I think the LA series are very well built and if they aren't abused and are maintained will provide many years of service. They are not like the deeres of old but what is made like the days of old these days? not too many things. I took a LA165 home and used the 30 day promise to trade up to a x320 and am glad I did only due to having 3.5 acres of hills and inclines and I didn't think the LA series was enough tractor. I pull a 850lb yard roller and it's effortless and I weigh 240lbs with 90lbs of ballast in the tires. I think the john deere quality shows in all of their series but you can't compare them to the deeres of the past it's not a fair comparison. I spoke to several of the techs from several dealerships that said they have not seen a x320 in for tranny service in forever if that helps.

My sisters and BIL's in N.Y. are constantly battleing deer,they eat everything in site,they even came up on one sisters porch and ate what she had in hanging baskets.They have everything people have told them to doto try and discourage them.One BIL went to the 99 cent store,bought a case of irish spring soap,drilled holes in them and hung them all around his garden,it worked for a short while,then i guess they became immune to it. MY BIL was always complaining about them so much,that i went out and bought some fabric with deer all over it and made him a throw blanket,and on the back i put "for the love of Bambi",as he was always saying he wished he could shoot that da** Bambi.My sister was supposed to take a picture when he opened it,but she forgot!! bummer,as i'm sure that was a priceless picture. kathi PS i guess we all fight something,for us it's those darn Gophers,hate them.

I CAN direct-seed okra if the soil is warm enough; but if we then get heavy rains (which often happens) germination can be slow and/or spotty. To get a decent yield, I use transplants: Jiffy 32's (with extra holes pinched into the bottoms), and 5-6 seeds per cell (more if older seed). The seeds germinate in 4-5 days, but may need to be misted several times a day to break out of their "helmets". After transplant & once the plants get established, I thin to the strongest 3-4 per cell. This enables me to get about 100 plants out of one tray... which I need, since we only have a few months of warm weather.

Dorothy, I was afraid you were going to tell me that you had rich, loamy 'eastern Oklahoma' soil....and you did! I have to confess that it leaves me feeling baffled! Based on everything I know about nematodes, including some first-hand experience with them in my parents' garden in Texas, I know that they are a severe problem in sandy soil. Back in 'the olden days' when I was a kid, you could fumigate your soil chemically and it would kill the nematodes. However, I don't think any chemical fumigants are available to home gardeners these days because they are just too deadly and kill EVERYTHING in the soil including all the microorganisms and earthworms. I think some chemical fumigants are still used, especially in Florida, by commercial growers. And, I think I used the wrong term to describe plants that I said were 'resistant' to nematodes. That is how they were described when I was younger, but the terminology has been revised to "tolerant of" nematodes. It is a small technicality, but apparently the word 'tolerant' does not imply the plants could completely resist nematodes, and the word 'resistant' might imply that. Even tolerant plants often succumb to nematode damage, although they might last 1, 2 or 3 weeks longer than plants that are not tolerant. So, how do we arrive at a logical reason for the presence of nematodes in your soil? First, I would do a jar test and try to determine if there is a % of your soil that is sand. If so, that could explain the presence of the nematodes. However, unless there is a fairly high % of sand, the organic material in your soil OUGHT to counteract the sand content. If you've never done a jar test, let me know and I'll describe how to do it. When we first moved here, I used a jar test to help me determine what the clay content of our soil was. I discovered, through the use of several jar tests, that I had widely differing amounts of clay in different locations. On our property, heavy, dense red clay devoid of organic material predominates, but I also have some soil that is best described as sandy-clayey soil and silty-clayey, and one area that is almost pure sand, yet another one that is almost pure silt. In all cases, though, the basic solution is the same.....the addition of tons of organic material. Secondly, it might not hurt to read up a little on cotton root rot. We have cotton root rot in the heaviest clay soil on our property, which used to be part of a farm....on which cotton was once grown. When I began losing plants to CRR, I knew what it was immediately because CRR is a huge problem in Texas, where I grew up. Cotton Root Rot affects thousands of plants and it also causes sudden death. If your okra plants were being affected by CRR, they would die very suddenly and often the 'death' moves up a row plant by plant. However, with CRR, when you pull up the roots or dig around in the soil near the roots, you often find a stringy, fibrous mat that looks sort of like the decomposed remains of very old carpet. That mass is a key sympton to watch for if you suspect CRR. Okra and plants related to it are very susceptible to CRR. Since you are going to solarize during the cooler months, you might want to leave the plastic on for at least 12 weeks, and fall to winter may be better than winter to spring, because the degree of moisture received in eastern Oklahoma can make solarizing harder in spring weather. Your high moisture and humidity levels in the spring could encourage fungii to grow in your soil underneath that plastic. I suspect the last thing you want to do is to encourage the growth of more fungii. Third, nematodes are a popular discussion topic on the Tomato Forum because they are such a problem for tomato growers. If you have time, you might want to go to the Tomato Forum and do a search for 'nematodes'. There are several threads there that have a LOT of good info on nematodes, including ways for home gardeners to combat them. Fourth, if you are growing the standard commercial varieties of okra, you might want to try a couple of heirloom varieties to see if you can find one with better nematode tolerance. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com) and Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) both offer heirloom okra varieties. Hope this info helps. Dawn (who grows okra primarily to entertain the deer, because they love it so very much, and I cannot keep them out of it!)