Cheap bare-root plants, or any bare-roots planted after April, often suffer from canker and dieback. They have been held in cold storage since November. If conditions are not perfect, they can suffer freeze damage or dehydration. Discount roses have not been carefully inspected, culled, and pruned-- or they may be culls from a premium operation. Just prune the bad canes off, or to a bud eye at least 1" below any black or yellow bark. It looks like the healthy areas are growing well, so I'd leave them alone. Obviously the cane underlying the dead area on the tree rose has been physically injured so it cannot function. It is broken, bored by an insect, or girdled by a canker lesion. Water on leaves does not cause burning-- that's an old wives tale.

For the Okra with the ants, I had a similar problem with ants farming aphids on my Okra and they would also chew on the pods as well. I simply put some petroleum jelly around the stem of the plant, the ants don't like to cross anything gewy like that. You might have to repeat the process every few weeks as the jelly wears away. There is also a product called tree tanglefoot that can be used the same way but it is really sticky and hard to wash off your hands. Anyway, I did the petroleum jelly thing on my okra last year and managed to get some good pods. This year I have not bothered with the petroleum jelly and there are still lots of ants working the okra but I'm still managing to get plenty of good pods. Just be careful as you pick so you don't get bit by the ants. As to the squash, the powdery mildew is very common among all plants of that family (cucumbers, pumpkins, zuchini, mellons etc.) I have actually tried out the milk/water to battle it but found out that the baking soda or the milk water cures are actually meant against downy mildew which will be stopped by the change in pH. For help against the powdery mildew, you would be better off spraying with seaweed extract (something like Maxicrop perhaps) because powdery mildew tends to attack potassium deficient plants. I have to admit that this summer/fall I have had a horrible time with all plants in that family and not gotten more than a couple cucumbers and no squash. I'm dealing with leaf footed bugs, stink bugs, squash bugs, squash vine borers, and lots of little green caterpillars that eat the leaves off the seedlings. I'm about to give up on them and try for an early crop in the spring when hopefully there won't be so many pests. (I've not sprayed anything this summer/fall and I'm not really planning to.) Spraying with neem oil may help some for either of your problems since it is an organic way to battle scale and it is supposed to help some against powdery mildew. Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

Hey guys, My Garage Door Opener(Craftsman 1/2 HP) only closes the door halfway, then bounces back. I pulled the trigger to manual, closed and opened door completely by hand once to make sure nothing block the rail track,also nothing blocking the door way, then switched back to auto, pressed the wall switch, it worked fine at the first try(closed and opened door successfully), but it closed half way and bounced back again at the second and third try, then stay that way. I noticed the light blinks few(2-3) times every 10 seconds on the opener box, I got same testing result no matter pressing on wall switch or remote. Is this have something to do with the sensor? please advise, thanks!

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and I've used this forum to get answers to my questions all the time! I would like to return the favor now. I finally registered! I own a water softener company in San Antonio and have installed many systems for different kinds of water problems. I have found that there are many people who have questions but never get honest answers about installing a water softener or reverse osmosis system in their home. I would like to offer my advice through this forum for any do-it-yourself folks out there. I'm in San Antonio but can answer questions for anyone throughout the country! I also have a website that I can be contacted through as well. I will be available for questions on a regular basis through this forum. Thanks! David Torres