Wedgewood is droopy. I got the rain now Jim. It's great we needed it.

Straw, you speak about cracked corn what do you think of this article?

Also talks about Spray with a biological fungicide for added protection by Trichoderma.

Mainly the Good gardening practices and grooming of roses and rosebeds. section...

This may interest you Sam...

http://thewiedersgarden.blogspot.com/2011/06/controlling-blackspot-without-toxic.html

That article was interesting. It said the product defends the roots from the diseases. Like Straw said that Black spot comes from the roots. I thought that was neat to learn about the cracked corn too. No wonder why Straws roses are so healthy.

Elaine Ingham the soil microbiologist said only use it if you have to for an outbreak. Be careful, She says it also affects the good mycorrhiza fungi too. So one has to replace with good microbes after.

That's where Elaine Ingham says put molasses in the aerated compost tea to get more fungal then bacteria.

Damm that product they use in the article cost $105.00 plus shipping (1 Ib)... That's nutz! lol

I think Straw puts cracked corn into the planting hole?

I would try it on top of the soil as I don't want to disturb our roses again...lol

STRAW, would cracked corn work if spread on top of soil then covered with compost? I would try this on my sisters roses....

Ok on Elaine says don't use tricoderma with your compost application Sam. At 105.00 for 1 Ib I was not planning on it...lol

I just read back through some posts and seen where STRAW wrote she could not find any articles where tricoderma helped blackspot...

I guess it's made for a farm. Elaine Ingham goes around and works with over 10000 farms all around. She worked at NYC in battery park after Sept 11. And she set up the natural prairie at the George W bush library in Texas.

http://living-soils.com/store/

She said just a pinch of tricoderma can multiply in water with molasses in one of her lectures to farmers in Hawaii on you tube.

I'm very happy right now with the results of just putting down compost in the fall so not changing anything with that unless tweaking is needed in the future...

I'm thinking ahead on ways to stop the BS from spreading so much on my sisters roses. But I guess I should just ease off thinking about it for now until there roots grow larger then if BS problems persist than worry about it...lol...

Sam, the price they have for product is much cheaper than the other place..lol

Jim: It was 2 years ago that I applied corn meal around Frederic Mistral bush, I posted a pic. of it being 100% clean after Sept. But I broke my $$$ Nutrimill grain-grinder grinding cracked corn, so I stopped dusting the lower part of bushes with whole-grain-corn-meal.

Fungi (both the good and the bad) don't like extremes of pH, be it very alkaline above 8, or acidic at 4 and below. Dusting leaves with ACIDIC corn-meal at pH 4 works, because it's too acidic for fungi to grow. Another way to stop fungi from growing on leaves is to breed GLOSSY, shiny leaves like Kordes roses, Pat Austin, Tchaikovsky which are water-proof. It's like a shiny & glossy "rain-coat" on them, which fungi can't stick to and breed.

We painted our own house. I chose this water-proof, grease-proof paint that Behr made for the kitchen. It's thick and shiny. For the hall-way, I chose glossy-paint, to resist scratches and molds. For the bed-room, I chose satin-luster paint, it's silky & shiny to resist stains.

Jim: I saw that link & blog many years ago, my garden was clean at that time, so I didn't look into Trichoderma. As my roses entering their 4th year, the accumulation of roots' secreting acids for flowering, plus watering only with acidic rain-water (via my 3 rain-barrels) ... my soil becomes less alkaline. I have to top with garden lime for the dark-green roses: Crown Princess Mag, Wise Portia, and French Romantica roses. With lime: one has to use it while roses are doing heavy blooming, to replace the calcium used for zillion petals.

Sam: You mentioned that your Austin roses are less healthy than your other roses. IT'S INCOMPATIBLE to graft a water-hog (likes it wet & acidic) on Dr.Huey (likes it dry & alkaline) . Austin-roses are best as own-root, so their roots can spread out and get all the water they need. Austin roses have a higher demand for potassium and calcium than other roses. I use equal amount of calcium to potassium for Austin with its zillion petals. For other roses, I use 1/2 calcium to 1 part potassium.

Growing Trichoderma is cheap and easy. I mixed 1/4 cracked corn with 3/4 bagged top-soil, plus topped with alfalfa hay to keep it moist. Tons of Trichoderma mold growing within a week. Will wait to see if new-growth STAY CLEAN until frost hit. But I chose the wrong rose to do that experiment. Stephen lost most of its leaves from my burning it with high-phosphorus-fertilizer, NPK 4-10-7. For re-growth of leaves, I tried various combo: blood-meal mixed with alkaline top-soil, plus pea gravel on Evelyn. (best ever!!) On Madama I. Pereire, I did alfalfa pellets and red-lava-rock. (clean). On Yves Seedling I mixed top-soil with almond solid, plus blood meal (clean).

Stephen Big got alfalfa pellets mixed with lime. BAD, it refused to grow new leaves, from the calcium suppressing growth. Then I topped it with blood meal, top soil, mixed with cracked-corn. It's the slowest to re-grow leaves, I really think that spot is too acidic, it got the rain-spout directed onto it, just like Evelyn, which meant many 32-gallons of rain water dumping on it during heavy rain. So for FAST re-growth of leaves, I don't recommend crack-corn. The soil needs to be alkaline to encourage beneficial bacteria which fixes nitrogen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation

I'm not really getting many blooms on our new roses at all... Something ate 2 newest buds of Prairie Harvest...

I noticed "Easy Does it" had 3 buds but 2 buds have short bent necks. One bud fell off as it was black on its short bent stem... So down to two buds... One opening now has short bent neck also...

Hopefully next year things improve and hopefully I'm not having serious insect problems...

Easy does it... One good bud and one bud bent short stem...

Short nodes is classic-sign of zinc deficiency, which is common in high-phosphorus-soil. Almond solids (from making almond milk) is high in zinc ... I notice that roses topped with almond solids have longer-stem for me to cut for the vase. Pea-gravel with a variety of minerals ... also has zinc. I notice the growth with pea-gravel (Pink Peace and Evelyn) have longer stems, deeper color, and more petals.

One question often asked in soil forum is how to handle high-phosphorus soil. One way is through dolomitic lime, since BOTH calcium and magnesium binds with phosphorus, making it less available. My heavy clay was tested low in phosphorus, due to bind-up with high-magnesium.

Folks recommend liming in spring, but I disagree, unless you plan on high-nitrogen fertilizer in spring. In my experiments topping with gritty lime, I find that calcium stops growth. Gritty lime works well TO RESTRAIN aggressive climber like Crown Princess Magareta, but it STUNTED the growth of wimpy own-roots which can't acid-phosphatase (Jude the Obscure, Barcelona, Eglantyne). I would lime in late fall, or during heavy blooming to supply the calcium used-up in many petals.

Jim: Kudos to your walking 20 min. in the rain. I admire that. I kept that in mind as I asked my kid for a long walk (20 min) this morning. I was jogging (thanks to Spirulina which energized), and it was great !! Below is an excellent link from Cornell University, College of Agriculture, on how Root-Tone increased crop-yield. Trichoderma grows easily on corn. Yes, the holes which I put cracked corn gave faster growth & more blooms. The 4 roses bought from Roses Unlimited end of June? 15 bloom/buds on Tchaikosky (most cracked corn & most alfalfa hay). Over a dozen buds on Betty White (I pinched all off). Over 10 buds on Bronze star (I pinched off). And zero bud on Dreuil D. Raynaud, that's the only one which I DID NOT put cracked corn nor alfalfa hay, both host Trichoderma. Excerpt from below, click on link to see the pictures that go with Fig. 4 and Fig.5

http://www.biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/pathogens/trichoderma.php

" Perhaps even more importantly, our recent research indicates that corn whose roots are colonized by Trichoderma strain T-22 require about 40% less nitrogen fertilizer than corn whose roots lack the fungus.

Fig. 4: Enhanced root development from field-grown corn and soybean plants as a consequence of root colonization by the rhizosphere competent strain T. harzianum T22.

Fig. 5: Improved survival of pepper plants in the field as a consequence of better root development caused by growth of seedlings in the greenhouse in the presence of Trichoderma T22.

http://www.biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/pathogens/trichoderma.php

*** From Straw: Below pic. is taken today, Sept. 13 to show Trichoderma fungi (whitish mold) growing in soil mixed with cracked corn, plus topped with alfalfa hay to keep it moist. Life span of Trichoderma is 28 days, it requires oxygen, that's why I topped with FLUFFY alfalfa hay, to block the hot sun, but keeps it moist & airy. Trichoderma doesn't like chlorine, so watering with tap water (treated with chlorine) will kill it. Rain water is best.

Here's a field-trial of Trichoderma: An excerpt from below link "

USING TRICHODERMA SPECIES FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF PLANT PATHOGENS IN VIET NAM

Trichoderma spp. are fungi that occur worldwide. Recent studies show that they are not only parasites of fungal plant pathogens but also can produce antibiotics. In addition, certain strains can induce systemic and localized resistance to several plant pathogens. Moreover, some strains may enhance plant growth and development. The potential of Trichoderma species used as biological agents of plant diseases have been known since the 1930s.

Trichoderma are common and can be isolated easily from soil, root and plant organic matters. Trichoderma viride, T. harzianum, T. hamatum were predominant species in Viet Nam. Laboratory and field trials in Viet Nam also proved that

Trichoderma species had ability to suppress growth of fungal plant pathogens and enhance plant growth and development. Experiments conducted on several crops such as: peanut, tomato, cucumber and durian indicate that selected Trichoderma strains could reduce significant diseases caused by fungal pathogens including: Phytophthora palmivora, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium spp., Sclerotium rolfsii and Pythium spp. The efficacy of Trichoderma species on soil borne fungal disease is higher than fungicides and maintain longer."

http://www.issaas.org/journal/v16/01/journal-issaas-v16n1-03-tranha.pdf

All great info Straw! Thanks!

It barely got out of the 50's today...windy... brrrrrrrrrr

Thanks for walking 20 in the rain .. you inspired me. It was cold yesterday (Sat) as I shopped at HomeDepot. I hope to get Buxom Beauty rose cheap, but they got a new shipment of $10 roses (gallon-container). they are: Peace, Oklahoma, Mr. Lincoln, Double-Delight, Queen Elizabeth. Peace smelled best among the bunch. Double-Delight lost its scent in cool temp.

They also have Flower Carpet (Amber, light orange), and another Flower Carpet. I'm only interested in Peace, since I used to grow that. I'll wait until the price drops to $5 before buying that. I saw roses 100% healthy for $5 at Home Depot before: Kordes Cream Veranda and Belinda Dream. No regrets since neither one can match the scents of Austin roses.

Saw this on Google News on how social media increased sadness and anxiety among teens: "

The researchers which included Dr. Heather Cleland Woods and Holly Scott from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom asked 467 teenagers who were between the ages of 11 and 17 from one school to complete a questionnaire. The questions were about sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.

The teens reported using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube. It was observed by the researchers that teenagers who used social media and made a high emotional investment in social media had experienced poorer quality sleep, decreased self-esteem, and increased rates of anxiety and depression than teens who who were not as emotionally invested in social media.

Dr. Woods said there appears to be pressure to be available on social media 24/7 and not quickly responding to posts or texts may increase anxiety. Anxiety is also often experienced due to fears of not being a part of what is going on online. The British Psychological Society reports that teens may be harmed by pressure to be available on social media. These findings present us with the challenge of helping teens understand the need to limit their time using social media and the importance of staying active with other social interests along with healthy outdoor activities and exercise."

*** From Straw: That's why I like Organic Rose forum, it's just casual chit-chat among friends, except the info. is available for future generations to google. I don't have to worry about who will respond to what I post. I don't have to worry about ego-freaks and control-freaks whose agenda is to control & tell people what to do, rather than sharing info. or speak for oneself. Also our "sunshine-club-pledge" helps me to spend more time outdoor & exercise & taking care of my garden and my health. I spent 20 min. walking with my kid, plus 1 hour working hard in the garden, will spend another hour after this break.

Glad you got time to walk with your kid Straw!

Interesting on kids and depression... Kids are more depressed these days...

I cut the grass & did alittle yard work today 5pm-6pm... I should only have to cut the grass one more time than that should be it for this year...

Nights dipping into 40's so all plants I looked at starting to do funky things... Soil microbe activity has probably slowed way down... Sun changing positions etc... I don't get to concerned about this time of the year when I see these funky happenings from plants/roses...lol

Well that "Easy Does it" bloom with short bent neck is opening... Not the best looking bloom but I'll take it...lol

Somehow someway one of my sisters roses put out a bloom:

Our recent two days of rain kicked these zinnias into gear but sadly the growing season will end soon... 3-4 weeks...

We are in a hot & dry spell now which I love, since it won't last long. Spent 1/2 hour going for a walk this morning. Morning-sun felt so good & less traffic too. Yesterday I spent 2 hours prepping 4 giant-holes, getting ready for next-year's roses. A month ago I layered clay with chunky-alfafa-hay & cracked corn & gypsum. Yesterday I dug up, and it was moist & crumbly like chocolate cake. I might had made that hole too acidic, since I didn't see much earthworms. No problems .. red-lava-rock come to the rescue (pH 8.2), worms love that stuff.

Jim: Many thanks to your initiative of walking in the rain, to set an example for our "sunshine-club-pledge".

Ok today I pulled out 5 Marigolds to make room to pile my compost up here this week... Also took out Cherry tomato plant... (No worms seen when pulling it up (maybe from my testing of Miracle Gro)?

Also yanked up our Celebrity Tomato plant gave tomatoes to neighbors as we have plenty. My wifes mouthg breaking out from the acid so next year I'll plant a cherry NON-ACID tomato plant for her... ( I used no fertilizer for Celebrity tomato plant just compost was spread fall of 2014 and I threw down some twigs and leaves etc....) I seen tons of worms when digging it up today!

Marigold plants I took out I cut up leaves and spread in our rose beds... I discarded the blooms into the trash...

Tomato plants I will discard to our local facility that takes that stuff... I'm leary of spreading tomato plant leaves in our rose beds...

Here I'm cutting up Marigold leaves and putting in that trash can lid:

Cleaned this area to make room to pile Compost until I'm ready to spread it...

I spread the Marigold leaves and stems throughout this rose bed...

Roots of our Celebrity Tomato plant:

Jim: You have the best marigolds ever. The root of your Celebrity Tomato is quite large. High phosphorus fertilizer and right-pH does help with root-growth .. I have been planting tomatoes yearly since I was 13 years old .. and the years which the roots were so deep, which we could not dig up, was when cow-manure (without lime) was used. Lime raises the pH, making phosphorus less available. Can't find the cow manure without lime, unless one lives next to a farm.

Well today is a very nice sunny day in the low/mid 70's... It's only 71 degrees in the house right now so no air conditioning needed...

I've been outside for the past 1.5 hours deadheading and just cleaning up so got plenty of sunshine already...Took a 15 minute walk also...

I'll be getting compost this week I'm going to pile it up in the backyard until the flowers die then I'll spread it into the beds... I'm going to expand its use so I can get better quality flowers next year in other areas that are now not composted...

Just took these two pics of Gracie:

That rose bush in pic I applied compost last fall (2014) and then applied shredded wood mulch overtop... It has actually done very well being mulched. But this area has less clay... TODAY I removed some wood mulch because I'll be applying compost to it soon again. I probably will not reapply the wood mulch. We will see how it does throughout next year with just compost...Unless I can find larger sized wood chips...

Gracie is a cute dog. Wow! that's a long time-outdoor. Too hot here at 82 degree, so glad that I walked early this morning when it was 66 deg. Your knock-out bush is picture-perfect. Phosphorus helps with lots of branching. It occurs to me that landscape rose has more branching, versus a few-sticks of hybrid-tea. Cantigny rose park uses high-phosphorus fertilizer, and it works well for their landscape roses (shorter stem & more branching), but it DOES NOT work for Austin roses (has a higher demand for potassium and calcium).

Compost varies: potato peels & animal manures are high-phosphorus, versus banana & melons & wood-ash for potassium. The link below gave some interesting data on compost, with dry-grass-clippings having NPK of 1.2 nitrogen, 0.4 phosphorus, and 1.5 potassium. For leaves, alkaline white ash like my area has NPK of 0.6 nitrogen, 0.15 phosphorus, and 0.54 potassium, with pH of 6.8. For red-maple in acidic areas, NPK is 0.5 nitrogen, 0.09 phosphorus, and 0.04 potassium, with pH 4.7. I'm going after the white-ash in my neighborhood. Thank God the trees in front are white-ash.

http://gardening.yardener.com/Material-For-Composting

Thanks! Thomas Affleck re-adjusted its leaves so undersides are not getting sunburnt anymore....lol

When TA was out front sun only hit his front side since he was against a brick wall so he was reaching out for sun... Out back TA gets sun from all angles and the undersides of some of his leaves were exposed to sun for awhile..Ta looks a lot happier now!

I widen the area around Thomas Affleck today. I made the ground higher around TA then the surrounding ground when I first planted him there so hopefully TA does not get flooded during hard rains...And it gradually slops.... I have to apply compost soon to TA also...

Your Thomas Affleck looks really good & perky, plus the soil is nice & black & loamy. Great idea to slope the soil like that. My kid is doing a science project of germinating plants, she has to choose the FASTEST seed to germinate. I have many choices: watermelon seeds, mustard green seed, mung-bean seed, broccoli seed, chia seed. NOT sure which one will germinate fastest. I post the info. from Garden-Guides here, that will help her with her science-project: "How to germinate seeds faster"

http://www.gardenguides.com/112729-germinate-seeds-faster.html

" Step 1

Scarify tough seed coats like morning glory before planting. Rub the seed coat with fine sandpaper or a fingernail file to thin the surface of the seed coat. This allows the seed to take in moisture and allows the sprout to break through the seed coat with ease. Check the back of seed packets to determine if seeds need to be scarified.

Step 2

Soak legumes, as well as other dense, hard seeds such as corn, in lukewarm water overnight to speed germination. Place in a bowl that holds twice the volume of the seeds and fill with water. Seeds absorb moisture and swell to nearly double in size. Plant as directed on the packet.

Step 3

Moisten a folded piece of paper towel. Layer fine seeds or flat seeds, such as melon and cucumbers, on the towel and fold to cover. Place the moist towel and seeds in a plastic food storage bag and set in a warm area. Check seeds daily. Remove and plant once sprouts appear

Read more: How to Germinate Seeds Faster | Garden Guides

Straw

I put my lupines seed in humic acid made from a handful of compost in a bowl.

Interesting article Straw...

Soaking Morning Glory seeds for 24 hours in water also speeds things along...lol

Thanks, guys, for the tips. Seeds needs slightly acidic, warmth, and water to germinate. Decade ago I sprouted mung-bean using my alkaline tap with pH 8.6, that took forever, like 10 days ... versus only 3 days for my Mom's less alkaline tap-water. Last night was too late to get rain-water (pH 5.6) from my barrels, so I used distilled water (slightly below pH 7, or near neutral). I put seeds on top of Comcast-router for warmth. Will have to find our electric-warm-mat.

This morning chia seed is a mess, gel-like. Threw that away. Brocolli seeds look good, some sprouting. Mung Bean hasn't sprout yet, I should had sanded the coating. Mustard green hasn't sprout yet. Will have to find some WHOLE-corn-kernel from my cracked corn bag. Corn sprouts pretty fast, so does flax seed.

One of the site mentioned sunflower seed, will have to dig that out of my bird-feed-bag. Nicking the seed to allow water in helps a lot. Here's an excerpt from below link: "The reason that seeds take varying lengths of time to germinate ... because all seed shells are somewhat water-resistant. The germination time has to do with how long it takes water to penetrate and permeate the seed shell or coating and get to the inside part of the seed. Once the water reaches the inside of most seeds, they all activate and grow immediately at that point.

I tried sanding one edge off each of ten pumpkin seeds. The previous two attempts at germinating these same commercial pumpkin seeds resulted in only one sprouted seed from the 20 that I attempted to germinate. But of the 10 pumpkin seeds from the same package that I sanded one edge off and started germinated yesterday, already today 6 of the seeds have sprouted with up to 1/2" long roots! That is less than 24 hours!"

http://www.instructables.com/id/Sprout-Seeds-Overnightwith-Scarification/

Seeds I mess with the most are Marigold seeds, Morning Glory, and Zinnia seeds.

I got plenty of sunshine today! 11Am-3am... My friends and I brought compost and applied it today.

I also found a FREE source for city wood chips... :-) It's about 4 miles away back in wooded areas... We applied the wood chips to an area where Gracie our dog roams so she does not get muddy paws during rains...

Here's where the wood chips went....That's compost on that piece of p[lastic... Its been all applied and everything cleaned up...

Only thing is I did NOT have enough compost for directly out front in that bed. It has old wood mulch in it but flowers still are not growing nearly as good as they should... So it needs compost.... Maybe next year...

Wow nice Jim

I like that the edges have rounded corners. I was told once, " There are no straight lines in nature. "

No straight lines with me doing it either...lol

I use a hose as a pattern for rounded corners...

Great photos Sam! Things are looking good! I'm really tired from all that spreading of compost and mulch today. Glad my friends helped me or it might of taken me 4 days...lol

Did Gracie supervisor inspect the dirt for color and amount of proper microbes and nutrients?

Yes Gracie did Sam... lol

That reminds me I gotta clean out my birdbath...lol...Birds have it a mess!

Chamblees had Tutu rose (kordes) listed as a hybrid Tea so I passed on that... But looking on the Kordes website Tutu is a floribunda! Now I'm interested! lol

I will try Tutu instead of Kardinal Kolorscape rose...

http://newflora.com/product/desmond-tutu-rose/

Nice I hope it's hardy.

Cold hardy zone 5-9 but its probably not cane hardy...

Thank you, Sam and Jim, for those enjoyable pictures. Jim: Your mulch looks good, everything is nice and neat. The last time I ordered 11 yards of mulch, that wasn't enough. Money was wasted, so I get free chunky mulch from the village (2 min. drive) so I should get those more often.

I love Sam's flat rocks and stone. Home Depot sells a small piece of those flat stone $7 a piece. I really enjoy the vivid colors of Sam's garden: deep pink on Mayflower and blueberry's orange foliage.

Hot here up to 83, sunny all day. Very happy that none of my roses are wilted, the pea-gravel (rich in calcium) helps.

Yes those are nice Pa turnpike rocks Sam! We have a few rocks thrown about I got in Spuce Creek Pa at a place called Indian Lookout...

https://standingoutinmyfield.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/take-a-hike-with-me-indian-lookout-spruce-creek/

And Sams rose leaves look great!

The blueberries are on the north area in my yard and last two winters the north wind hurt them. This year I will put something on the north side of them to block the wind. I think Pennsylvania is better for blueberries. The peat moss is weird on top. The water doesn't mix with the peat moss.

The Pennsylvania rocks make the blueberries feel at home more. The rocks are for good luck. Next year at Pocono I will get some PA gravel. Ha-ha then they will be happy.

Lol on PA gravel.... Happy happy! :-)

I got plenty more sun today...10am-1:30pm and I still have to go out and clean things up...

Anyhow we went and got the rest of my compost and applied it out front. I had to take wood mulch completely out then apply compost then re-apply wood mulch over top of compost..

Also put some compost at the side of the house to finish things off...

Good idea to put wood-chips over compost (dry stuff on top). It's super-hot here, up to 85 degree. Finally rained. Was outside for 1 hour yesterday, and walked 1/2 hour early morning today ... too hot & humid here. Today is free-garbage day so we cleaned out our attic: was like an oven up on-top of our garage, I was there only 5 min, had to climb down, the heat was unbearable. I hope it rains more.

Today was also our free garbage day... lol... We get sit anything out we want today for them to take...

The first Zinnia is growing in heavy soft clay notice its more narrow...

This zinnia is growing in soil with much less clay so roots can spread out faster...Notice its bushier plus its 2 weeks younger than the other one...

Very good proof of branching in fluffy soil. Thank you, Jim, for those great pictures. Clay is good stuff. When I planted my lemon balm in my neighbor $4,000 raised-herb garden, she said the builder put fluffy soil in there that never glue up. I dug in there and found it's a mix of clay and sand. I find that heavy clay mixed with coarse sand helps with root-growth. I like that dark-red color of zinnia.

Next year Carefree Celebration will go in the spot with heavier soft clay... Plum Perfect and Tutu will go in the location with less clay...

Prairie Harvest is doing real well in that heavier soft clay it's roots must be busting right through it...lol

Easy Does it is in the less clay area BUT Prairie is much larger even though its in the heavier clay area... So no doubt Prairie Harvest has more vigor than EDI....

Very good planning, Jim. I get burnt out answering those questions in other threads .. your thread is more enjoyable (honestly happy with just a few stable friends). Sure, I learn too when I answer those questions, but I'm done with that, and I just want to relax. Although Prairie Harvest can take acid, I pushed it too much by putting more gypsum (calcium sulfate) and sulfate of potash (21%) .. and it got 2 leaves of blackspots in this humid & rainy weather. I forgot that Prairie Harvest gave me 2 blooms, plus 3 buds .. it secreted plenty of acid in doing so, time for something alkaline. I'm going to put Prairie Harvest into my alkaline clay. I messed up that pot with so many experiments ... I have to undo the damage.

In contrast, Cloude de Soupert and Reve'd Or. are dark-green and going-nuts with pea-gravel, plus 100% healthy. The above experiment is to prove that having acidic pH doesn't help, it's SUPPLYING BALANCED NUTRIENTS that matter.

I'm more relaxed on growing roses to do crazy experiments, and I don't care if they lose all leaves, as long as I learn something. I used to be so upset last year when my kid didn't get straight A's, now I don't care if she has a B. Life is about learning, and doing a better job the next time. If we don't make mistakes, we learn zero in life. There are so many myths in rose-world: phosphorus for bloom, Epsom salt, roses need it slightly acidic, and roses need spraying & nitrogen fertilizer. I honestly would be better off just ignore everything they say, and just the basics: fluffy soil & organic fertilizer. Jim, time for a new thread.

Straw

I agree it does wear me down too. I am glad you are going to grow roses and enjoy. This is a good time of year to see roses.

I enjoy a give and take with Jim and Straw. It's important to relax and enjoy life too. The pictures shared do a lot to make it nicer.

Well said Straw & Sam! Ok I'll start a new thread...lol