Anyone who has ACTUALLY READ and tried to understand my posts on the fig cutting cleaning & storage procedures and who has actually read the "details" of my writings on rooting methods ....should already know WHY it is important to clean cuttings. I have absolutely no desire to repeat any of the details again for the sake of argument. Anyone who really desires to know why......perform a search function on my GW user-name and Clorox and you should find my posts on this matter. Those posts will lead to other good posts written by other forum members. Too, I don't really care what the so called professional rooters do. I know what works very well for me and am working on propagation methods that may well be of interest to them. Funny how some people want to criticize and seek fault rather than try to really understand alternate methods that achieve very high success rates.......with success measured in the number of fully harden off fig trees and not simply measured by the number of cuttings that manage to grow some roots. What I have suggested is practical, very simple (requires no special equipment...like those terrible heating pads, or expensive green houses), and consistently yields very good results. What I have posted is sound and easily reproduced by anyone. Anyone who desires to reduce or completely eliminate mold problems during fig rooting, should consider doing some of the things that I have suggested......simply because THEY WORK real well. Temperature, atmospheric pressure, absolute humidity, relative humidity, moisture, air (oxygen), cutting quality, and rooting environment are some of the variables that affect rooting success and potential molding issues. Most of these parameters are quite easy to control or manipulate to your advantage..... if you know how. It really is not that complicated. At least, I have been kind enough to share some of my thoughts,ideas, experiences, research data, methods, and techniques....we sure can't say that about everybody. Dan

Anney, I have just explored Dr. Dirt's site re using cornmeal as a plant fungicide. As usual he is giving incomplete advice. He takes ideas posted on GardenWeb and that other gardening Forum we can't mention here and gives them his own spin omitting important information. To date, after much experimentation, I have not had success controlling any tomato diseases/blights/fungus using cornmeal. Some have reported good results but I am not been able to. For those who would like to try a cornmeal tea do a search here on GW for Cornmeal Tea to find formulas I have posted. Also do a search for Aspirin Technique which has been my personal best, cheap remedy to date. Some claim it is not organic but to date aspirin has been certified safe for human consumption. The IMPORTANT part of attempting to control tomato problems with WHATEVER one chooses to use is to begin treatment EARLY in the tomato's growth...when the plant has grown a second set of true leaves is a good time to begin.

So, I went ahead and took a chance. Armed with a flashlight and a playing card, I drove to look at the bed that night. (And it's just the frame, not any mattresses, btw.) It was so gorgeous and so cheap, I ignored my paranoia and bought the darn thing. (I DID peek briefly into the cracks with a flashlight and run the playing card between any seams.) And really, you'd have to be a pretty horrible person to sell a bed to someone, knowing that you had had bedbugs, right? Of course, I guess it's always possible that you can have them and not know. The bed is still outside. I spent a lot of time that first night running out there with a flashlight every so often, inspecting, inspecting, inspecting. Maybe I AM a crazy person! But so far, it seems to be bug-free. And to top it off, the lady told me that she was surprised that she had gotten so many calls about the bed, because she thought that sleigh beds were out of style these days. Great - now I have something else to be paranoid about. Are sleigh beds "out"? Whatever, I still love it. I'll post some pics later on today. Thanks!

Seedlings can withstand quite hard frosts until they form their first true rose leaves. If you want to hold them until the chance of last really hard frost (I mean the type that will actually harm your established rose bushes, not "frost" down to about 30F) you can. I would definitely replace the paper in the bag with either a plastic label with the ID written in #2 PENCIL. The paper will mold with the moisture in the bag and you'll have to soak it in bleach to be able to read it. And, even in the refrigerator, the seeds will mold unless you clean them in a weak bleach solution to sterilize them, then put them in a clean bag. I shelled them but didn't bleach them nor clean the fibers from them. Those are what will form mold when kept in the bags too long. The mold likely won't hurt anything and may even help break down the seed coat, but I don't like handling anything moldy. Just a personal preference.