Hi All ! I think I'm the only one who can manage to kill a bouganvillia (doesn't matter how I spell it, it always looks wrong !) This has been my third attempt...should I give up ??? Not on the spelling, but on keeping one alive ! LOL Anyway, so far this summer, I've lost two skyflower plants, one bogey, one red flame grape vine (newly planted this past spring),vincas (can you imagine?), two bottlebrush (planted this spring), Mexican heather, a bush morning glory...but Gracie, my gardenia is doing just fine ! go figure ! I'm thankful for my precious portulacas, elephant bushes and willow acacia trees (the only thing in my yard that grow like weeds, that AREN'T weeds !) Here in Bullead City, the temps are starting to drop to just over 100, humidity is now in double digits ! Ahhh, the signs of Fall ! We even had a rainstorm the other night ! A good soaking, too ! Although there were several areas in town that were damaged by the wind...power lines down, etc. No damage to me and mine, luckily... My roses are struggling, valiantly blooming poor pitiful blossoms, some with only 4-5 petals total ! but they're alive, if not well ! I keep telling them "hang on, it's going to get better!" Knock on wood for me! My three citrus babies are surprisingly well ! I have just dared to remove their shade cloths ! but I'm keeping them handy, in case there's a hot spell! I took a walk through the garden center at Walmart the other day; pitiful ! what little was there was either dead, or half-dead ! Still with full-price stickers, however ! I'm ever hopeful, though, for my gardening efforts to show some promise...I'm confident that the canna rhizomes (?) I planted this past spring will show some growth eventually ! LOL

There was no standing water. Even at the very bottom the material was able to absorb it all. Until I have a flow through I do not want holes in my bins at all. I do not want "tea". To me tea would be a sign of a poorly managed bin. Normally I only compost in containers as deep as 5 gallon buckets. I was trying to stress a test system to see about this "protein" poisoning. I could not get it to happen even with pouring in the corn meal instead of sprinkling in only a tiny bit.

Well....there don't seem to be any chia there....they love sending those! I would say the ones with pink, yellow or splotches/bands aren't ap. Sorry! Some of the smaller green ones could be, but the detail isn't clear enough. Small ap sprouts are solid light green, and after the first 2 secondary leaves appear, all the rest come at different angles. Even the very small secondary leaves show the dull 'barbs' on the edges early on. If only you could leave negative feedback for an entire country.... I ordered henglan clivia seeds, and the 1st small order was fine, and a 2nd henglan order the following year turned out to be variegated instead. Of course with variegated genetics, the seeds are 1/4 normal green, 1/4 albino (dead), and 1/2 variegated. I was lucky--the variegated ones were a good 'consolation prize'. Silverhill is highly reliable if you decide to try again. Good luck! --Rick in CT

>>(but presumably not when frozen solid). Even then! Frozen roots still have to stay alive, although the engine's running incredibly slowly at that point. Even in deep-frozen seeds, the clock is still ticking. Fun fact: Seed banks and repositories store most of their seeds really, really cold (some of the Nordic countries do this in permafrost to reduce cooling costs to zero). Seeds can last centuries, but some do have to be replaced every few decades. I store mine in the (dry) cellar to slow the clock, but only require storage from August to October through February to April, depending on the species. Even the best storage on lettuce seeds won't extend their lifespan past a single year. Some will sprout Year 2, but the percentage is severely reduced. >>Maybe an odd question, but is there a way to determine the carb level in your grass? Can you actually see it in thicker roots, for example? That's called a brix test, best done with grass sap and a refractometer. I would imagine that you can do it with the liquid in the root, but I can't say I've ever seen a process for it. For those of us who don't have a refractometer, have bad eyes, or simply don't want to bother, the taste test can give you a faint guide Grass blades that taste sweeter are high in carbs and have a high brix. Grasses aren't exactly famous for their sweet flavor, however, and I doubt strongly you'll be able to tell the difference between a brix value of 2 or 3. Indirectly, strong, upright growth and thicker roots imply a higher brix and an overall healthier plant (all else being equal). Healthier plants with all the proper amounts of resources are very efficient at synthesizing food. So as brix goes up, the plant has more opportunity to grow, and as it has healthy growth, the brix tends to go up. Less indirectly, grasses that stay green during winter tend to have a high brix--sucrose is an anti-freeze, and although minor, helps a bit. I find that temperatures under 15° at night consistently mean that KBG is going to sleep regardless, it's just too cold for the poor things.