Dear X, When I have more time to respond thouroughly to your "link" I will do so. The following some boring reading from some of my prior posts on another "plumeria forum". "You have had drainage issues because of your soil design. Second, you have used manure and high organic mixes that do not work well in our area for plumeria let alone in an area where length of day is short. And all the issues have NOTHING to do with peat in the mix as we have used peat for over thirty years in ALL our mixes and continue to do so. Total working content of a mix is more important then one item for CEC and all other issues. We have spent the time and money to perfect our soil mixes. I have used the advice of Soil and Plant Labs soils engineers for over 40 years. (http://www.soilandplantlaboratory.com/) We also test every mix and modified mix in the lab. With all due respect to everyone on the container forum, I feel much more comfortable with the findings from our professionals at Soil and Plant Labs. In addition these CEC discussions are mostly a mute point with the latest technology from many labs on foliage and leaf feeding. If one feeds only in the container they are at a serious disadvantage as per the latest horticulture science. Soil issue correction from foliar application has been around for many years. Many plumeria growers dont seem to have the grasp of horticulture and the benefit of its science led technology. Over the years we have sent foliage samples to the lab. for analysis this is the bottom line the contents of the plant one is growing. With this analysis we can and do the necessary corrections to our fertigation and foliar/leaf feed program. All the science in the world is a guessing game unless one determines the final result based on lab tests. Now lets do the Bonsai thing: I studied bonsai with John Naka the foremost master in his time. I have never ever made a derogatory comment about Bonsai Growers as I am one and have been since 1955. Bonsai Containers are mostly squat other than cascade style so what are we talking about? I say how many plumeria have these container masters grown? I am not concerned about PWT as it does not exist to a extent with my plants and it has zero effect on my trees. In fact I would bet I have less issues with soil saturation because of my mix than most. Because of my style of growing many of the concerns others have are simply mute. I have and can grow in clay or what ever the medium and have a highly oxygenated soil and produce high quality plumeria with the specific methods I use. I suggest you will need to do some study on 12% Humic Acid, Fulvic Acid, Sea Weed Extract, Mycorrhizal Fungus, potassium silicates and carbon uptake to understand what I am talking about. In addition, where is the science on what you are reading? Where is the proof of all this in regards to plumeria?" "S---t earlier you stated your soil was compacted or you had soil breakdown. It is extremely difficult to visibly assess these issues accurately. If one studies the content of a nursery container they would see that compaction in a container in the short term is virtually impossible. Containers that contain a soil-less mix when less then two years old are nearly impossible to compact due to the fact of the high percent of organic mater. Organic mater will not allow a high compaction rate anywhere anytime. Next, worn out soil; Soil breakdown leading to compaction rarely takes place in a container in less than two full growing seasons and it is normally caused by a loss of organic matter. A large percentage of organic matter used in modern soil-less mixes has two years or more of longevity. It is a fact that most bagged mix manufactures test their soils for this very issue. One may see some soil breakdown in the late season of the third year and almost always in the fourth year. The easiest way to tell that your containers material is loosing its organic matter is the soil level in the container drops over the initial soil settling from the first several watering. If you pot your plants at a consistent depth from the top rim of the container it makes this visible signal more apparent. We have grown trees without repotting in our mix for as long as six years and never repotted with no detrimental effects to trees health or slow down in growth or flowering. However, five years for our large container is when we try to cut roots back and replenish the soil on the bottom and sides without breaking the root-ball. We never bare-root or pull the dirt away from the trees main root mass. Up-potting is dependant on the readiness of the plants (see above). When a grower perceives his containers soil on the verge of breaking down IE loss of organic matter the following remedies are available: Water container with Humic Acid as per manufactures directions. Do this with the container moist not dry. DO NOT FERTILIZE with the humic acid application. Reduce humic acid quantity (dose) by at least 40% if you have used a hard type/pelletized fertilizer in the last thirty days, and if you have added a time release fertilizer in the past three months. This will prevent fertilizer damage as the humic acid will shortly make the all Nitrogen fertilizer available to the plant. The humic acid will add good microbes to the soil. In addition, humic acid will balance the water holding capacity and drainage of the media. Next, inoculate the soil with a mycorrhizal fungus to assist retrieving the 'nutrients to the plant. This is a lot cheaper and less heart breaking than losing those special expensive plant/plants."

Hmmmm... we may have to petition TJ's for some goodies in return for all this great publicity for them! If they need any expansion test marketing, all the data is right here. If we play our cards right, we'll all have a neighborhood TJ's! Great gifts for girlsingarden and her family. Those mugs definitely fit the theme--if you take the juice out of the fruit, you have to put it somewhere! :) ~finally

What a great haul of goodies!! Aren't red kitchen goodies great? I started with a red KA mixer (not the color I originally planned on) and realized what a great accent color red is for the kitchen. "Biker approved" How funny!!!! A crème brûlée set! I asked for one of these for Christmas last year, but my son figured I wouldn't get much use out of it and bought me Dave's Insanity Hot Sauces instead. Well, the sauces were really good, but I still want a cb set, LOL! "My rascal son asked it he could have the torch." LOL, I have two sons who were quite a handful growing up. I can just imagine what would've happened if one of them got their hands on something like that!!!! Great box, Carol.

He I am so crazy sometimes. My MIL was here today and wanted to do some surfing and posting on GW so I let her use my computer. I forget to have her sign out so that I could post. So Karengardens is my mil and she is looking for seeds to start with my girls. Sorry for the confussion. I just wanted to post my thanks for all the help everyone has given me and to let you all be on the edge of your seats wondering if you will get a surcie from me:) Stacie Sich