Maybe if I garden long enuf, I'll figure it out! Just a few years ago, we had a very cool, wet, windy spring. Melons died and the squash & cucumbers did very poorly even after it warmed up with a fairly normal summer. Tomatoes came on to have a bumper crop! This year, we had a very cool, wet, windy spring. The cucumbers are wound up for what looks like a tremendous crop! Melons and squash are doing okay. Tomatoes? There are barely a few . . . Posted by oldroser Best pole bean of all is Fortrex . . . I think it was 'roser who convinced me to try Fortex about 10 years ago. I know that a number of others have greatly appreciated that variety. Not to my taste but they may have had a productive season despite that. (Should probably know better than to argue with 'roser, tho'. ;o) The beans here aren't having the bestest of years, either! Still, the bush beans I usually grow did just okay, seem to have survived harvesting and should come back for a 2nd crop. Another chance should allow them time to grow a little! I have grown (what might be) Oregon Giant since that swing and miss with Fortex. I like the flavor and appreciate the size and long season. This year, I tried something different and planted them in mid-July . . . they'll have to hurry and are spiraling up their teepee. I'll just have to see. At least, they missed having that difficult June to beat them up. Steve

>> Rule #1: Never assume the rocks you buried the previous year stayed buried. That's how I killed a perfectly good Honda pushmower. I sell those at the Farmers Market as potatoes. You'd be amazed how many people buy 'em

One of you cottagers posted a list of Michigan strange items a while back, so I'll try not to repeat that, but here are a few terms you might hear around here. The state is divided into two peninsulas, the upper one is the U.P. and the good folks who live there are yoopers. The peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge which crosses the Straits of Mackinac and has one end in MackinawCity. Nearby is MackinawIsland. All are pronounced the same way, courtesy of the French. People who live in the L.P. are called trolls, because, of course, they live below the bridge. The Mackinac Bridge is almost always called just the bridge. If we are going to the U.P. we say we are going up across. A U.P. city straddling the border to Canada is Sault Ste. Marie, pronounced Soo Saint Marie (French again). If we are heading that way, we say we are going to the Soo, and while we're there we may take a look at the locks. Tourists on Mackinaw Island (and now everywhere in the state) are called fudgies, due to the boxes of fudge many of them carry around after they have been enticed inside one of the many fudge shops by the irresistible aroma of boiling chocolate. Lots of Michiganders enjoy a meal of pasties (that's pass - tees), courtesy of the Cornish miners that came to live in the U.P. They are like a folded-over pie-crust with meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, and often rutabagas inside. (My mom always used to say rutabeggies.) They're very good, if a little on the dry side. A little gravy helps a lot. If you get too thirsty while eating one, you can always have a pop ( not a soda - you have to go to a soda fountain for those, which you can't hardly find anymore) Hope you learned something fun. ThinMan

Hi David, I am glad you started this thread; your observations are exactly what I have experienced with my JM trees. It must have something to do with the sap freezing because my grapes, and crapes did the exact same thing...the tops died and new growth coming from the bottom trunk or roots. You know, when something freezes it expands so maybe the frozen sap expanded damaging the tree's vascular system??? I don't know the theory of being closer to the ground, because I have much smaller trees that died...and one large 8 foot, 15 yr tree too. My Emperor 1 has one new shoot, just above the graft, and looks smaller than one of those one year grafts bought on ebay; that is pitiful...and it was at least two feet tall if not taller. My severely damaged list (some of these might eventually be added to the RIP list): Ocopus Red Feather Baby Lace Crimson Queen Corallinum Butterfly Green Hornet Jiro Shidare Omuryama Yezo nishiki Red Dragon Garnet Mikawa Yatsubusa RIP List: Waterfall Orangeola One large 15 yr tree ??? type Seriyu Sunset Irish Lace Inabe Shidare Stella Rosa Azuma Muresaki -Ivy Here is a link that might be useful: App-A-Lot Ranch