rhizo_1 "The thing is....I'll bet you learned in your Master Gardener class that one shouldn't apply a control chemical without knowing what or who the problem is, as well as the kind of plant." Never went to one class in my life you dont have to when you are born with a green thumb... I never have any probs with my gardens ever because my plants immune system and my climate are PERFECT. My preventative messures prob will stop me from ever learning the diff diseases. So while you wonder whats harming your plants Im wondering how im going to keep up with the fast growth of my plants. The problem is there for a reason what ever it is can grow happy on your plants you need to find a way to make what ever it is life not so good so it can live.

Donho- I'm NOT going to ask the obvious question that you're prolly SICK of getting asked... like in the scene from "Office Space" where the "Bobs" are interviewing Michael and they ask him... "So..... are ya related?"... HA! Anyways - back to topic... What YOU are experiencing is the exact reason why for almost a decade I was a crusader against doing honed Absolute Black - for that very reason. I did three kitchens all at the same time - for the same client. He built three spec homes, and we did honed AB in all three, and they had the same exact issue that you are having. In fact - I was on my way up to Scottsdale on a bright sunny Tuesday morning to look over the work and listen to his complaint when the meeting was postponed in light of the events that taken place earlier that morning in New York, Washington & Pennsylvania - the date that day - was September 11th, 2001... You always remember what you were doing and where you were when events like that happen - President Kennedy's assassination , Neil Armstrong on the Moon, Challenger Blowing up, President Reagan getting shot, etc - I was going to look at "what the heck my customer was supposed to do about ALL THREE of his kitchens that had honed AB in them" on the morning of 9/11.... Anyways - there IS good news for you on your problem - and in my opinion - NEITHER an enhancer nor a sealer is going to help you in this situation - I have tried both without a great deal of success on Honed AB...... HOWEVER................. You CAN use Method Daily Granite Polish - it is ALL NATURAL and you apply it every day for around two weeks - after which time - you will have built up a "patina" of coconut oil - the active ingredient that will help to prevent the natural oils in your fingers from showing up on the stone and creating the smudges... MANY people have found that Method Daily Granite Polish DOES work in this situation!!!! I learned about this technique right her on GW from some of the home owners that had the VERY SAME problem tha you have!!!! try it....... hth kevin

Like a lot of you, I love soapstone and I lovethe look of antiqued nordic black. We drove over to a soapstone place in vermont yesterday (Green Mountain Soapstone). Their stone was lovely, BUT, because our counter is an L with a diagnol due to a lazy susan, they wanted to charge us for the whole rectangle( and not just the L) - this means an extra 50% is sf-age - feels like a rip-off. So I went to home depot, where theyhave asoapstone called Savonpierre - anybody know much about this? Its a lot less expensive, but I'm nervous because nobidy gets soapstone athome depot. Nordic Black makes me nervous because the edges atthe stone yard awlays look crumbly and I think becuase itsa large grained granite, its not going to be as tough as Abs. black (smaller is stronger!!). Sorry for the info dump. But am having a hardtime deciding. Any thoughts? btw, we have a modest kitchen with a simple L counter and and about 25 actual sq.ft of counter. Thanks a bunch Vidya

Frey - My current granite is polished. I have been super happy with it the past 10 years. Initially we were going to keep the granite and just paint the cabinets, but then the project morphed into something bigger. So we are doing all new countertops. Funnily enough, in my search for an alternative to soapstone, I came across Virginia Mist and Raven - both a honed granite. Here are photos of the slabs from our stone supplier: http://www.tmsupply.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=660 http://www.tmsupply.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=2831 We are going to the showroom Friday to look at these and compare to the Diresco Velvet Quartz. I wouldn't be surprised if we went back to the granite for the perimeter and quartz for the island. Here is the quartz for the island: http://www.tmsupply.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=7186 What color cabinetry are you doing?