Hope you feel better soon Stacy. For the first time in a month I'm aware that it is Friday... well very early Sat morning now. My lay-off has come to an end for now and I go back to work on Monday. I didn't know how bad I needed an extended break. I'm alive and living again! A rather strange day. New bartender and I struck up a friendship. Alas she is less then half my age so it will be just friends. She had guessed I was "not older then 33" which puts her off by 11 years. Still it was so good for my ego to have an interested gal being friendly. Just took a walk down my drive as Dolly had been barking at something. Nothing out there to be found but it is one beautiful night out there. Out here in the Thumb we don't get much light pollution so the stars are very clear. The Milky Way makes a neat white stripe across the sky. Some lightning flashing out over Saginaw Bay which is 30 miles north of me. Probably rain by morning but clear and cool right now. Not in the mood for alcohol or I'd take a bottle and go have a sit in the moonlight. My outdoor cat Tippy got into a bad fight and came home all bloody. Thought he might lose an eye this morning. Patched him up and put some boric acid eye drops on his wounded eye. Must have felt good because he didn't seem to mind my putting stuff in his eye. Happy to report the swelling is way down and he looks better tonight. Going to buy a storm door in the morning. Only one in stock a couple weeks ago and I need to get another. The garage didn't really need one but both doors are on the front of the house and it looks funny to only have one storm door. Dad said I should close off the porch but I don't know if I have that much energy. Grew potted tomatoes and peppers instead of flowers the last couple years and don't know if I want to lose the porch space now. So it goes. I need to take some cyclobenzaprine so I can get back to sleep. Doc gave it to me for my back problems but it makes a pretty decent sleeping pill. Way better then ambien but not as good as some opioids. I'll feel buzzed all day tomorrow from it so I only take it when sleeping is otherwise impossible. : ) lyra

I'm resurrecting this very interesting old discussion (after all, it's a topic you return to often). I have two ficus benjamin in two cylindrical pots 33 centimeters high and with a diameter of 48. I calculated that their volume is approximately 65 litres. The fertilizer I use is the closest I have found to Foliage Pro 9-3-6: the ratio is 7-3- (therefore 2.3-1-2). The problem of this fertilizer is more the absence of magnesium and calcium (and other microelements, for example zinc). So I don't think the problem is the fertilizer (do you agree?), but the way I watered. Normally I follow the instructions you always provide: I let a lot of water come out of the holes in the jar to eliminate the excess salts. Since these vases were very large, I stupidly didn't put enough water in them to allow them to drain during the last 12 months (it dismembered me too much, I know it's wrong). I repotted them last summer and so they definitely accumulated salts, but can I ever pour 650-1000 liters of water into each of them? How do you do it in the presence of such large vessels? Could it be that instead there is not a large accumulation of salts in the soil? The two ficuses appear to be very healthy. I wanted to do it now because the temperatures here these days are very high and I think the soil dries out quickly (I still use a soil with perched water, one revolution at a time, dear Al, I'm already changing many things in the way I grow plants). I can't put the clod of soil on newspapers as you recommended because a month ago I removed the earth from the sides of the root ball (around and below). They are the ficus that I repotted last year (I also opened a discussion). I know that for you you have to get your hands into the root ball like I did last year. Since I wouldn't have repeated the repotting this year, did it make sense to remove the surrounding soil and put new soil back in or was it useless? When you flush the soil, is there a risk of root rot with a soil with perched water or not because beyond a certain amount of water with which you water (in other words: once the saturation point is exceeded), the risk of root rot remains the same as the perched water always remains the same? it allows watering in sips, as there is no concern about salt build-up with R/O or distilled water (except when it's part of a fertilizer solution). Even if you didn't have to fertilize and could always only use distilled water, wouldn't watering in small sips still risk creating a water imbalance inside the pot, with the lower part of the soil always dry or almost dry? You cannot know what quantity of water is sufficient to wet all the soil...

Finally watched the 2nd half last night. I was glad to see the Godfather get blind sided... always like a good blindside! lol I think the remaining casts are a lot better physically matched now that the big guys are all out. Gabby bugs me - always crying over something stupid. Carl didn't talk to me wah wah wah. There's Christian comforting her and making sure she is ok. And the previews showing she wants to get him out? OMG! That made me so mad! What a traitor. I always like when a STRONG player wins - the ones who ride coattails and get to the end make me so mad. Gabby would be one of those. I hope her plan gets back to Christian and backfires on her!

And Ricardo, whispering to Xander "Play your idol". What snakes-in-the-grass. So far they haven't been able to trick Xander out of his idol. I'd like to see him win some challenges if he wants to go to the final four.