Hi Kip, I was successful in growing Pixie hybrid tomatoes in Miami,Florida in a Hydroponics System using a wick to absorbe the nutrient solution from the reservoir. I grew all my plants in pure perlite, used 1 teaspoon Chem Gro 10-8-22 plus 1/4 teaspoon Epsom salt and 1 teaspoon calcium sulphate per gallon of tap water. The unit was facing South direction in my terrace, since tomatoes need a lot of sun. Note I added Epsom salt and Calcium sulphate only after the tomatoe plants flower. Now it is Fall and probably you need to start growing cool season crops. Good luck. Safwat

1st: I would have to agree with what Asolo and Asylum said about the IMac..... for a "regular user" there is nothing better, "it" just works....Or maybe go to Sears Roebuck and get one of their brand new Linux PC's at less than $200(US) BUT......Right at $200(US) Go to: pricewatch(dot)com and click on "Computers PC no OS" since you: >>>> "I do not game, I do not download music, I do not want to watch movies or TV on my computer, I am the only user, only computer in house, I want a desk top." Pick out one of the systems that are less than $170 and increase the installed RAM to 2GB....I would at the least get one with a CDR/RW, but there are always USB CD/DVD drives if you want to stick with the lowest possible price. Now that you have the PC, get a copy of PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint, SimplyMepis7.0, ZenWalk, or VectorLinux or DreamLinux and do the install........If the CD doesn't have all the software you are looking for/want/need, LOL, check out the distro's repository...More than you'll ever know what to do with, and if that's still not enough, there is more than you could possibly imagine available on the WWW. A repository is where a distro maintains all of their compiled specifically to run with that distro software. (Yes geekers I know, but that's the simplest way I know to say it) Your new PC w/Linux will run extremely fast, much faster and with more stability and "robustness" than any MSWin version on the same hardware. Run the OS in RAM and all your MSWin-fan friends will be amazed and jealous of the lightening speed your "budget PC" will outperform their super whiz bang with all the high dollar bells and whistles, maybe even astounded when you offer them a FREE AND LEGAL copy to try on their own machine. Oh yeah, and you don't have to pay the MS or the Apple tax for your Operating System either...And, Linux requires much less high dollar hardware, and I can say this from personal experience.... There is never any need for "Security" software... no scanners, no "Anti-Virus", no registry mechanics, no de-frags, no nothing.....This thing has been running for just a few weeks now w/o being powered down or ever disconnected from the WWW. It is currently running 3 browsers/14windows/44 tabs (I just counted). I have gone as long as 10 months w/o ever shutting down or rebooting or disconnecting from the WWW, and other than an outgoing firewall, I run ABSOLUTELY ZERO "security" software The Linux "learning curve" is, quite honestly, a vastly overblown issue mainly bandied about by people who either: A) sell PC's and know that there is a lot more commission to be made on a $200 OS installed on a high hardware requirement PC than on a "naked" hard-drive PC w/o no need for unnecessary hardware "upgrades" B) that have no idea what they are talking about, or C) can only figure things out when somebody is there to step by step them through virtually every click... If you can figure out "Vista" you can figure out almost any Linux. SimplyMepis7.0 is a 4 click install that your Grandma could figure out how to install, run, modify, and download/install to. But some folks swear that the others mentioned above are just as easy an install, I just prefer SM7 Get a few LiveCD's and try them out, and install the one (or ones) that you like best.... But if you don't mind spending the money, for "Joe and Jane User", an IMac is pretty hard to beat. AMD Sempron 3000+ Computer System; SATA DDR2 PCI-e -MBoard; 2GB DDR-2 Dual Channel RAM; 40Gb Hard Drive; CDr/RW DRIVE; DeltaChrome 3D 256MB Shared Video; 6-Channel Audio; 10/100 Ethernet (LAN); MIDTOWER CASE Assembled & Tested! $210 (US) or, $230 to my door in 3 business days... But then again, there is that $0.1325 per CD for burning an ISO image of each Linux distro you might want to try.....Or you can order them from the vendors advertising on DistroWatch.com for real cheap...like you can get maybe almost 100 complete operating systems and all the included software for the price of JUST ONE COPY OF MSVista! Oh yeah....BTW.... with a Linux OS you are free to copy, modify, trade, sell, give away, install on 3256 separate machines. Ever actually read the MSXP/Vista EULA? You don't actually even own the contents of discs you just paid $200 for. And with Linux you can add/delete/change hardware devices at will and unlike with an MS OS, you won't have to buy a new OS whenever the MS decides that you have made too many changes and need to buy a new OS, as in MSWorld your clicking on "I agree" you agreed to give MS the right to determine the hardware changes make your old PC a new PC,and therefore to disable your system in in its entirety. And your new (or old) PC won't be "phoning home" everyday to report to MS what your software and hardware configuration was yesterday, is today, or what it is tomorrow. Go to your friendly local Barnes and Noble, or Borders bookstore and get a copy of one of the Linux mags, I would suggest "LinuxFormat" and get the multiple OS DVD with the mag and try whatever versions are on the DVD..or CD.... And while you're there, get a copy of "Knoppix Hacks" you get Knoppix5.1.1 with the book. Knioppix, never leave home without it...no kidding... Don't pay any attention to anyone telling you you need even more memory, a big video card or any such bull.....Unless you insist on getting a "MSVista" PC, in which case you need a minimum of 2GB RAM, and a pretty good video card would help too....And don't fall for all ANY talk about buying "Vista Home Basic", if you want a "Vista" that actually works at a speed you can tolerate (with enough hardware resources) you gotta "upgrade" for a whole lot more $$$. And for a whole less than what a free Linux distro will get you, except for a whole lot more money? HAGD! Here is a link that might be useful: OS 's for a new PC

I hope no one objects if I weigh in on this discussion. This is my first time on this particular subject. Being a stepmom for 22 years it just caught my attention. Susan, I will tell you what worked for me but I realize you would have to have your husbands support for it to work for you. We each have 3 children. My children were self sufficient ~ his were constantly wanting/needing something and consequently he stayed broke. I explained to him that if we were going to give to one, we were going to give to all six and that would leave us in a bad situation. He agreed with this. His children didn't like me very much when they realized their money source was cut off. However they became more confident and in time realized I was the best thing that had happened to them. They all respect and love me and none of them would want to get rid of me now. On the rare occasion they really needed help they got it but they knew not to push their luck. If your husband won't stop being an enabler maybe you should try another strategy. Would it hurt your finances to give to two sons? You would have to get your son's help with this. Everytime the SS needs something pretend your son needs something also. Take the money and put it in an account for you. Who knows you may need it later. Should this cause the finances to suffer then let your DH figure out what to do about it. Maybe he could work some overtime? You see where I'm going with this? It's not too bad to give to one but when it's two it starts to hurt. I totally understand how it is to work with an autoimmune disease. I had to give up my job because of fibromyalgia. I hope you can find a workable solution to your problem. You definitely need support while you're finding an answer. Gayle

Water, right now. There is a slight nitrogen deficiency, but right now your plants are very water stressed. When they are just starting to need water the leaves will cup upward a bit, but when they're really thirsty they will droop downwards, still cupped. Your trees need deep watering quickly. Also, just for your future information, never fertilizer a dry plant. Luckily you put it all in a hole away from most of the roots, which isn't the best way to fertilizer in general, but in this case it may have saved your plants, because the fertilizer wasn't dissolved into the dry soil. So when you do water, add a lot to the area you added the plant food. If you're ever unsure if they need water or if they're still damp, take a wooden dowel or a take-out chopstick and push it down into the soil and pull it out again and check the dampness of the wood. It's a quick and easy way to check. Sometimes the soil can look dry on top but still be wet further down. And on the other hand, it's hard to tell if a soil is dry when it's covered with bark and plastic. Bark is good, plastic is not so much. I'd take it up and just leave the bark. Weeds won't grow too much in the shade of the trees, and if they do, just pull them out.