Henry Jabel

r ranson wrote:This is a bought DVD.  
I never got into burning DVDs.  Too much bother for the reward.  Much easier to save up points and get free ones (back when points bought stuff)

I'll focus on cleaning the machine.  Our main one is bluray/dvd.  does that take the same dvd cleaner thing as the regular dvd players?  Or does it need something special?

Its the same as far as I can work out used the same one for the cd player in my car as well as my dvd/blu ray player here. If you type in blu ray lens cleaner they usually advertise the fact they clean cd players too so I think its all the same product at the end of the day.

Try cleaning the player with one of those discs with brushes glued on it. Sometimes an unclean lens can make a bad disc worse or simply unplayable. Nowadays you tend to get a kit that does the lens with the bit that cleans the disc so by doing both it can fix the problem.

Erik van Lennep wrote:

Paul Haggerty wrote:I am sort of working on a pipe dream holly breeding project.....
So if you wanted to have a go at doing something similar, maybe some of my planning will help.

Hi Paul, I just saw this posting from last year. How is the project going? I have similar intentions, but for a different climate (Mediterranean Spain). So far I've been unable to find any Ilex vomitoria plants in the EU. Plenty of sources in the UK, but with BREXIT, doing trade with any of the UK nurseries or seed suppliers (or anything at all) is just too costly and cumbersome.

Have you thought of crossing I. vomitoria with I. paraguayensis? Seems at least the chromosome numbers are the same.
If you have the space you might also want to get yaupon seeds from a range of habitats and cultivars and mass-seed them so you have more to select from. Germination will be slow, so that's why you'd want enough space to leave them to their own devices.

Also the JC Raulston Arboretumin N.C: has been breeding various hollies a long time. Have you tried contacting them?

Where were they selling them in the U.K?  I was searching years ago and couldn't find a single genuine source just pages saying sold out and plant directories that never went anywhere.

Soap with either lemon or orange oil kills all insects on contact. I use for everything now if no beneficial insects are present.

You mention the spray from the shop was citrus based but in all honesty perhaps they didn't make it strong enough because I can't think of a time it hasn't worked. I have even used it on scale on a lemon tree etc.

Mike Guye wrote:

Henry Jabel wrote:I picked up 11 bacon avocados the other day .

Great news Henry!
Which supermarket chain did you buy these from?
I'm guessing they've been imported from Spain - is that correct?

Yes they are indeed Spanish and were in a independent greengrocer. I am only finding hass in the supermarkets round here still.

I picked up 11 bacon avocados the other day . Can barter/share some of these with U.K peeps. If you are interested PM me.

The site kind of assumes you already know what a master gardener course is! I have only really heard about them because Paul has taken one and I supported the Kickstarter.  What does this course actually contain and what is each instructor is actually teaching?

I have tried but didn't quite get to it fruiting and seeding properly due to some pest issues, things getting too hot and me forgetting to water them consistently! Part of the problem with them is the germination rate on luffa seeds is really poor and yet the seeds always seem to be rather expensive so you buy your ten expensive seeds and get only about 2-3 decent plants going if you are lucky. I will probably try again when I have a better system for growing them like an aquaponics system so I can remove the human error from growing them.

As pointed out earlier ketchup wasn't the nightshade based sauce we expect today. However some of the ideas suggested in this video may give you some inspiration!

Paul Houdet-Segond wrote:Hi,
I just want to know what happend this year (december 2022) snow on 12 and 13 December ? The Avocado tree on the video in London is alive ? any dommage on ? If someone can share a video on Youtube it could be very good.

Thanks and have a good day!

Paul Houdet, South of France, Nîmes

Its cold at the moment but I would assume its fine its -4C here in the countryside which is not unusual and due to the heat island effect it appears to only dipping below freezing there tomorrow night. Six years ago we had -7C here and I would assume it was colder in London then.