I should know more then I do considering my age and career. That being said, there are several plant growth regulators, Auxins are the ones we are most interested in for rooting. A partial list would be Indole Acetic Acid IAA, Indole Butyric Acid IBA, Naphthaleneacetamide. They are as different from nutrients as birth control pills are from a Big Mac. The decision of what to go with from a manufacturer and user standpoint is not easy. Part of the problem stems from EPA clasifications and the nature of the hormone. Some are close relatives of things like 2-4-D, right, agent orange. As such some got classified as herbicides by the EPA and required the manufacturer to jump through a few more hoops. Certainly cost is another consideration and there is about a 10 fold difference in price for some of the compounds. The fact some act like herbicides should give you an idea of how potent they are. That is why you see people exchanging so much info about the strength to use. The strength you need to root a table leg will probably kill a daisy. Likewise using the strength you need for a daisy on a table leg will probably not have much effect. Some advantages you should know are things like stability. IAA is reported in the literature to be less stable then IBA. Great if you can keep things dry and out of the sunlight, bad if you want to keep a jug of prepared dip on the shelf. Likewise there is a certain style to the application as you have noticed. People have studied everything from long soaks in dilute solutions to quick dips in concentrated solutions to powders like Rootone. If you are using a propagation chamber with constant misting, the dilute stuff will probably wash off so you may want to go for high concentrations and a quick dip. If you are sticking something in the ground or a pot, powders and gels may be the way you want to go. The other variable with rooting compounds that was mentioned is IMHO one of the most important: The addition of a fungicide. I think someone here has said they find fungicide to be more important then the Auxin or concentration used. Some manufacturers even add things like Vitamin B-1. I personally do not have enough experience with things beyond Auxins and antifungals to comment on other nutrients. I know you want to stay away from anything that contains urea as a source of nitrogen when rooting! Simple is best. If you are rooting something like a Creeping Charlie or Spider Plant, just use water. If you are trying to root something tough that takes months to root and rots if you look at it crosseyed, then go for the big guns. The only exception to this may be a cutting that would be hard to replace. i.e. You got a single cutting from Grandma's apple tree just before the bulldozers leveled the farm to put in condos. If Grandma is still alive and hasn't sold off the farm, just wait until she prunes the tree and get 100 cuttings. Rick

emily i see you allowances but without knowing the expectations you have for quality, it is hard to tell if they are too low. but given that you are just starting out and you got your first surpise - and it is 20 GRAND over! - that should send off some loud alarm bells. we found that our builder used his standard when estimating all allowances. we quickly discovered that his standard and our expectation were way out of sync. if we had built what our builder assumed, the house would have been a huge disappointment and not worth all the effort. we actually increased many of our allownaces before signing the contract using actual quotes from vendors for the quality and styles we wanted. when it was time to place the orders, we stayed within those budget wedges. i think our total overrun on all of these items was less than 1 or 2% and most of that were due to price increases that were beyond our control (note that if you get a quote now it may only be good for 30 days or so. if you order 3 months from now - the prices may be higher. you might want to factor some inflation into your budget as well). Unfortunately, there were a few large allownace items where we had to trust his judgement and that was where we got burned. Excavaation, well, septic, and electrical. And we were disgusted by it all - especially since we told the builder that we were on a tight budget and we were counting on him to stay within the numbers he gave us. He assured us there was enough pad to cover any issues - and he was wrong by a long shot. you have to address the window issue now since that is a near term decision. the only way to do this is get more bids and look at other options. i second the advise to not go cheap on windows and doors, but there are wide ranges of pricing and quality - you just need to find the right balance. once you get that settled, I suggest looking closely at the other allowance areas. go out and get bids and start working the numbers - so that you are not shocked again (and again) when it is time to order the other items. you must get a very detailed list of exactly what is embedded in each allowances and then get bids or pricing on all of those items. tally it up (don't forget tax and his fee) and see where you are at. I worry that your builder did exactly what ours did to us on the allowance items.

It doesn't happen often, but I have encountered unscrupulous contractors who have willfully installed glazing that didn't meet U-factor levels and have peeled the stickers from the windows to hide their fraud just to save a few bucks. Not all manufacturers (in fact very few) etch U-factors into their glazing. That's why it is important to see stickers on windows during the inspection process. It is also not possible to tell if windows meet energy codes merely by looking at them. Many units out there have low-e glass with argon or other inert glass fill and still do not meet minimum U-factors for specific regions. U-factor takes into account not only the glass itself, but also the sealing of the window unit as well as the construction and conductivity of the window frame. Windows that 'look' like they comply may not even be close to compliance. It happens more often than one would think if they never actually performed an energy inspection. This is why only documentation by a testing agency can be used to determine whether windows meet energy codes...and why labeling is the only true method to verify compliance. And while a 'rough' energy inspection typically occurs when the building shell has been dried-in and insulated, not all insulation, ductwork, piping, and heating and cooling systems have been installed at that point and only at the 'final' energy inspection can these items be verified. Windows that may have failed the rough inspection would need stickers at the follow up or final inspection to verify compliance. That's why it is importatnt to leave stickers on windows until after the final inspection has been approved.

wonder where gary is.. i bet he could confuse us more.. lol ... PP as plant parent.. makes no logical sense to me.... its like you are either lazy in your record keeping... or you are hiding the dna background .... for god knows what reason ... and that was a thing back in the day ... had to protect that million dollars you were going to make with the new hosta you developed ... yeah.. that never happened .... i did note when looking it up the other day... PP was used on either side of the 'X' ... and i have some vague recollection.. there is a rule for which is supposed to be listed first.. pod or pollen parent ... aw.. who cares.. some of these breeders are worse than the nomenclature police ... lol.. at least we dont have to worry about that .. unless they decide that they arent hosta anymore .... ken