I read that sweet peas require darkness, so that may be why the paper towel method does not work for those. ==>>> then put the baggie in a drawer??? the wet towel is to soften the seed coat ...enough that the embryo ... can push its way out ... by thinning or breaking the coating .. you simply hasten the procedure ... this would normally be left to mother nature outdoors .. during winter and early spring ... in the proper zone ... 4 oclock is another hard one.. when stored... but i find them on the ground ... soft as pudding in spring ... i store them because the birds eat them in late fall and winter.. if there is no snow cover ... so i am a bit confused how 'darkness' fits in what we are trying to accomplish here .. perhaps a bit of .. too much knowledge is slowing you down?? ya know.. they dont all have to go in one baggie ... do two bags.. do one in a dark drawer.. and one somewhere else... most i what i learned.. pre WWW ... was by experimenting .... i bet it wont matter ... ken ps: i am missing 4 pair of kitchen scissors ... any chance you know were they are.. since you run around with them ... lol ...

First, a pot that is 30 inches tall and wide and full of damp soil with palms that are 15 feet tall isn't something that you are going to want to or be able to move easily in the first place. As we don't have freeze damage issues to worry about, breakage on these thick walled ceramic glazed type pots is not an issue. I don't permanently plant aggressively rooting plants into large pots such as this without double potting them with a cheaper plastic nursery pot inside. This methodology I use for things like Strelitzia nicholai which will ultimately break a pot with its roots. Palms, in general, are much better behaved as large growing, long term container plants without fear of roots breaking the pot. I wouldn't be bothered doing this sort of thing for smaller pots with herbaceous or shrubby things that can be moved, or are more easily divided when necessary. Thus, I only use this for permanent large scale plantings that will stay in place permanently. On the other hand, I have found cutting a larger drain hole at pots useful for fast growing plants such as restios, as well. I know this is all Greek for anyone outside of the Pacific Coast, but the principle applies wherever gardeners can leave containers outdoors year round, and are using plants that are known to grow such thick roots that they can block drainage at too small drain holes which are the standard when purchased. With the restios, I cut the larger drain hole, and then set the pot over a saucer. This minimizes roots clogging the drainage and letting the plant drown in its own pot. I've had this happen on plantings in pots at client's gardens where I may only check on container plantings once every two months or so. Two months of roots with no air because automatic drip irrigation keeps them flooded is usually a death sentence for most non-aquatic plants. Does that explain it better? Also, I recently read an on-line article on container gardening in the New York Times where they discussed using large pots that would remain outdoors with plants all winter. Interestingly, the author was trying to use these large ceramic glazed pots in upstate New York, but attempting to keep them from cracking by insulating them on the inside of the pots with styrofoam. I'd think that double potting and providing a sand or styrofoam pellets layer between pots would be better, and would prevent freeze damage via soil moisture from cracking the pot. It would be extremely difficult to apply sheets of styrofoam insulation against the generally curving wall faces of most pots, and to hold it in place. Further painting the inside of the pot with a water-proofing membrane/sealer would also protect the pot from absorbing moisture and cracking during a freeze. As I don't garden where this is an issue, I haven't really explored the issues of this problem, and don't tend to move pots around seasonally, except for visual reasons as things come in and out of interest/bloom, etc. My container plantings here in California are intended to look good 365 days of the year, with no down season, even in winter.

I enjoyed re-reading all of these. I have a couple more tips. If you don't have a full 8 hours of full sun, but do have 4-6, and you want tomatoes, plant them anyway. Your yields won't be as good, but I've found this year that if you prune the plants, you will get a decent number of large tomatoes. I'm not preserving my tomatoes in any way, so this only applies if you want a few tomatoes to eat. There are a lot of lovely veggies and edible plants that will grow in partial shade, so do your research and you can still grow veggies and edibles without a full-sun spot. Eat your sweet potato leaves. They are yummy. The tender tips are good raw and the older ones cook up well. The tubers will still form, even if you use some of the leaves. Most ornamental sweet potatoes don't have edible leaves (they taste horrible). I use regular sweet potatoes as ground cover just so I can eat the leaves. I never dig the ones in the ornamental beds, and they come back every year, providing ground cover, food, and a never-ending supply of slips for the edible beds. If you have earthworms, cultivate them by giving them lots of organic matter to eat. If you don't have earthworms, get some. They are nature's little fertilizer factories. You can buy red wigglers from just about any bait shop, or go out into the woods early in the morning and dig some up. They are abundant here in FL. Grow flowers! Even in veggie beds, they attract pollinators and better than that, they feed your soul. That's all. Lots to do today since we're having what I hope is our last freeze tomorrow.

sure will be glad to see the results of your day! I find it efficient to do one thing one day, and then another thing the next time. Otherwise, you're working twice as hard for half the product. I'm a believer in the crockpot apple butter after this year. I mentioned in an earlier post the recipe for dumping everything in, let it stand, cook for a few hours, then run through the blender. EXTRA easy! Couldn't be less trouble. I hear lots of people talk about no-seals, and my DIL (who cans a LOT) always has one or two in a batch. It's been 2 or 3 years since I've had a no-seal, and I think my routine has a lot to do with it. You won't find it in any book, but it isn't contradictory by any means, and it certainly works. after I fill the jars, I run a clean, wet finger around the sealing rim until it "sings". Amazing what that finger will find - bits of food, a grain of salt, a hairline crack - that a clean cloth simply will not. It also "snags" on residue of rubber from the last sealing ring, and will not sing until you scrape it off - the most common thing I find. Then I place the dome lid on the jar, drop the ring over it, and, holding the dome lid in place with one finger so it doesn't move around on the sealing surface, screw the ring down. Worth a try.