John - Several of us are downsizing. It's funny - the ideal number of plants seems to be around 65. Last month, I went from 108 to 90, heading for 65. Mine are a pain to water. What happened to that 25% - or do you want to say? :) (Kevin got ribbed royally recently by Howard for tossing some of his in the trash.) If you're at the point of replacing T8s or another type tube, or going CFL, the current thread, "Hey, Clara - What lights did you get?" has a couple of posts that may provide a quick tutorial. Summary - CFL good; tubes bad re: amount of light for plants, amount of energy consumed, and amount of utility bill. Additionally, the CFLs provide heat which can cut/eliminate the need for a space heater, if you have enough of them in an enclosed space. (Hope I'm doing justice to the thread.) Last year, I got 2 42W CFLs, along w/ "brooder clamp lights" from HD. They're those round, shiny metal, ugly clamp-on things, but the 10.5" fixtures are the perfect size for the 42W CFLs. A side note - from hours on the Web and phone, I've concluded that's the largest brooder light made. An inexpensive fixture for 85W doesn't seem to exist, unless you want to find parts here and there. Anyway, last winter, I had one 42W bulb over Phals, Phrags, and Paphs. They were about 6' away from the window. Everything rebloomed. Caveat - they were all outside the summer before. So - before you buy more tubes, CFLs are sure worth checking out. 1000Bulbs.com seems to have the best prices. Whitecat8

Good Morning! Wildcat...my 2 big brugs are in the ground.They are about 6 ft+.They get most of the attention and the above is their feeding schedule. I'm thinking that maybe I'm over-doing it. I know that you Northeners have to push your plants more to get blooms before winter.I'm in Florida with a longer growing season....so do you think I'm over-doing it? All my cuttings have already been potted up and they get 1/2 strength ferts with a small amount of manure tea about once a week.They seem to be growing by leaps and bounds too.I just potted them up a few weeks ago and now they have roots coming out the bottom drainage holes.I think I'm going to repot them in larger pots and then they will have to make due in that until spring.What do you think? LucyGoose, I've always heard NOT to give them a high middle number ferts.Someone else will have to elaborate or correct me if I'm wrong though. I do give mine deep waterings about every 2-3 days. Right now,were still in the 80's during the day and 70's in the evenings.We are supposed to get a bit cooler around Oct.17th. I've already got about 5 buds that will be opening soon and many more forming now.I think I should get a pretty good flush soon. Of course,I will post pics when I get my other computer. Wildcat...is that 15 gallons per plant or for all your plants? Here is a pic I had on file of one of my big brug in the ground.It's a pink,un-named variety. Here is a link that might be useful: Pink brug bloom

I fought this for years and here is where it lead me. Using synthetics can and will produce more as well as more dependable results 100% of the time IF you know exactly what you are doing. That means if you don't hold a degree in the field,it will be hit and miss even asking questions of people who hold the degrees and know exactly what they are doing. Problem is the expert must see and touch the plant,know history of soil&run fingers through it and know precisly what has been done including but not limited to,daily weather,amts & timing of water and nutrents up to that point. Organic is the way to go for even for the most dedicated gardeners. Organic is more forgiving of neglect and mistakes eventhough the mistakes and neglect will reduce production,it's not intolerable amounts. Non-organic mistakes often result in drastic results up to and including 100% loss. An often incountered one is where fertilizer is applied then miscalculation of weather and/or moisture occurs. Another is where insectiside is used to rid a pest that is effecting a plant by eating leaves or sucking some juice but not killing it nor ruining all fruit. Benificials on neighboring plant is eradicated and a pest that was being kept in check or shows up suddenly mushrons and ruins one or more crops. Very few things you do organicly will result in such sweeping results,good or bad. The soil should always be in transition for the lack of a better term. This addresses fertilize applications. In any container or plot , I try to insure there are diverse types and stages of finished compost. That insures that as micros are consumed replacements are being produced. I believe far too much gravity is afforded N being tied up by deterioating matter. Dumping a lot of fresh material like saw dust with huge amounts of exposed surface will definitly starve plants until rate of decomposition slows. A case where there is negitive results but usualy recovers enough to produce a fair to poor crop. Turning under green cover like vetch can realy supply season long crop fuel. I just cannot stress enough how important it is to understand your plants and that will happen with experience and experience will come sooner by asking inteligent questions of those willing to help. In an effort of convincing sceptics that it is possiable to read plants,I offer some off topic evidence. Try this out if you know a rancher,not nessarly an old crusty one, a cowperson in their 20s is quite capiable. Drive him/her to a herd they have never been around and without leaving the seat of the vehicle they can tell you; very near the age,the sex,weight and breed/mixture of breed for each animal while average person is deciding what color they are. If alowed to walk near them (many cattle dislike and will run away from strangers) closly estimate stage of pregnancy while our novice wonders why the one giving birth within a week is not fat as the one who has 3 months to go. Think about human faces. Isn't it amazing that we can differinate all of them. Practice!

I don't have a tea kettle but I would assume that if you had a tea kettle with just a little bit of water sitting on the stove when not in use, bacteria, dust and other items present in the air will fall in the kettle and can create a slime factory over time if not cleaned. I personally use an electric tea kettle (British upbringing) and now graduated to a Japanese Airpot. I love my airpot. When I used an electric kettle, I never left water in it and washed it out weekly. I have filtered water and never had a problem with the tea kettles. I clean my airpot out weekly when I have no water left in it. Good luck!