A group swap is when multiple people sign-up to swap what they have. They take place under the Round Robin Exchange forum. Normally once the swap goes live the participants make a list of items they would be willing to swap and for then you pick the ones you want from the others list you can choose one of someone elses. The plants / seeds/ etc. are then mailed to the designee who swaps all the plants etc into the correct mailer and sends them back out. Thats just the quick version. They are a lot of fun. You should check out the forum and view a couple that are going on right now. I LOVE the seed swaps (they are my fav.) I get alot of awesome seeds that way. Normally whoever is doing the swapping will look at your want list and try to match up your top wants. Its pretty fun. This is the first water one I have done. Hope that helps. Tammy

I have the same shelf as zenman, but I don't use a heat mat. I buy the mylar blankets from the sports dept at Walmart. They are in a small box hanging on a rack and the cost is about $3. I drape this small blanket over the top shelf and attach it with clothes pins to cover down to the next shelf. I don't use any lights on the top shelf, and because heat rises, the heat from the lights on the second shelf heat the area above that shelf. The blanket holds the heat in and the tray with the dome cover holds the moisture in the tray. At the first sign of germination, I remove the dome and move the tray down under the lights and drop the lights down until they almost touch the plants. I grow in a building that is well insulated and will only add heat if the outside temp is below freezing. The lights create some heat, but I intentional grow tomatoes on a cooler shelf. Peppers, on the other hand, need to be on one of the open shelves that has a light under it as they will benefit from the extra heat that rises from that light. I also have my light fixtures plugged into surge protectors so that I can control all of the lights by just flipping a switch rather than plugging and unplugging cords. The sports blankets that I use look a little like aluminum foil, but are soft and almost transparent. When I first start the plants I use another blanket to wrap around the shelves because the silver color tends to reflect more light onto the plants (I think). Sometimes I remove it from the lower shelves and some years I just add a small fan to make sure there is some air movement on the plants. Later in the season, I remove it because I don't want the plants to be too hot, but I leave the top part covered and continue to use it as a germination chamber. I am attaching a picture, but the light wasn't on in the room when I took the picture so you have to look closely to see the top shelf which has no lights. I have watered from the bottom, from the top, and misted and I never have had damping off, so I can't say which is best. I would never mist if I wasn't running a fan though. Here is a link that might be useful: My shelf

some changes I had to make: the starter cups I had are made of peat moss- I assume you have to put them in something. I used a couple of well-washed plastic containers from previous plants. I tried to put a little sand on it, but it was damp, so it was a bit hard to make it as thin as I want- it's not a very thick layer, though, so I'm not too worried- I can always spread it out tomorrow when it's a bit drier. I have both containers in zip lock bags- should I leave part of it open right away, or wait a bit? I noticed that the 'greenhouses' were having their desired effect. There was condensation on it after an hour or so.

Green balls on the stem? Did you mean at the top of the plant? Spinach flowers first and then goes to seed. Perhaps these were insects and you knocked them off with the hose? If not, perhaps you accidentally knocked them off with too heavy a stream from the hose. You should be able to water them (gently) when they are forming seeds. Linda