Sounds like they just need a little more time to grow. Have you started feeding them yet? I start mine out with a balanced all purpose fertilizer, kelp extract, B1 and ST. For the mature plants I switch from a balanced fertilizer to a bloom booster and I give all the plants a dose of epsom salts once a month. Now that they've been outside for a month I'll start feeding them once a week. I feed them biweekly for the first month outside though I'm not sure why. lol Thanks for posting the location of the brug nursery in the MAF. I'll have to look for it the next time I go to the beach. Is it visible from the road? Karyn

So I got a response. Turns out everything is ok. Read the response from the dept of ag below: I sent one our guys by your house the other day and they did an inspection of your tree, but did not find anything of concern. Based on the size of the tree, he determined that one of our traps was probably not necessary. We did find a larger tree around the block from you and one will be going in there soon. We did learn a little more from your pictures though. Based on the size of a piece of fruit collected off of the ground at your residence, our entomologist was able to come up with an approximate size of the larva from your photographs and he believes that the images you took are of fly larvae in the Ulidiiae (formerly Otitidae) family. A common fly larvae found on damaged or decaying fruit. We also routinely find these flies in our traps throughout Arizona. Here is a link with more images: http://www.padil.gov.au/maf-border/Pest/Main/140616/33211 The other images that you sent me the other day are of another one of our natives called the Smoketree Sharpshooter (Homalodisca liturata). More images: http://bugguide.net/node/view/68198 This insect is often confused with the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata or Homalodisca vitripennis) which is considered invasive in Arizona but occurs frequently in southern California. http://bugguide.net/node/view/825013 You can readily tell the difference between these two by looking at the head. There are distinct yellow colored lines on a Smoketree Sharpshooter and dots on a Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (GWSS). GWSS is generally larger also.

14* is generally considered the industry standard as the lowest temperature mature roots of A palmatum can tolerate. This means that the entire organism would be expected to succumb to temperatures that low. I agree wholeheartedly with Pam re her assertion that root damage can/does occur in A palmatum at temperatures as high as 24-26*, and I might even consider a couple of degrees warmer than that as a favorable lower limit, just as an added margin for safety. Even though our trees might survive root exposure to lows in the neighborhood of 14*, they sure won't like it. Roots don't all die at the same temperature, they die incrementally as the temperatures drop. While it varies by species, and genetically by individual plant within that species, all roots on the same plant don't have the same tolerance to cold. These numbers may not be accurate, but it gives you the feel for what I'm talking about. We say that maples are X hardy because they tolerate low air temperatures, but what about root temps? Most temperate trees, even in zone 4, never see actual 6" soil temperatures much below 27*, with 25* being unusual. This is true, even in bare field agricultural conditions. Half of Michigan's upper peninsula, under cover of forest canopy, never even sees frost in the ground. We know that the finest hair roots - the most succulent and the ones that do the lion's share of the work are the first to die. In many woody plants, these roots begin to die as soil temperatures drop below 28*. As temperatures drop further, larger and larger roots succumb to killing low temperatures. The point is - that many trees that SURVIVE are left with only the largest roots to support them in spring because much of the rootage has frozen. These trees are slow to flush in the spring because they need to utilize stored energy to regenerate lost rootage before they can move sufficient water and the nutrients dissolved in water to support either growth or the flush of foliage that makes the food that allows the tree to grow (this, in the case of deciduous material). So, while some trees might survive at extremely low temperatures unprotected, we KNOW it is better for the tree, especially from an energy management perspective, if we give them protection that ensures actual root temperatures don't drop low enough to kill even the finest roots. For most temperate trees, that means we should strive whenever possible to keep low root temperatures in the upper 20s at their lowest, and below 42* to inhibit the onset of growth until spring, when we can get them into good light w/o worrying about frost/freeze. So, what the tree might tolerate and what's best for it are two distinctly different perspectives. Al

I am not familar with the Volkswagon power plants, therefore can only speak in generalities. You said you have the 1.8T engine; I assume this is 1.8 liter, turbo-charged. Since you have power after getting underway, the turbo must be working at that condition. However, you are experiencing bogging off the line and this can be due to several things. It could be: more than normal turbo lag, lean out of fuel mixture, improper ignition advance, weak iginition, or the mass air flow sensor. What about that replacement mass air flow (MAF) sensor? It could cause the problem you describe. You got a trouble code concerning the MAF, but was the engine yet performing as it should after this code was set, or did had the trouble begun? The replacement sensor was a rebuilt unit. How do you know it is working? Maybe the replacement sensor is no good or slow to respond. From what I know about MAFs, these have a 4-wire connector. Two of the leads supply a regulated supply voltgage to the sensor and the other two leads exports the signal. You do need a repair manual to sort things out. For example, one check on the MAF is to measure the supply voltage to see if it is present and of proper value. You'll need a manual that identifies the leads. When you disconnected the battery, you probably lost the volatile settings. This possibly incudes transmission shift points, radio station settings, and a few other things. The engine control computer does indeed reset engine management settings after a few cycles of warm up and speeds above 45 mph. After 3 of these cycles, things should be getting back to near normal. Most of the transmission settings will be restored in the first driving cycle assumming there were sufficient number of shifts to reset shift timings. Reverse shift is not used much and can be a bit notchy until several reverse shifts have occurred. There could be other problems. Have you read the trouble codes again? That'd be a good idea. If you do not have a code reader, go to a place like Auto Zone and they may read the codes for you. Do not reset the code until the problem is resolved. If all this is getting over your head, take it to the dealer or a garage you trust and have a set of diagnostics done. If could be something simple, like an oxygen sensor or a manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor. Several items were disturbed under the hood from recent repairs and maintence. Did the problem show up iimmediately after one of these repairs? if so, suspect items associated with that repair. For example, was the tubing reconnected to the MAP sensor? A significant amount of vacuum lines were replaced. What about the fittings? Were any of these changed? In todays auto systems, their can be "ported" vaccuum fittings present. Some of these are fittings may not be the usual, all hollow connector, but have a precision orifice in them. This orifice provides a calibrated constriction to air flow. Externally, these fittings appear the same as an ordinary fitting. If one of these fittings gets broken or dropped, it is easy to mistakenly replace these with ordinary ones.