Hi Thornberry, I had a similar experience with my blueberries recently. Not exactly the same problems as yours but I too put them in the soil without amending or acidifying it and applied on it an acidic fertilizer. Surprisingly, all adapted well to this, except one, Misty, which really seemed to be doomed. As a last resort method, I dug holes around the current dripline of this plant and put in sulphur, then spread sulphur around the topsoil and drenched it in water. As the weather has been warming up, I notice new leaves being thrown by this sick plant. In the meantime, I've amended soil around all others with sulphur too and they have nice green leaves. Not as dark green as I've seen in the pictures, but these are in a spot where they get direct sun for 6-7 hours each day, and dappled shade in the afternoon. Net-net: I would not write off your blueberries yet. BTW, I recently visited my trusted nursery and asked the person (whom I consider knowledgeable) the same question: whether it's necessary to plant blueberries in acidic soil in the ground or just apply acidic fertilizer. This person had previously guided me to grow 2 varieties of blueberries in the container and I have had excellent growth for past 5 years or so. He confirmed that, even in the ground, it's not necessary to amend the soil, but it's sufficient to use acidic fertilizer. Just sharing my experience!!

Sunburn in Oklahoma isn't soft and yellow, it's harsh and brown all the way. Since we rarely get a break once the heat begins, once the needle tips begin that browning process it will continue until the plant is dead. In some varietals you can put up some temporary sun screen cloth and limit the amount of needle damage that will occur and save the tree. But considering it's only mid-July and we have another 30-45 days of high heat to go, if it's browning now and you don't do something, it not only will kill the buds and branches, it will kill the tree. Water can help a lot of trees to combat the heat, but in some varietals it doesn't matter how much water you throw on the roots, under our heat they will succumb. In Oklahoma you really should have your trees on a drip system at least for the first few years until the root system has a chance to develop and settle in. You won't be able to get enough water deep enough with a regular hose/sprinkler type approach. But if it is sunburn, you will know it. mark

Ed, thanks for the vote of confidence. My knowledge of raising tomatoes is limited because in the past I used to have 24+ plants so losing one was not an issue. However, at my new house I am down to 12 plants due to space constraints so every plant counts. The fact that this plant is very young (I started it indoors from seed in mid-April) had me a little concerned. How does losing a branch affect the health of a plant? How does a plant recover? Is there anything that I should do to prevent the possiblity of disease? Should anything be applied to the wounded stem?

Rhetorical questions: If you have to cut a tile, why not cut it accurately? If the space to be tiled can't be measured accurately, then why not cut the tile slightly oversized then place and recut a time or two to get a proper fit? My comments? Your installation is okay for a first time DIYer, but it's certainly lacking considering it was done by someone getting paid to do it. The baseboard should have been pulled and the door trim undercut. Then the tile should have been set and the baseboard installed over the floor tile. Ignorance or apathy. Or both. There's no forgiveness for the slice in the corner bead. You don't "not see that" when you're setting it in place. Apathy. The bench installation isn't pretty, but who framed the shower and the bench? The tile can only be as good as the substrate it's going over. Accommodations can be made for slightly irregular framing when installing the tile backer board, even when tiling, but sometimes those on-the-fly adjustments depend on the framing and waterproofing used in the shower. Certainly the tile work could have been neater. Some of the visual will disappear after grouting with a tile-colored grout. That's not me giving the installer a pass. It's more me offering you a mental band-aid. In the end, when you set tile, YOU'RE responsible for the tile you set. No excuses. If a tiler is given an out-of-square shower to tile, he needs to bring it up before he unloads his tools. If the installer chooses to do a lousy job over lousy substrate? It's on the person installing the tile. The orientation of the floor mosaic? It looks like the bathroom floor tile hits the shower curb at a 45-degree angle, and the shower floor mosaic does the same. Or close to it. Did he try to make the grout lines of the shower mosaic align with the grout lines of the bathroom floor tile? As far as orienting the shower mosaic to the drain grate, the drain grate can be rotated 360-degrees, it is not a limiting factor. Built-in benches require attention to detail. I see minimal attention to detail in the finish surfaces of your shower, so the integrity of the bench is a concern for me. On these forums I've seen ugly substrate and absent waterproofing covered with drop-dead gorgeous tile installations. But seldom have I seen a tiler do meticulous detail work on the substrate and waterproofing and then go on to cover it up with a lackluster and sloppy tile installation. So like millworkman in his earlier post, I am concerned about waterproofing. Especially when I see a built-in bench. My conclusion? I'd ask about the waterproofing. If the bench and shower were properly waterproofed? You have Schluter products in the bathroom. Did he Kerdi the shower and the bench? Talk about the grout job. That it needs to be good, it can't be sloppy. You need the grout done well to pull this job together. If after all that talk you want to continue with this guy? It's a less-than-average tile installation. It's not gorgeous. It's not horrific. If you want an easy out, I'd have him replace the sliced Schluter corner beads. I'd deduct a bit to have shoe molding added to the baseboard, then painted. On the flip side, if there is inadequate waterproofing on the bench and in the shower, then it's a tear out. Leaky benches are just horrible.