Sean, a belated welcome, A couple of my earlier messages to you haven't posted here. You have my sympathy and empathy with your orchid loss, especially because it was a thoughtful and special gift for your GF, and she's loved it so. You've gone to great lengths to save this plant. Not many folks would have done that. Kudos to you. Dunno if this will help ease the loss for the two of you, but the beloved Phal could have been doomed before you got it because of the no drainage factor. The only retailers who raise orchids to last beyond that one (unnatural) flowering are the smaller commercial orchid growers, and some of those mistreat their plants, so you end up with poor quality too. You're in good company: virtually every orchid hobbyist lost at least a few of their first orchids. After you and your GF have had a chance to talk, & if you decide to get another orchid, I have two suggestions that will increase chances the new orchid will thrive and bloom again (no guarantees, unfortunately - we're talking orchids. :)). First, as Jane said, get Ortho's All About Orchids by Elvin McDonald; Meredith Books, 1999. It's a paperback, and Amazon's got them new for $2.79! Then there's shipping from their vendor, but the book was about $20 @ Home Depot a couple of years ago. The Ortho book's only 96 pages long and has guided tons of folks to success. After the two of you have skimmed through the book... Second suggestion - order a Phal from a grower who sells online. Picking out the new Phal together could help brighten your moods. There are lots of good growers who sell online, and folks here will suggest solid growers, if you decide to go that route. We can also tell you which Phals might be easier than others. One drawback is a new plant may not arrive in spike (have a "stem" maybe long enough to have buds on it already), or in bloom (flowers open). That's because the orchid's environment hasn't been messed with to force it to bloom way out of its natural cycle, like orchids you find in stores, even garden centers. This process could have compromised your orchid's health, too. But, you're in luck - this is the time of year lots of Phals are in spike. I live in Minneapolis, MN and see you're in SE Nebraska. We're geographically challenged in the orchid world. There may be small commercial growers kinda near you or your GF's school, but none that sell online as far as I know. Also, the only show around here where you can buy orchids is in conjunction with the St. Paul Winter Carnival in January, and only a few vendors attend. It's the absolute worst time to buy an orchid cuz of its exposure to cold temps. People in Chicago, S CA, FL, and farther up the E coast live in paradise re: lots of good growers and big shows throughout the year. I'll be thinking about you two. Please let us know how it's going. Whitecat8 Here is a link that might be useful: Ortho's All About Orchids, Amazon.com

I have always been organic, ever since I was a kid and my grandma and grandpa showed me how to plant a few seeds way back in the early 60's. I ran across Ruth's book in 1978 and it revolutionized my gardening. No more turning the soil! I was already toying with "no till" methods but her simple solution is the ticket, and I've done it basically that way ever since. Hay is not the only thing that works, any sort of mulch will do. You can check with local tree services that have chipper trucks and they will often times drop a whole load (or part of one) off for you at no charge (saves them a fee at the dump). Get your wheel barrow and pitch fork ready and mulch like crazy. The main way I differ is instead of putting the mulch everywhere, I make beds that are mulched and run 2 drip lines over the top, down the length of the bed. (I use T-tape, and use the heaviest gauge) Each time I add mulch, I top dress then use an old hoe handle with just the hook (blade broke off) to lift the line back over the mulch. Beds should only be as wide as you can reach from both sides WITHOUT having to stretch to reach the middle. I lay my drip line over the mulch so that water runs down through it and gets more of the mulch wet. It works with it under though, as enough water still keeps the bottom of the mulch moist. I just like the mulch to break down a little faster so it's feeding the soil. I love Ruth's book, and have recommended it to many a fellow garden keeper. There are also several threads on this site about "lasagna" gardening which is basically the same thing by a more recent author. The term lasagna was one I came up with years ago, but I used the word to describe the way I make a compost pile, with layers, and then "cook" the pile. The author of Lasagna Gardening heard me use the phrase and asked if she could use it and I said sure, so Lasagna gardening was born. Another good book is by Max Alth, How to Farm Your Back Yard the Mulch Organic Way. BTW, I don't do that much compost piling, although it seems I always have a huge pile going somewhere on my 5 acres. Its to much work to move the material twice, plus turning. It's easier to just put it in place as mulch one time and be done with it. Let us know how your garden grows. Arthur

Honestly, this is the most pleasant forum that I've seen on the Gardenweb site and maybe the whole internet. Others have mentioned the antique forum, garden harvest and the pets forum, but the absolute worst was the Japanese Garden forum about 5+ years ago. There were a handful of know-it-all's who treated all newcomers like imbeciles and things got very very ugly. That forum is all but abandoned now. From my observations, it is always the "closed private party" mentality that gets the fighting started. The internet is largely a public resource and people have to expect anyone and everyone to show up and express their views or ask for opinions. If people want to have private conversations with only like-minded associates, then they should use email, text messaging or set up a private forum. The regulars here are pretty welcoming of the occasional posters that come and go which is what makes it work. I imagine the reason this post is so popular is because as a society we still haven't come to terms with the limitations of written online communication, but at the same time it has exploded in common daily use. Who would have thought 10 or 15 years ago that we would be able to communicate with complete strangers from around the world in writing about every subject known to mankind? There is a huge learning curve as to how to deal with different personalities and different ways of communicating. This seems to be why, on any forum, questions of forum etiquette always receive a lot of responses. It doesn't matter who you are or what type of person you are or what you are discussing, you probably will have run into problems trying to communicate with someone online. It is just a imperfect system (not to sound negative). One thing for sure, everyone here should pat themselves on the back for keeping things so civil as we discuss all things kitchen related.

I have thought of pre-sprouting, as Jake you know I keep my peas in moist paper toweling in a ziplock bag till I see the beginnings of sprouts, and I have had good luck with that as long as I handle them gently and look forward enough on the weather forecast before I start them sprouting so that I'll have a warmish day in which to plant. I used to believe people when they said you cannot transplant things that have long taproots (which includes beets) but when I started doing wintersowing I did discover same thing as you, dbarron, that if you do it early and carefully, it can be done. I've considered making some newspaper cups filled with potting soil, then pre-sprouting in a coffee filter, and slipping each sprout into one of those. The newspaper cups then can transplant right into the garden without the plants knowing any better. But seems awfully labor intensive for as many beets as I would like to grow. I started wondering if germination would be any better if the seeds were free of the "pods", and so I have been "playing" this morning with breaking open some of the beet "pods" and I'm finding hardly any that have little seeds inside. Some have actually some white powdery residue inside. Hmmmm. This could be actually the top reason why I might not have germination. These are seed "packed for 2018". So it's clear that there might be a point to actually cracking a few just to see what they look like inside, as a test. I'm using small needlenose pliers to gently squeeze the pods till they crack open so as not to harm any seeds inside, as might happen if I smashed the pods with a hammer, and I wear magnifying glasses so I can see the tiny seed better. I had in mind to try germinating some of these tiny seed after extracting from the pod and finding out how long it took. Now, I'm thinking I'd better buy some more seed, maybe a different variety, from a different source. *Sigh*.