This winter I again found myself with two babies I recently planted in my backyard. First was a 6 ft tall ( but skinny ) Valencia Pride mango tree I planted 4 1/2 mos ago, to replace the 22 ft giant that I had to cut down in May 2016, ( grew so fast it was blocking half the sunshine from my banana patch ! Live and learn ! ). The other baby is the robust 5 ft tall Ruby Red grapefruit tree I planted 3 months ago. Have already warned the Citrus Greening monster to stay away, - OR ELSE !!! No way was I going to subject these promising beauties to the four nights during the last two weeks, ( low temps all 4 nights between 36 and 30 deg ), that most likely would have killed both trees ! Bad news is it looks like I lost most of the 25 + banana plants, but no way could I have kept them warm,...still undecided whether to replant them or not ! Anyway, I was able to get out two strings of C- 7 Christmas tree lights, two extension cords and a couple of old white sheets from my shed for the two young trees. Needless to say this protection worked like a charm, as it has in the past. The sheets were removed only yesterday ( Friday ) but the C-7's will remain installed till I am sure we here are " out of the woods ! " Both youngsters look great ! The C-7's have always worked for me here on Florida's SW coast, - no need to string the C-9's. Now looking forward to March 1st.,,..will miss the bananas but more concerned about the two young trees, - my fate could easily have been much worse !

Day 22 Update! Peppers and lettuce: The same peppers and lettuce from the previous shot. They're in the second-worst part of the UFO grow chamber -- far from the UFO in the center. Nonetheless, the peppers are doing beautifully. I've got a whole tray of them looking just like that. The lettuce, only so-so. They're putting out leaves at a good rate, but two of them never did stand up like I was hoping they would. Next up, the monsters: Okay, these pumpkins are getting a bit scary: The larger of the two now has three tendrils on it, and leaves the size of my outstretched hand. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to keep them in here before they decide to crush everything else in their path, but I'll keep them in as long as I can ;) I realized that last time I forgot to photograph my eggplants. They're doing just shiny: So, now for my crazy okra: If you'll recall, one germinated tall like a freak, but with a strong stem, and dark green leaves; one germinated short with dark green leaves; and two germinated short with pale, chlorotic yellow leaves. I credit this to using old seed. I'm pleased to report that all of them are doing great. The tall one is now working on its second true leaf, while the two chlorotic ones are starting to turn green. All three of the small ones have just started on their first true leaf; I expect they'll look like the tall one (minus the crazy height) next week. My Ronde de Nice squash that just germinated? I transplanted one, and surprisingly, the transplant is doing better than the non-transplant! Now for the one that was my biggest concern last time: my watermelon. If you'll recall, its first true leaves had turned crisp and stopped growing. Well, I'm glad to report that it has not one, but two sets of normal, healthy true leaves now! Here's a shot of some of my miscellaneous squash and melons. Not a complaint from me about a one of them; they're all growing very healthy. My cinnamon basil was looking healthy enough that I felt it time to thin it out into individual pots. The remaining plants in the original pot are below: So, what's my primary concern this time? I'm starting to suspect that I'm getting more growth in the UFO chamber (red, grow) than in the Christmas chamber (blue, veg). I'm not sure yet, though. Now, that is to be expected to some degree, since that chamber is higher wattage (~105W vs. ~85W), it may be more than that. It's really hard to tell, though, because I moved my most mature trays to the red chamber and kept the youngest trays in the veg chamber. However, I do have one good comparison point: basil. I have a basil pot in the veg chamber that's exactly the same as the basil pot in the grow chamber -- same soil, same size, same plants, and same planting time. So, next week I'm going to photograph and measure the two and see how they compare. But overall, another good week :) The plants pretty much take care of themselves (since the LEDs are pretty cool, the soil takes a long time to get dry, so I rarely even have to water). Hence, I've been busying myself readying my outdoors for the new plants, for once it gets warm enough. I'm going to be training my vining plants to strings suspended from guyed poles this year, via vine clips; should be neat to see how they do.

Thanks for your reply. They are Canadian Noma brand, and they contain no other electronic components than the LED's themselves. I've been on the site you are mentioning, but they don't really tell how to troubleshoot those LED's. Are they different from regular direct current LED'S? If not, how can I locate the bad one(s) in the string? Thanks.

Oh, joanie - I love that pic! I am always tagging spam messages myself.