Seriously? seriously.. **checks book** Ok.. I have the "Complete Book of Home Preserving" by Ball. Dilled Beans recipe: page 308 Step 2: combine salt, vinegar and water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Stirring to dissolve salt. Add green and yellow beans and red peppers. Return to a boil. Remove from heat. Well I'm glad I only did 2 jars. Processing time was 10 minutes. Would raw pack go for 20 minutes?

OK, but my question is not about pressure canning beans and asparagus in water, it's about pickling them in a strong brine of pure vinegar plus sugar. In that case, how much "brine" do you need in relation to the vegetables? And with a strong brine, the raw packed vegetables shrivel when "cooked" in the jars in the boiling water bath. Seems to me you could pack pretty darn tight under those circumstances. I packed mine just about as tight as Linda Lou describes, but they still floated. They did come back down though, after they had a chance to interact with the brine. They shriveled, which I did not expect, but then I've never made something with this strong of a brine before. Or at least not in the past ten years.

The picture at the bottom: Those are the plants my mother is "Growing" (AKA killing with no care). I think fungus gnats spread the diseases from there to my bean plants that were once healthy. The plant leaf at the top if one of my bean plants, which is being effected slowly. So, as you can see, the whole back wall of the room the plants are in are covered in a big window. My mother has a brown thumb, and those plants that she tries to grow have diseases because of poor maintenance and almost no care. I think fungus gnats could've spread the disease to the bean plants I have grown. See those cups? The bean plants are growing fine in them, and they have drainage holes too (5 each per cup). I will start watering every other day, and less water too. I will water less frequently and feel the soil if needed. Anyway, I've killed those weird fungus gnats with bug spray, and I don't really care if it affects the yield of the plants, but I will use nontoxic solutions in the future (I didn't have access to any nontoxic solutions to kill the flies so I had to use spray). Also, as you can see in one of the pictures, the soil has white fungus on it. I asked someone, and they said that the white stuff won't really affect the plants. Is that true? The plants are producing new leaves, but even those are turning out white and yucky. Please tell me what to do from here. I live in Arizona, and I don't want to move these bean plants to go outside. There are dust storms, and sometimes nature can take its toll on them. I think they're getting enough sunlight considering they have a whole wall of window. If you need any more information, just ask and I can provide it or take more pictures.

I worry about this too with new ones, but in my experience, it's always light and fertilizer. After one week with new soil, plain water, and some light, they open right up and start shooting up new healthy leaves. But this is for plants that look like Aegis' link on their second post, not like their photos on their first post. I know that I have caused some new leaves to look like the first post by over-fertilizing (small, curled, light green). I feel bad every time, but it's also a way to know "hey, the plant doesn't like this". My Michele actually did this last month... oops. It's also good to study multiple parts of the plant, not just one. I forget this! Most of my posts on here are from forgetting it. But just staring at the center or one leaf and not thinking about the plant's overall health will often have you worried about nothing.