My intent isn't to make you look stupid or inexperienced. My intent is to point out that others would be less disappointed if they don't put the same amount of faith in a humidity tray (HT) that you do. HTs might make some degree of difference, but it's certainly not going to be significant. Maybe, if a number of plants were grouped together and over HTs, you might be able to gain something of a benefit from the grouping, but one plant - one humidity tray, could only play a very minor part in warding off brown tips. When it comes to growing, people are often very poor at relating cause and effect. I'm not singling you out - it's a fact. If you were misting regularly, you'd probably swear it was the misting that was warding off the brown tips, which would also be in error. If you stop and think about it for just a second, I think you'll agree that it takes a combination of a number of favorable factors to produce a plant with pristine or even good looking foliage. BECAUSE it takes a combination of factors, it's no more logical to say it's the result of the HT than it is to say it's the result of any one of: a favorable soil, favorable light, nutrition the plant likes, the right temps, lack of insect predation or disease ..... I'd favor good genetics over a HT any day. If you think it makes a difference, then that's great for you. I'm simply not convinced and wanted to share why. Al

I have a friend who says starfish exoskeletons may have too much calcium. I found a list of NPK values for various compost ingredients including starfish on another site. The person who posted it there found it online but didn't give the source. She says at the bottom: "P.S. I just copied and pasted the entire list from the site onto MS word, then onto here. I didn't write any of the notes next to the compost ingredient." Here is the link from my Google search: my.gardenguides.com/forums/topic/46561 You'll need to scroll down in the post. Here is the list: Alfalfa Hay: 2.45/05/2.1 Apple Fruit: 0.05/0.02/0.1 Apple Leaves: 1.0/0.15/0.4 Apple Pomace: 0.2/0.02/0.15 Apple skins(ash) : 0/3.0/11/74 Banana Residues (ash): 1.75/0.75/0.5 Barley (grain): 0/0/0.5 Barley (straw): 0/0/1.0 Basalt Rock: 0/0/1.5 Bat Guano: 5.0-8.0/4.0-5.0/1.0 Beans, garden(seed and hull): 0.25/0.08/03 Beet Wastes: 0.4/0.4/0.7-4.1 Blood meal: 15.0/0/0 Bone Black: 1.5/0/0 Bonemeal (raw): 3.3-4.1/21.0/0.2 Bonemeal (steamed): 1.6-2.5/21.0/0.2 Brewery Wastes (wet): 1.0/0.5/0.05 Buckwheat straw: 0/0/2.0 Cantaloupe Rinds (ash): 0/9.77/12.0 Castor pomace: 4.0-6.6/1.0-2.0/1.0-2.0 Cattail reeds and water lily stems: 2.0/0.8/3.4 Cattail Seed: 0.98/0.25/0.1 Cattle Manure (fresh): 0.29/0.25/0.1 Cherry Leaves: 0.6/0/0.7 Chicken Manure (fresh): 1.6/1.0-1.5/0.6-1.0 Clover: 2/0/0/0 (also contains calcium) Cocoa Shell Dust: 1.0/1.5/1.7 Coffee Grounds: 2.0/0.36/0.67 Corn (grain): 1.65/0.65/0.4 Corn (green forage): 0.4/0.13/0.33 Corn cobs: 0/0/2.0 Corn Silage: 0.42/0/0 Cornstalks: 0.75/0/0.8 Cottonseed hulls (ash): 0/8.7/23.9 Cottonseed Meal: 7.0/2.0-3.0/1.8 Cotton Wastes (factory): 1.32/0.45/0.36 Cowpea Hay: 3.0/0/2.3 Cowpeas (green forage): 0.45/0.12/0.45 Cowpeas (seed): 3.1/1.0/1.2 Crabgrass (green): 0.66/0.19/0.71 Crabs (dried, ground): 10.0/0/0 (I personally just crush the shells with my foot) Crabs (fresh): 5.0/3.6/0.2 Cucumber Skins (ash): 0/11.28/27.2 ( WOW!!!! Who knew???) Dried Blood: 10.0-14.0/1.0-5.0/0 Duck Manure (fresh): 1.12/1.44/0.6 Eggs: 2.25/0.4/0.15 Eggshells: 1.19/0.38/0.14 Feathers: 15.3/0/0 Felt Wastes: 14.0/0/1.0 Field Beans (seed): 4.0/1.2/1.3 Feild Beans (shells): 1.7/0.3/1.3 Fish (dried, ground): 8.0/7.0/0 Fish Scraps (fresh): 6.5/3.75/0 Gluten Meal: 6.4/0/0 Granite Dust: 0/0/3.0-5.5 Grapefruit Skins (ash): 0/3.6/30.6 (And people throw these things away? Wow!) Grape Leaves: 0.45/0.1/0.4 Grape Pomace: 1.0/0.07/0.3 Grass (imature): 1.0/0/1.2 Greensand: 0/1.5/7.0 Hair: 14/0/0/0 Hoof and Horn Meal: 12.5/2.0/0 Horse Manure (fresh): 0.44/0.35/0.3 Incinerator Ash: 0.24/5.15/2.33 Jellyfish (dried): 4.6/0/0 Kentucky Bluegrass (green): 0.66/0.19/0.71 Kentucky Bluegrass (hay): 1.2/0.4/2.0 Leather Dust: 11.0/0/0 Lemon Culls: 0.15/0.06/0.26 Lemon Skins (ash): 06.33/1.0 Lobster Refuse: 4.5/3.5/0 Milk: 0.5/0.3/0.18 Millet Hay: 1.2/0/3.2 Molasses Residue (From alcohol manufacture): 0.7/0/5.32 Molasses Waste (From Sugar refining): 0/0/3.0-4.0 Mud (fresh water): 1.37/0.26/0.22 Mud (harbour): 0.99/0.77/0.05 Mud (salt): 0.4.0/0 Mussels: 1.0/0.12/0.13 Nutshells: 2.5/0/0 Oak Leaves: 0.8/0.35/0.2 Oats (grain): 2.0/0.8/0.6 Oats (green fodder): 0.49/0/0 Oat straw: 0/0/1.5 Olive Pomace: 1.15/0.78/1.3 Orange Culls: 0.2/0.13/0.21 Orange Skins: 0/3.0/27.0 (Right up there with Grapefruit. Note: both can attract fruit flies so, bury them in the compost) Oyster Shells: 0.36/0/0 Peach Leaves: 0.9/0.15/0.6 Pea forage: 1.5-2.5/0/1.4 Peanuts (seed/kernals): 3.6/0.7/0.45 Peanut Shells: 3.6/0.15/0.5 (I grind them up in the food processor first) Pea Pods (ash): 0/3.0/9.0 (I cut them up with a pair of scissors while shelling them) Pea (vines): 0.25/0/0.7 Pear Leaves: 0.7/0/0.4 Pigeon manure (fresh): 4.19/2.24/1.0 Pigweed (rough): 0.6/0.1/0 Pine Needles: 0.5/0.12/0.03 Potato Skins (ash): 0/5.18/27.5 Potaote Tubers: 0.35/0.15/2.5 Potatoe Vines (dried): 0.6/0.16/1.6 Prune Refuse: 0.18/0.07/0.31 Pumpkins (fresh): 0.16/0.07/0.26 Rabbitbrush (ash): 0/0/13.04 Rabbit Manure: 2.4/1.4/0.6 Ragweed: 0.76/0.26/0 Rapeseed meal: 0/1.0=2.0/1.0=3.0 Raspberry leaves: 1.45/0/0.6 Red clover hay: 2.1/0.6/2.1 Redrop Hay: 1.2/0.35/1.0 Rock and Mussel Deposits From Ocean: 0.22/0.09/1.78 Roses (flowers): 0.3/0.1/0.4 Rye Straw: 0/0/1.0 Salt March Hay: 1.1/0.25/0.75 Sardine Scrap: 8.0/7.1/0 Seaweed (dried): 1.1-1.5/0.75/4.9 (Seaweed is loaded with micronutrients including: Boron, Iodine, Magnesium and so on.) Seaweed (fresh): 0.2-0.4/0/0 Sheep and Goat Manure (fresh): 0.55/0.6/0.3 Shoddy and Felt: 8.0/0/0 Shrimp Heads (dried): 7.8/4.2/0 Shrimp Wastes: 2.9/10.0/0 Siftings From Oyster Shell Mounds: 0.36/10.38/0.09 Silk Mill Wastes: 8.0/1.14/1.0 Silkworm Cocoons:10.0/1.82/1.08 Sludge: 2.0/1.9/0.3 Sludge (activated): 5.0/2.5-4.0/0.6 Smokehouse/Firepit Ash/0/4.96 (I put the ashes from my smoker in the pile) Sorghum Straw/0/1.0 Soybean Hay: 1.5-3.0/0/1.2-2.3 Starfish: 1.8/0.2/0.25 (I'm not saying: "Go out and decimate starfish populations at our local beaches" but, the odd starfish would be okay. Incidentally, the edndoskeletons of starfish are made of Calcium Carbonate which, is slow to break down.) String Beans (strings and stems, ash): 0/4.99/18.0 (Why we throw this stuff away? I have no idea. Look at all that potash!) Sugar Wastes (raw): 2.0/8.0/0 Sweet Potatoes: 0.25/0.1/0.5 Swine Manure (fresh): 0.6/0.45/0.5 Tanbark Ash: 0/0.34/3.8 Tanbark Ash (spent): 0/1.75/2.0 Tankage: 3.0-11.0/2.0-5.0/0 Tea Grounds: 4.15/0.62/0.4 Timothy Hay: 1.2/0.55/1.4 Tobacco Leaves: 4.0/0.5/6.0 Tobacco Stems: 2.5-3.7/0.6-0.9/4.5-7.0 Tomatoe Fruit: 0.2/0.07/0.35 (A note on tomatoe fruit: These should be hot composted. I just let any rotted or insect eaten tomatoes compost in the soil beneath the plants and have "freebees" come back each consecutive year. Hot composting will kill the seeds.) Tomatoe Leaves: 0.35/0.1/0.4 Tomatoe Stalks: 0.35/0.1/0.5 Tung Oil Pumace: 6.1/0/0 Vetch Hay: 2.8/0/2.3 Waste Silt: 9.5/0/0 Wheat Bran: 2.4/2.9/1.6 Wheat (grain): 2.0/0.85/0.5 Wheat Straw: 0.5/0.15/0.8 White Clover (Green): 0.5/0.2/0.3 Winter Rye Hay: 0/0/1.0 Wood Ash: 0/1.0-2.0/6.0-10.0 (A note on Wood ash: Wood Ash can contain chemicals that could harm plants and also carcinogens so, they should be composted in moderation) Wool Wastes: 3.5-6.0/2.0-4.0/1.0-3 Read more: Making Compost at Home : Composting http://my.gardenguides.com/forums/topic/46561#ixzz11xiVExSM

If you have bears in your area, then an electric fence is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. Over the past 10 years and two homes my hives have been hit by bears three times. My current apiary is on my main property, now about 100 yards from the house across a lawn. The first time at my old house (hives 40 feet from the rear of the house) I didnt have a fence at all and learned a hard lesson. It took two years for a bear to find my hives. When I reported the bear to the police as a courtesy, they notified the State (NH), and Fish & Game sent a specialist that day to set up a loaner fence until I could buy my own. With only two hives at the time, it was a surprising, but welcome, action on the part of my government. They reacted so quickly because, as the specialist predicted, the bear came back that night for seconds. The fence deterred it (and literally shocked the you-know-what out of it, which my dog found and rolled in). It was a simple net fence with a battery-charger, a Hornet, I think it was called, and ran off of either 4 D cells or a deep-cycle marine battery. I immediately bought the same set up. Everything was fine for about five years. Set the fence up in the spring and took it down in the late fall. The second time a bear hit my hives I was getting ready to move to my new house and decided to be lazy and not set up the fence, since I was moving in a few weeks. Woke up on Memorial Day weekend to find that my hives, now three strong, had been hit. Set up the fence for the remaining few weeks, lesson learned. Mind you, this was the FIRST time I hadnÂt set up the fence since I bought it. The third time was last summer. I did not know it, but after six years or so the charger had failed (not bad batteries, it stopped working) and a bear hit my hives. Now, I moved over 25 miles away, so this was different bear. When it hit, I was leaving THAT day on a business trip. I called the state and they immediately sent someone over to my empty house to set up a loaner charger until I got back. I canÂt say enough good things about the NH Fish and Game folks. They even offered me compensation for my losses (both times), but I didnÂt take them up on it, since I was just grateful for the help and didnÂt need to have someone else (like other taxpayers) pay for my mistakes. This time I bought a solar charger, a Fi-Shock SS-440. It is four volts, which sounds small, but it is excellent. It puts out around 5000 volts and has a light on it that flashes with each pulse, so I can tell from a distance, if it is working. Now, I leave my fence up all year round, and the charger worked all winter long, even at temps down to -16F and with snow piled up against the fence. IÂm still using the original net fence I bought. ItÂs 3-feet high (which I can step over without even opening the fence), 75 feet long, and easily contains my six hives. I think the SS-440 is the perfect charger for keeping bears from hives. It cost me $99, including shipping, at www.Mightypets.com. They still have it for that price. In my experience, which is in a black bear-rich environment, an electric net fence and decent charger are essential, but also sufficient to keep bears at bay. No need to get more exotic. Besides being cheaper, easier to set up and easier to move, a net fence will also keep skunks away from your hives, which can be a problem in some areas. Unless you string it very low, three our four-strand electric fencing wonÂt accomplish that. Bears will get used to radios, lights, etc. Around here they come up onto peopleÂs decks to eat dog food and clean out the grease catchers on grills, so they clearly get used to the sounds and sights of human activity. HereÂs a tip about electric fencing. If you test it by touching a live wire, you will probably get a zap equivalent to what you get from a static electricity zap from a metal door knob in winter. You might think that in no way is that strong enough to deter a bear. ThatÂs NOT what an animal feels, since it will most likely inspect the fence with its wet nose, while four paws are on the ground. You are almost certainly insulated from the ground by your shoes. Try touching the grass with one hand and then the fence with the other, which I did while repositioning it with the charger still on. You will experience what an animal feels. It wonÂt hurt you, but you wonÂt soon forget the experience. Hope this helps.

Hi, Ditas. Several books I read on hummingbirds say they are just plain aggressive, both to each other and to anyone else that tries to interfere with them. Not that predators never get hold of them, but that would be more by stealth I guess. If you like I'll try to find the name of the book(s) that made reference to this. They are reported to have attacked and chased off jays, starlings, owls, even hawks. They rely on their speed and ferocity dive bombing and buzzing adversaries. Have you ever been divebombed by a bluejay defending a nest? I've seen jays chase off cats many times with divebombing. And yes, they've chased me off too. It's terrifying to have something coming at your face so fast. Hummers divebomb from as high as 45 feet and end their run a few inches away from their target. I'd leave, too :) I studied animal behavior, and leaving humans out of it, in nature animals do a lot of threatening but try not to have to actually fight. The threats decide who has the strongest will to win or the most physical strength, and the weaker one often gives in before an actual fight is necessary. The reason for this is simple-- a wounded animal is likely to die either of his wounds, starvation because he can't hunt, or become the easy victim of a predator. So actual fighting is much less likely in nature than the animal TV shows would have us believe. Most "fighting" is done with threats. Since many creatures will back away from a persistant, intense, ferocious, highly aggressive threat, the hummer amazingly is able to chase off these much larger creatures, even real killers like hawks. Don't forget they can divebomb at over 60 miles per hour. The *Wild Bird Guides: Ruby Throated Hummingbird* says that in hummers, individual differences in aggressiveness in both males and females are genetic, and the most ferocious of both sexes will become the dominant ones and get the best territories and the best opportunities to mate. Right now in my back yard Little Fat Guy is practicing his meanness chasing two other juveniles around all day, practicing to be the baddest guy on the block next year, I guess. I saw LFG eating one day when a second juvie tried to join him at the feeder. He hovered up 8 inches or so to the L-bracket holding the feeder, stuck his neck forward and hovered there moving his wings a thousand miles an hour. You could see it was an aggressive display. The intruder chickened out and left and LFG then calmly went back to eating. I wish they weren't quite so mean, but this is nature's way for them, so I accept it. Hope this is what you were looking for.