Hey FBB: Don't feel bad, it happens to me to a varying extent every year. My extols me to hill the corn every year. She thinks that it will produce more prop roots thereby minimizing the lodging. I agree with her about causing greater prop root formation but, still I get blowdown. The reasons I don't like hilling: 1) it is alot of physical work 2) it doesn't seem to stop the lodging 3) I have to flatten the hills back out in the fall (more work). However, this year, in order to reduce the labor I used my tiller to loosen about an inch of soil on both sides of each row and hilled the plants with the easy to move soil. It made hills about 8" tall around the plants. We had 3" of rain wind and pea sized hail Monday evening over a 2 hour period and my corn is still standing. HURRAY! I'm looking forward to picking standing like a homo sapiens rather than a gorilla this year. There may be another benefit to hilling. For the 1st time ever, I have corn root worms. Having the extra roots that formed from hilling may have saved me from serious losses from the worm s the plants may have grew new roots faster than the worms could kill them. About 5% of my plants fell over and shriveled which is how I discovered the (very late in the season) worms.

Fantastic!!! that so many got rain. Rain water nurtures unlike anything we spray on them through a hose. Not a drop here, just the humidity. No winds today. Forecast looks grim...106 tomorrow, then hotter each day to 113 on Monday, then cools back down to 110. Hot, but this time with humidity of 30-40%----calculated heat index into the 130s. Looks bad, but the trend has been the closer to the date, the forecast temp goes up one degree each day. 119 is our hottest recorded temp from 1943. Looks like we're gonna beat it this year. My heart bleeds for my roses, I have so many. I have been collecting several years and many likely can't be replaced. I don't want to loose them. I got up at 5am this morning and got a couple of pickup loads of mulch to spread around, maybe will help. But no mosquitoes, that is a blessing.

Very good information, chas045. Thanks. I have always suggested everyone to get a generator. Weather problems will be with us for the next century. You need to power up your heating system in the winter. Pipes bursting in the winter can cost you thousands. You need to run your water pump if you have a well. You need to keep your refrigerator going. It's good to have lights, computer, phones and internet. I am not advocating this, because it is illegal. Back-feeding with a generator is the cheapest way to go to power up half of your house. However, I always find it difficult to understand with the main technical reason that back-feeding can kill a lineman. A professional lineman takes all kinds of precaution when he is working. If you don't turnoff your main breaker, you simply cannot start your generator. Your generator will be attempting to power up your entire neighborhood and all the street lights. Repeat: Don't do it, just use a heavy duty extension cord. It is not that painful to use an extension cord for a few days. A 1,000 watt generator is about $200. How big a generator do you need? Incandescent light about 100 watts CFL light, 25 watts Computer about 100 watts Phone charger, 1 watt Small electric fan, 50 watts Microwave, 600 to 1,250 watts Toaster oven, about 1,800 watts Refrigerator, Freezer, depending on size, from 800 watts Attic fan, 350 watts Forced air heating system fan, 500 watts Refrigerator, 20 cf, 800 watts TV, 250 watts Air conditioner, about 1 watt/BTU rating Hair dryer, up to 1,850 watts Electric oven, forget about it. Takes too much power. Electric water heater, 2,500 watts to 4,500 watts. Three other important things to keep in mind, besides capacity of a generator. 1. full-load running time 2. Noise level - quiet generators are more expensive. But you don't want your neighbors complaining. 60 dbs is very quiet. You will get lots of complains at about 80 dbs. 3. weight - A good 2,000 watt generator can be light enough to go camping with, others can be very heavy to transport. dcarch

I like the red on All American Chief. I wonder how colorfast it would be in our summer heat? It never fails to grab my attention......Martha Hale is a pretty pink. Nice texture to the petals from the picture....I like bright colors so Moses Fire speaks to me but I don't think it's supposed to be colorfast ....I came this close to getting Linda Sierra last year. She's so tempting, but I doubt I would get that striking lavender color here. Some day though I might just try it......Maryl