HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jereese@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jean reese)
Subject: Re: Birth control pills as plant growth stimulants?
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 14:06:46 GMT

In article <1dtmnlINNiub@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col) writes:
>
>	Last evening at dinner the subject of gardening came up, specifically
>how to get cuttings of roses and shrubs to roots.  I mentioned that I use
>Rootone.  I then learned that one of the finest gardeners I know ( I swear
>he could get petrified wood to sprout if he tried) uses out of date
>BIRTH CONTROL PILLS!! to stimulate root development.  ( I was strongly


I once had some old pills, and the Planned Parenthood people said not
to use them, but they made great fertilizer. I don't have enough old
pills hanging around, though, to make a regular practice of it.

Jean


-- 
	"It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living by its 
	purely physical effect on the human temperament would most 
	beneficially influence the lot of mankind." - Albert Einstein
		+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: pyle@intellistor.com (Norm Pyle)
Subject: Re: SUGAR BEETS, HOW, SOURCE?
Organization: Intellistor, Longmont, CO
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 16:33:34 GMT

In article <1992Nov4.181854.6934@csd.uwe.ac.uk> th2_oate@csd.uwe.ac.uk (Tom Oates) writes:
>The procedure is quite simple. After washing mud off the beets, chop
>them into thin, small chunks. Then soak them in very hot water for
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Is this akin to mashing barley (and other grains) as in beer making?  In that
discipline, the water temperature in crucial to allow specific enzymes to
convert starches to sugars.  In this case, does the beet contain sugars or
starches or a combination of the two?  If starches are present, I suspect a
specific temperature (it is around 150F for barley enzymes) would give a much
larger yield of sugar from the same beets.

>an hour or so. Afterwards, drain off the sugary water and begin to 
>reduce it to syrup over a low heat. Off course it's important not
>to use too much heat at the later stages or you'll get caramelisation.
>The chunks of beet that you soaked can also be pressed to expel the last 
>traces of sugary water.
>
>As you can see, extracting sugar from your own beet is quite labour
>intensive. It might well be easier simply to buy some from a supermarket.
>Still, that's not as much fun as refining your own, right?

And not nearly as fun as making your own beer... ;-)

Norm
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: C11815@maccvm.corp.mot.com (Josette Giacobbi)
Subject: Re: Troybilt
Organization: Motorola
Date: 11 Nov 1992 09:39:32 CST

Paul wrote:
any experience with this device in particular and Troy-Bilt equipment in

general?  I would appreciate all comments pro and con.

-----
I personally do not have a tiller/chopper/shredder, but I have heard
very good things about the Troy-Bilt.  Our yard is not that large so we
use the lawnmower w/bag and mow up the leaves and dump a bag on each of
the raised beds to sit thru the winter and dump the rest on the compost
pile.     Josette in So. Carolina

i
From: ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Mazus repens
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:00:15 GMT
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization

In article <1992Nov10.144850.8765@cbfsb.cb.att.com> djd@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (david.j.daulton) writes:
>I have planted a neat little groundcover in my garden, Mazus repens
>(I don't think there is a common name).  It is only about 1" high,
>has pretty little blooms, and spreads quickly and thickly, leaving
>no room for weeds to get started.
>
>I thought I had found a good "living mulch" for my raised bed, but
>now I am not sure.  It seems the daylillies, miniature roses, and
>other plants it has surrounded are not doing too great, and I wonder
>if it is choking them out.
>
>Has anyone else had experience with this?

I *love* Mazus.  (I found a plant growing wild in a crack in a Lisbon, Portu-
gal, stairway.)  I have had Mazus under/in/among all kinds of shade plants
including daffodils, bleeding hearts, hellebores, Shortia galacifolia, creep-
ing arbutus, and more, all under a maple tree.  Everybody throve.  It's my
understanding that daylilies and roses need more sunshine than Mazus likes;
could it be that your sun-needy plants aren't getting enough sun?  It's been
my experience that the Mazus roots are so shallow they don't interfere with
anything.


Carrie		ceb@rechenau.unify.com		x 6244  ----------------+
|  I don't belong to any organized political party:  I'm a Democrat.	|
|						-- Will Rogers		|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: kathleen@casbs.Stanford.EDU (Kathleen Much)
Subject: Re: Camellia scions
Organization: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 02:34:30 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.175619.1016@Princeton.EDU> fw@ramirez.Princeton.EDU () writes:
>I have recently become addicted to camellias, which I grow on an enclosed 
>porch.  I have a catalog from Nuccio's Nursery in California,
>in which they offer for sale not only camellia plants, but also (and 
>irresistably inexpensively) camellia scions.   I am sorely tempted to buy   
>some of the scions, but I'm not really sure what they ARE....are they 
>cuttings? And how does one propagate from scions? In the catalog, they
>say "each scion will have one growth bud, but most ...will have 2 or 3 
>graftable buds".  Does this mean that you have to have some kind of root 
>stock to graft them onto? 

Yes, you have to have root stock.  The scion is a cutting, which you
insert into a slit in the root stock (taper the bottom of the scion so
its cambium layer touches the cambium in the slit) and tie up with
soft plastic ties.  It's the most common way to propagate camellias
and should result in a blooming plant in a couple of years.  Some
people graft several scions onto one trunk and have multi-variety
camellia bushes.  I've also heard of rooting cuttings in damp sand,
but I think that's much riskier.  Ask around and see if you can't find
a local camellia society that can help you get started.  The gardening
editor of your local paper might know how you can get in touch.


-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kathleen Much, Editor		|E-mail: kathleen@casbs.stanford.EDU
CASBS, 202 Junipero Serra Blvd.	|Phone: (415) 321-2052
Stanford, CA  94305		|Fax: (415) 321-1192
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: djd@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (david.j.daulton)
Subject: Re: spiders
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 16:46:24 GMT

Regarding an herbal remedy for spiders, here in the Midwest (U.S.A.)
there was a pioneer superstition that hedgeapples keep spiders out of
the house.

The hedgeapple is one of the few trees to thrive in prairie areas, its
wood lasts long as fence posts, but its fruits (dangerous if they fall
on your head) are of no use.  Maybe the pioneers figured it must have
SOME use, and this is the best I could come up with.

I don't know of any experiments to see if it works.  Maybe someone
could put a few hedgeapples in a box in a garage or something, and
see what happens.

Personally, I appreciate spiders, but have a visceral fear of them.
I carry outside any I find in the house, but leave alone any in the
basement--based on the theory that, if they can live down there, they
must be eating something worse than themselves.

Dave Daulton
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: bky@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (william.a.stafford)
Subject: Re: Tree eradication?
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 16:26:02 GMT

>get a copper nail, or piece of copper rod, or _probably a penny would work,
>pound into the tree.  the sap reacts with the copper and the oxide
>kills the tree.

   I believe this is an urban legend.  A single copper nail, spike or whatever
would probably cause local tissue death but the copper would be enclosed in
dead wood after one growing season.  The surrounding dead wood would prevent
any more living cells from coming into contact with the toxic copper.

-=[]=-=[]=--=[]=-=[]=--=[]=-=[]=--=[|]=-=[]=--=[]=-=[]=--=[]=-=[]=--=[]=-=[]=-
Wm. A. Stafford                     |
AT&T Bell Laboratories              |  "Who would have thought reading
Display Processing Systems Group    |   and writing could pay off"
hogpg!was   201-386-7589            |       Homer Simpson
From: ramirez@julia.math.ucla.edu (Alice Ramirez)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: birthcontrol pills to propagate cuttings
Date: 13 Nov 92 19:49:03 GMT
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department

I hope Jeff del Col will let us all know how his friend gets these old birth
control pills.  Is he, in real life, a pharmacist?  An MD?  Someone who
just works in a drug store?  I mean, I would LOVE to try this, but it is
my impression, based on personal experience, that these things (The Pill) are
kind of doled out in packets of 6-month increments, under PRESCRIPTION.
I mean, I kind of have a feeling that if I went into my local Thrifty Drugs
and asked for old birth control pills to use for rooting cuttings I'd
be laughed out of the store.  I'd really like to try this technique
since I have access to some fairly interesting woody material of the
fruit-bearing persuasion that I would REALLY like to propoagate for myself,
stuff that seems, in my hands to stubbornly not WANT to propagate.

Please Jeff, TELL US HOW HE DOES IT!! How does he get them and secondarily,
his exact technique.

And while we are at it, has anyone tried rooting woody cuttings by 
dipping the cut end in gibberellic acid solution?
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Tree eradication?
Date: 6 Nov 92 15:12:51 -0600
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1dccsnINN3i4@morrow.stanford.edu>, AS.JMW@forsythe.stanford.edu (JILL M WOODS) writes:
> In article <lfj6goINN8ki@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu>,
> langston@langston.cs.utk.edu (Mike Langston) writes:
>>simple mowing takes care of ailanthus around here;
>>birds seem to be the real vectors
> 
> I have tried this.  The plant does not die or go away, it just sends
> up two starts to replace the one mowed down.

Just keep up the mowing.  As soon as you find a new sprout, remove it.
Eventually you'll exhaust the food reserves in the roots.

Alternatively, you can apply one of the glyphosate preparations like
Roundup to the leaves.  That's a quick-decomposition herbicide that's
one of the least toxic to non-plants, and you can just sponge it on
the leaves so you aren't poisoning everything else.

kay klier


Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: clarke@acheron.uucp (Ed Clarke/10240000)
Subject: Re: Habaneros Peppers
Organization: Ciliophora Associates
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 12:31:18 GMT

From article <1992Nov9.153913.12327@schbbs.mot.com>, by C11815@maccvm.corp.mot.com (Josette Giacobbi):
> Mark, You mentioned you have Habaneros Peppers.  If I have you my address
> could you send me a few seeds?? josette
>> My jalapenos and habaneros remain at reasonable 2-3 foot heights (a bit rangy
>> though) and also continue to bloow and fruit.  I'd say keep on harvesting and
>> see what happens...

You might also look in your local super market!  I just found a package of
habenero peppers in my local A&P.  We're located about 50 miles north of
New York City, not in the south west.

Ed Clarke
clarke@acheron.UUCP
clarke@watson.ibm.com
-- 
               | One was a deaf mute who shovelled coal, worked  
Ed Clarke      | the bellows, and exorcised the minor demons of
acheron!clarke | puberty by raping chickens.
               |               Hugh Cook - Lords of the Sword
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com
Subject: Re: Pepper Plants
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 04:17:23 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.150324.1@vax.sonoma.edu>, butler@vax.sonoma.edu writes...
>I've let my summer garden go for this year, but the pepper plants are
>still flowering and producing peppers.  My questions are: How long do
>these things live?

I believe they're perennials when in places where cold can't hurt them.  I've
heard of a bell pepper tree on Key West, Florida.

-Mike
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: oliphant@cae.wisc.edu (Paul Oliphant)
Subject: Re: Is there any plant db ?
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 13 Nov 92 20:30:13 CST

How about a gopher server out there full of plants and stuff like that? 

Paul
oliphant@engr.wisc.edu
From: safi@ellis.uchicago.edu (pedro natalio safier)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Freesias in the Bay Area: info please
Date: 5 Nov 92 18:23:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: midway.1992Nov5.182340.4638
Reply-To: safi@midway.uchicago.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Chicago Astronomy & Astrophysics


 Hi,

 I am interested in growing freesias in my garden; I live in El Cerrito, CA
 (East Bay area). Any help will be appreciated.

 Please e-mail to

                     safier@minerva.berkeley.edu

                             Thanks a lot,
                                                     Pedro
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pedro N. Safier                          |  e-mail: safi@ellis.uchicago.edu
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics |          safier@oddjob.uchicago.edu
The University of Chicago                |  phone: (312) 702-8203
5640 S. Ellis Ave                        |    fax: (312) 702-8212
Chicago, IL 60637                        |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: fungus gnats
Date: 11 Nov 92 12:30:30 -0600
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <BxJCBu.LMI@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>, bobw@csg.uwaterloo.ca (Bob Wildfong) writes:
> In article <27390@oasys.dt.navy.mil> mulvihil@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Lawrence Mulvihill) writes:
>>In rec.gardens, nrlfs1.nrl.navy.mil (Judy Karpen) writes:
>>Ah, the twice monthly fungus gnat question!  My question is:
>>is there a carnivorous plant which would take care of the little
>>*%#&@s ?
> 
> Right now, my venus flytrap has fungus gnats _real_bad_, but just ignores them.
> Stupid flytrap.

Fungus gnats are too small to trip the trigger hairs in Venus flytrap.
The amount of nutrition the plant would get from the insect is less than
what it costs the plant to close the trap (and traps will only close
about 3 x).

My recollection is that methoprene (Precor), the insect growth regulator
used for flea control, will also do in fungus gnats, but you should
verify before trying.  My mind is like a steel sieve these days.

Kay
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: ramirez@julia.math.ucla.edu (Alice Ramirez)
Subject: oleander as slope control plants
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Distribution: ca
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 19:25:22 GMT

A poster had mentioned oleander as a possible plant for steep California
slopes but had mentioned that she or he didn't know how deep-rooted they
are.  While I don't have an exact answer, I can attest through personal
experience, that the roots probably go deep enough to anchor slopes.

A previous owner planted dozens and dozens of these things on my property.
Before I broke down and hired the services of a tree remover/stumper operator,
I was digging them out myself.  They are very hard to get rid of once well-
established.  You can't simply cut them off at the base because they will
resprout.  I dug down about 3 feet around each of the ones I personally
removed, and STILL had to do much cutting and hacking at thick, rope-like
roots.  I left plenty of roots still in the ground.  Fortunatelky only
a few of these resprouted.  The point I am making is that, like many
drought tolerant species not of cactus/succulent classification, they seem
to achieve drought tolerance by means of a powerful and extensive root 
system.  While I personally hate the things, (They are not that pretty except 
when in bloom and are poisonous to boot) I recognize that they could be 
valuable in situations such as slope-control.
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: naomib@sco.COM (Mirabelle Severn & Thames)
Subject: unhappy potted palm
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1992 19:40:16 GMT


A couple of years ago, I received a potted palm for a
gift.  I don't know what variety it is, but it probably
came from KMart.  I first kept it near the window in
an east-facing room that got filtered light.  It immediately
began drying out and turning brown from the ends of the 
leaves toward the center stem.  I kept it in that room for
a long time (probably close to a year), because the cat
tended to chew on it in other rooms.  It got to a certain
point of dry brownness, but never completely died.  Finally,
my husband insisted on moving it into the living room,
which has larger, north-facing windows.  We kept it about
10 feet from the windows, to prevent chill or burn and
to keep it away from the heater registers in the floor.
It didn't get better or worse.  We repotted it.  It didn't
care.  We moved it to a south room, out of direct (hot)
sunlight.  It didn't care.  We gave it a couple of teaspoons
of bloodmeal.  It developed white mold on top of the soil.

What shall we try next?

Thanks.
Naomi

Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: kathleen@casbs.Stanford.EDU (Kathleen Much)
Subject: Re: Asian Pear in Houston?
Organization: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 02:38:08 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.123226.13841@hou.amoco.com> ztac18@hou.amoco.com writes:
>I'm interested in growing an Asian pear tree in Houston.
>
>My questions: 1.  Aesthetics-wise, is this a tree I want to have growing in my yard?
>                  I've never seen one, just eaten the fruit.  I'm guessing it either
>                  looks like a pear tree or an apple tree.  And, how big will it
>                  get?
>
>              2.  Will it grow in this clay-rich (an understatement) soil and hot,
>                  humid conditions?

Call the Harris County Agricultural Agent.  I doubt seriously that you
have enough winter chill for any apple or pear tree in Houston.  Is
Dewey Compton still pontificating on KTRH?  He'd know the answer.


-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kathleen Much, Editor		|E-mail: kathleen@casbs.stanford.EDU
CASBS, 202 Junipero Serra Blvd.	|Phone: (415) 321-2052
Stanford, CA  94305		|Fax: (415) 321-1192
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: jmiller@alfred.carleton.ca (Jane Miller)
Subject: Two questions: Mums & Oleanders
Summary: When to cut down Mums / How to care for Oleanders during winter
Keywords: Mum Oleander
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:26:24 GMT


MUMS
I live in Ottawa, Canada, and my 'Mums' (Chrysanthemums) are still
green, despite the recent light snowfall. So how long do I have to
wait til cutting them down and mulching? (They are 'hardy' mums, so I
hope they'll survive the winter). Should I wait til they go brown, and
then cut them, or cut them green, or just not cut them, and throw
mulch over the tops??


OLEANDER
My second question involves an Oleander which I've just inherited.
It has been spending summers outside and winters indoors. Now, I've
put it in my basement, but the light isn't too good, and I've noticed
a few of the leaves are beginning to turn yellow and drop off. Is this
normal over the winter? Or does it need more light? Any suggestions
about how to care for this plant over winter would be greatly
appreciated.
From: jhb@calmasd.prime.com (Jim Bishop)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Asian Pear in Houston?
Date: 11 Nov 92 05:21:56 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: -

In article <1992Nov10.023808.20336@casbs.Stanford.EDU>, 
kathleen@casbs.Stanford.EDU (Kathleen Much) writes: 
>  
> Call the Harris County Agricultural Agent.  I doubt seriously that you 
> have enough winter chill for any apple or pear tree in Houston.  Is 
> Dewey Compton still pontificating on KTRH?  He'd know the answer. 
>  

Hope I don't shock you Kathleen, but Dewey Compton died in a crash of
his private plane sometime before I moved to California.  That was in
1979.

A friend of mine in high school used to date Dewey's son.  Compared to
his son, Dewey was pretty citified.

My brother used to call him Dewey Compost and do the worst impression
of his garden advice.  Do you remember how Dewey used to recommend
medina for everything?  (I still don't know what medina was.)

Jim
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu (Ilana Stern)
Subject: Re: Horrible Plants
Organization: NCAR/UCAR
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 23:39:45 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.210345.18149@cbfsb.cb.att.com>, djd@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (david.j.daulton) writes:

	[Interestingly horrible plants]

> - Poison Ivy and Poison Oak: obvious
> - "Tree of life", native to south Florida, and now rare.  Not really bad,
>   but working with the wood is known to get carpenters "high".
>   (Maybe this does not belong on the list.)
> - Awful tree, also from Southern Florida, with sap so caustic that it is
>   said native Americans tied prisoners to the tree for torture.
> - An Australian bush with edible fruits but with nettles on leaves 
>   that cause days of pain.  I saw this on a nature program--never
>   did get the name.
> - Snake root (I think). Native to North America.  Okay when grown in
>   shade, but when settlers cleared the woods, and this plant was
>   grown in sun, cows would eat it and give poison milk.  (This killed
>   Abraham Lincoln's mother.)
> - Tobacco: also obvious.

> Can anyone add to my list?

Well, in the American Southwest there's the cholla (pronounced "choya"),
also called "jumping cactus."  It's a segmented cactus, and the segments
will detach from the main stem and attach themselves to you (ouch!) if you
so much as gently brush by it.  There are various types with a variety
of needle densities: the "teddy bear cholla" has very dense needles which
look like soft fur -- but don't try to stroke it or you'll be sorry!

Another cactus, which is related to the agave (don't recall the name), 
is called "shin dagger" -- it's got stiff spiky leaves which are at a 
perfect height to stab unwary hikers in the shins.

-- 
/\     There may be honor among thieves, but there's none among politicians.
  \_][ <--NCAR Ilana Stern dod#009 r.b. cliff swallow ilana@ncar.ucar.edu    
      \______________________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: rec.gardens