cutting with the oil at full strength. Since a cutting normally does not have any leaves on it you don't have to worry about the oil damaging the leaves. And with the oil undiluted it will kill the mites and all their stages of development. But this is not an option when trying to treat a full grown plant. There are products out there to treat these mites like Forbid, Avid, etc., but they are very expensive and the mites will and are developing a resistance to these products. That is why I am so excited about the polymer products that Jim has discovered will work on mites. I will be getting a gallon of Anti-Stress 2000 to spray on my brugs and all other plants that will be coming in the house for the winter. These mites are not the same as spider mites that make a webbing. They are a different family of mites, they are in the tarsonemidae or tarsonemid family. There are also some predatory mites that will help control the tarsonemid mites and spider mites too. Well, I am going to try to include or link to my picture. Here is a link that might be useful:

Frank, I have never considered Amish Paset to be a true paste used for sauces, etc. The reason being that's it far too juicy. Nothing wrong with the taste, so it just means that you have to cook it down more. Back when, some folks named varieties just based on the shapes of the fruit. I think that's how Amish Paste was perhaps named. Another one is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste, which in no way is a paste variety. The issue with paste varieties is that they should have dense fleash and few seeds, but so many of the paste varieties that folks cling to like the romas and costolutos, etc., are far more susceptible to BER as well as Early Bight. Which is why many folks don't bother to even grow paste ones, they use the best tasting ones from the garden that have dense flesh and few seeds, usually the heart vareiies, which have some of the best tastes, as well as some of the large red and pink beefsteak ones that have dense flesh and few seeds. Carolyn, but there are some paste varieteis that I do think work out well.

We have a local pediatrician that does di-chro jewelry. He wears pins and stuff everyday at work and has given lots of it to his nurses and receptionists, who also wear it frequently. He gets lots of questions about the jewelry, and people always want to know where he gets it (most of what he wears is very whimsical). Several years ago he began to have an open house at his own home in early December to sell his jewelry (he and his daughter make it all). They invited their co-workers and friends and just served cookies, crackers, cheese, and punch. They told everyone to bring friends. Every year it has grown and last year they probably had a few hundred people go through their doors. I love his stuff and do lots of gift buying there every year, buying about 20 pieces per year. They now have picture frames, serving utensils, sculptures, and lots of jewelry priced mostly from $10-100, but some a little more. People get there early, waiting outside, to get first pick of everything. Most everyone there purchases at least $100 or more. I get compliments on his jewelry all year long and tell people where it comes from and they ask how they can get invited to this "exclusive" party. I just tell them to call his clinic and they will give them the date and time.

OMG, evelyn, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I must have been to every page BUT that one :) I love them; who would've thought they were made from paper bags? Thank you so much again!