JD X500 48" mowing deck... Cuts fine and not too difficult to level and that's a good thing because it seems that even though dealers are required to level the deck during the PDI few actually do. R&R of the deck could be a little easier, the J bolts in the rear can be a PITA, but it's not as bad as some I've used or owned. The BEST thing about the Select Series decks are that the anti-scalp wheels rotate 90 degrees so the deck rolls in or out from under the tractor... a nice feature for we old guys. I will not buy a GT without this feature now that I've experienced it.

Newgen: I've done dozens of bareroots and had good luck for the most part, with only some losing quite a bit of foliage (none lost *all*). But it seems bad luck has hit me this year as I'm 0 for 3 on gritty mix bareroots (all 3 have lost significant foliage). It's depressing and frustrating. However, the worst loser of the bunch has already re-grown quite a bit of the foliage, which is an excellent sign if yours is already doing so a few weeks afterward. I was *sure* I had done well with that worst loser and thought it wouldn't even notice I had bare-rooted 'er. I was wrong. I decided to build some 511 and just refresh the outer few inches of the additional trees targeted for gritty. I'll just wait until Spring to do them -- now THEY didn't miss a beat when I did not bare root and put into 511. I do the majority of the work underwater and/or late at night and sometimes things still go wrong. After repot I relocate to spots only receiving direct morning light with the container itself always protected from direct light. Here in our climate, even 11am direct sunlight is harsh on a recovering citrus when ambient is already 90F by then. If I don't do used these methods, my experience has shown the tree struggling immediately afterward. But again, I've never totally lost one on a bare-root for gritty mix. I've only lost one when I tried to do root pruning simultaneously and another that had root loss from winter freezing. Just a general note to anyone else who may also have struggling citrus after bare-root into gritty: Be sure not to over-fert and especially excess Nitrogen can force the tree to regrow lots of foliage it cannot support -- it will then drop those same leaves and take some of the limbs, too. Just small amounts until a few weeks have passed and you know it's in the clear (no signs of stress). If there is lots of immediate loss, then again stay with a bit lower than normal N until it stops with the loss and settles or even puts out it's first leaf. I'm thinking closer to a 1-1-1 ratio vs. a 3-1-2 or 5-1-3 for normal healthy conditions. Good luck! Chris

Or...you could order the impress aluminum labels from the manufacturer for a very good price at http://www.amekron.com I find that they hold up way better than the flimsy ones from other suppliers that have only a single hole for the stainless steel wire. Since I've been using the Amekron labels I haven't lost one. The old ones have littered my landscape as they inevitably fall off after a few years because the wire works its way through the thin aluminum. Charley

shhhhhhhhhh Donna, you're blowing my cover! Wild and modest......my wife would so laugh at that...lol. Sandy, I get your point regarding Deadline, but it's not really that toxic. One just needs to take care with storing it as it as a child or pet would have to consume quite a bit of it to be fatal. Not unlike drain cleaner.....keep it out of reach. It's much more compressed than Sluggo and has a water resistant coating, allowing it to last in rain for weeks......not months or years. I've turned over 20 gardeners onto it and they swear by it and won't ever go back. I've never seen any adverse signs to wildlife....although I wish it would with rabbits and chipmunks :) A large percentage of our nursery and agricultural industry uses it, so I hope it doesn't have a negative impact on the environment. I'm completely organic in my garden except using Deadline, but it's so effective I only need two light applications a year ( except this year with all the rain). Sluggo is safer and I understand people preferring to use it, but I hate slug damage on my hostas and nothing comes close to Deadlines effectiveness......and I'm too forgetful to apply slug bait more than a couple of times a year!