As said in U-Pick world can't have u-pick without strawberries. I enter in class in 2003 Hydroponic's I can't remember town but was north of Kissimee fla. on U.S. 301 thats not much help but all have part training was 2 field trips one orange grower with U-Pick orange and strawberries. They where hot houses 2 large ones stacks where 9 high on pole top 3 or 4 boxes did real well water and fertlizer mix seem to run low in 5 6 7 boxes and almost no fertlizer going to stack 8 & 9 in all pole stacks. Sunlite was problem because shaded side hand turning was done once day. So school of coarse sold 5 stack for home use I jump on kit pump brackets pots purlite fill pots fertlizer like mircalgro timer so set number and time day wet roots. I got 550 gallon agri tank put in shead to stop alga from growing out sunlite. Now still have timer and 550 tank one day while I was away squrriel blowed transformer fuse I lost lower 2 pots plants lack water stunned top 3 pots. There was 35 pots total on 7 poles and planted 4 plug plants per pot 140 plants if don't run water alot to wet bottom plants roots want out bottom pot and hole plants in perlite if tops plants real bushy wind from thunder storm pull plants out pots water does have holding effect on roots if medium get dry on top it blow out top pots to much fruit at one time pull out pots. prunning a constont in Hydroponics ever morning just after fruit set. In this School was day trip to Disney World behind seen college students were doing there internship with hydroponics 6 months duty. Hot house and people there were very interesting but growing one fruit per plant I only like yellow sqaush not other types. You need backup generator system with hydroponics one day no power you lose crop bondful part stawberry fields do in area I was in on black plastic. House houses with color flowers do better with some landscaping cement items ferns for may weddings lol. I saw lady sell million dollars flowers in one day one customer at time some buy small cargo trailer full at time I went there that morning for tomato plants it was full people had go back to get more plants that afternoon got there 3 pm wait until 6 pm to get waited on when you have upick provide large buckets and big carts lol.

I'll attest to the fact why I got a hydro. On an old 160 when the dry disk brake doesn't work you can stop your rearward speed by deftly using the clutch. But when you are backing down the hill and lose the touch of that clutch you can only steer out of it to ride it out or go cartwheeling end over end. I did the latter...dadgumit, bent my bagger frame. I just wish the brake pedal on these new hydros was on the left side and not on the same side as forward/reverse. Much more logical to my thinking and not as hard to learn.

Thank you to all who took the time to read my long, novel-like chronicle of symptoms and suspicions. Already working on the cutworm collars...and I had called the exterminator even before I wrote my diatribe. He layed traps. Only one mouse thus far. Oh...and I did start on my own personal comost pile earlier in the summer. But these pictures I put up were of garden #1, during the summer. I bought two cubic yards of the best compost our local landscaping/nursery man carried. I was lucky that my husband just happened to take me to pick it up because I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how much I had purchased. I about died when I went outside from paying for compost in the office to see a large tractor dumping the last scoop full of it into the now overloaded bed of my bewildered husbands big Silverado truck! (see picture...which is only half of what I bought. The first half was put out front!) Honestly, I thought it would be a few bags similar to what I had purchased at Home Depot! Talk about a newbie! At any rate, all of that has been tilled into the garden now before I even planted for the cold crops. I already have sprouted brussel sprout seedlings waiting to be planted again. It is not due to stop raining here until Sunday; if the ground is not too soden, I will plant them and the others that are ready then, place collars on anything that remains, and then put chicken wire tops on everything until they outgrow them. Now, after all this sage advice, I guess it could have been birds after all. Blue Jays? Now those I WOULD see every morning, along with smaller sparrow-type birds, in their busy little worlds, pecking away in my garden, while I opened the cupboard to make coffee. I usually let my dog out to pee pee and she would make a beeline for them. But who knows how long they were pecking away in there and how big some of them were earlier in the morning hours. Maybe even an owl or larger bird? But I think those are dedicated carnivores. (When I lived in Santa Barbara I once saw a hawk swoop down and carry off a pigeon. It was devastating to me. Poor bird. I am so grateful to be at the top of the food chain. But the seagulls will snatch whole sandwiches out of your hand while you are busy admiring the ocean. So I know that birds take things, sometimes heavy things, up into the air and away. Maybe a 2 1/2 watermelon plant? ) Still a bit baffled. But the collars and cages are coming out until the plants are big enough to survive. This post was edited by lindsaybev on Thu, Nov 20, 14 at 13:26

Actually we are fat because of the fat fairy. Remember when you put your tooth under the pillow and got a quarter? Or nickel? Well, that winged (^(^((&&*&%$%$ takes the teeth and grows them into fat cells. When you are sleeping happily with all your adult teeth she sneaks in and glues it to your butt and thighs, and anywhere else she can. And uh, I kind of roll around in the dirt too, it sure makes me happy to be all dirty in the garden! Tally Ho!