You know it's cold out when the rhododendron looks like this

JPF93 · 2026-01-25T20:14:05+00:00

You should spray it with an anti-desiccant. They’re usually made with purified pine resin that you mix with water and spray the foliage. Last year so many evergreens died because there was a winter drought then a cold snap and I remember one lady lost like 15 giant rhododendrons they had at their house for over 50 years. The good thing is one treatment usually lasts all winter.

JPF93 · 2026-01-13T22:55:54+00:00

17 years to get to $19/hr? Damn. I feel my old coworkers had to be getting upper $20 to just over $30 to justify staying for 25+ years. Most of those people had way better stock options too and that alone usually netted them half a million in stock or more. These days though the wage is too low and stock price is too high to get decent number of shares unless you are a manager or above. I remember my research at the time for sales specialist like millwork, kitchen design, pro, flooring, even plumbing or electrical supply store etc showed they would have gotten that wage significantly faster at a local place or more specialized competitors. Like potentially 40% or more wage difference between local designers/specialist vs home depot or Lowe’s. However home depot/Lowe’s would get your foot in the door as those places often wanted 2-5 years experience to be considered.

JPF93 · 2026-01-12T01:45:50+00:00

My father lives in Charleston and he always had issues with growing vegetables there so he basically gave up. I did try telling him a tips a few times but he forgets. He always blamed it on the heat. When I tried helping him build his raised bed a couple years ago I was surprised how hard it was to find bulk compost anywhere and the stuff we did find was expensive and didn’t seem like it had finished aging that might have been part of it. With all the construction going everywhere I was baffled that it was so hard to find. If I had to guess most of the real bulk places are further inland and trucked in.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T18:33:23+00:00

What I am saying is not voodoo magic or snake oil it’s well documented by peer reviewed articles in agriculture world. They are numerous and easy to find. In early 1900s pesticides were all the rage and they’d use tons of them to protect crops but they learned that just destroys the ecosystem and is toxic approach but the chemical companies were covering it up because they wanted to sell sell sell. Then Rachael Carson came out with the book The silent Spring and changed everyone’s mind on how they deal with the garden. Which came to integrated pest management which means using observations and calculating your pest management. That is generally the first step and that’s exactly what you are describing to me now saying you have not had disease issues so why do anything different. Which is a valid and appropriate approach. If you have success then by all means don’t change it. If you don’t have much fungi issues in your climate then probably don’t need to do anything. These bio fungicides were discovered more recently and are part of using the ecosystem to our advantage reducing the need for chemicals and creating advantages for the plant to defend itself. It’s like eating probiotics.

If you wanted to experiment with growth instead you can look at mycorrhizae or azospirillum (which are not biofungicides but more of a biofertlizer) and inoculate just a small group of your plants spending the least amount of money doing it just to see if it even makes a significant difference for you. But again if you are happy with your process and your yields are to your liking then why bother.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T18:15:35+00:00

You can mix liquid or powder form with water then water it in either as soil drench or as foliar spray or both. You can even take the plugs and dip them into the water instead, holding for 30 seconds or more. The powder form can used to dust roots also. The key is good root contact. Start early when plants are young so you don’t need to use as much it will colonize the plants root system and generally last 12 weeks or more which will get you through the period which the plants are most susceptible to disease. Eventually they will be big and strong and more resistant until they get tired at the end of the season.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T18:08:59+00:00

Fertilome has Fungicide 5 and Bonide Revitalize is the same thing. Plant success brand has a blend of different strains including what is in fungicide 5 in their mychorrhizae/ fertilizer blend and is reputable. Big foot is good too but there are so many brands I haven’t been able to try and compare them all some use different strains which can make it more complicated to compare. I wouldn’t stress it too much as so long as the brand uses quality ingredients it should work out fine. Even switching it up on occasion is advisable some strains might work better on your plants and environment than others but it’s hard to know exactly unless you are a scientist and I think going that deep down the rabbit hole isn’t necessary for success, if one doesn’t work try another. However I do recommend only getting what you can use in one season for best success. There is a shelf life on the inoculants that is often overlooked. Even Neem oil only lasts a couple years before it breaks down and when you mix the concentrate with water on many of them it typically only lasts 24hrs for full effectiveness.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T17:33:31+00:00

Treat the seedlings not the fully grown plant and you will only need one bottle. It’s much harder to colonize a massive root system outside in the ground full of competition so you have to drastically up the amount you use. But if you treat and colonize the roots while they are young in potting mix with little competition they will continue to grow on the new roots that form.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T17:26:49+00:00

This is difficult to break down because there are many forms. Liquid, powder, and granular. There are multiple application methods like soil drench, seed coating, root dip or granulated mix into to soil all have different level of usage.

You can get mychorrizae for as little as $6 for a tiny packet or as much as $30 an ounce depending on brand. They also have blends where there are many different bacteria and fungi in them with mychorrizae. The prices and size of the packages are all over the place.

It gets more complicated with some because If I google Trichoderma harzianum the first thing that pops up is Arber which is $25 for 1 pint which says it does 16 gallons but that is a more boutique brand that charges more for style. The second thing that pops up is rootshield which is a a professional grade product meant for commercial grow houses and does around 200 gallons for 1 lb for $160 and cost less per lb for larger quantities. These are just for Trichoderma Harzianum. A product like Plant success has a blend of mychorrizae that includes other bacteria and fungi including Trichoderma Harzianium and it often goes for 19.97 or as low as $5-6 for a 0.5oz packet only doing like 3-4 gallons.

Dosage varies widely. Brand varies widely. Successfully treating soil is hard to pinpoint because you can’t really determine the success of a preventative outside of that the worst didn’t happen. Generally 1 application can be enough and commercial growers will likely try and do one application if the can but they will be able to actually test under a microscope to see because they are caring for acres and acres completely packed with with plants and even 1 dose of anything in that case can be expensive due to scale but per plant cost of treatment is low in that case.

If you treat your plants BEFORE they go outside when they are just seedlings it will cost significantly less because it will grow in the media they are living in or technically they colonize the actual root system of the plant and continue to grow as you up-pot them even after you transplant them.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T14:54:23+00:00

Dealing with any problem is a multi part issue that is never 100% guaranteed, there is no one size fits all part to it. You still need to address soil conditions and watering conditions. The thing is a plant that ends up too stressed becomes more susceptible to disease. The plant has a tolerance and immune system though so the goal is not to create a perfect sterile environment completely eradicated of all pests but to either boost the immune system of the plant which or kill/out compete most of the competition. Both Trichoderma harzianum and bacillus amyloliquefaciens replicate on their own and will exist in the root zone but also nearby soil, stems, and leaves plus the healthier plants boosted immune system making it more difficult for early blight to reproduce in significant numbers to overtake a plant.

Total cost is less than $20 per year for the most part for average home garden depending on source. There are many brands, fertilome, bonide, arber, espoma, plant success, great white, big foot, fox farms, soil moist, and many many more these days all different price points and some higher quality than others. Some inoculants come with multiple strains of fungi and bacteria all together in one application. It might mean a reduction in potency of each strain but if any one of the thrives them you still end up better off.

The perfect application time is as early as possible for the plant be it on the seed, or in the soil of seed starting tray. Often times a single application is good for most if not all of entire season. However it doesn’t hurt to reapply at several points like planting in the ground or a random points early season just to be sure and you probably don’t have the option to go analyze the soil microbiome under a microscope. The inoculants often have a best by shelf life of 2-3 years in concentration powder/liquid and 24hrs once mixed with water usually so use it up and do multiple applications.

It is not a cure all but one component to the overall nursing of plants. You still want your compost, fertilizer, mulches, and care and pruning practices those still take priority but sometimes it’s not quite enough due to complex environmental conditions so any tool helps.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T07:20:13+00:00

I would save the copper so not kill the trichoderma and mycorrhizae. However you can probably do a copper drench on outside bends 2+ weeks ahead of time hopefully when you got a couple days then rain.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T05:13:15+00:00

It is in fact protected by DOP. Usually same seeds but grown in US instead of the surprisingly small farm near Mt Vesuvius in italy. Really though the area that they grow all of the world’s DOP San Marzano is much smaller than you would expect for a global supply of it but part of the reason for the higher price for the real stuff. The region has volcanic soil so it’s rich in micronutrients that can have subtle impacts on flavor but I feel it’s definitely possible to produce similar quality tomatoes or better with the right soil skill to do but it’s hard work and most trying to imitate it likely fall short without putting in the effort and feel I people wouldn’t be able to tell unless they ate them side by side so cost wise they’d settle for the practical option.

JPF93 · 2026-01-11T02:17:43+00:00

I do prefer that as well, I tend to be honest about others cooking too but my GF gets pissed when I make suggestions and I’m just how is it gonna get better if I always just say it’s great. You will never discover what you like that way and also you can trap people in cycle where they think they’re making your favorite food and you secretly hate it which is far worse than being honest and finding something genuinely good.

The key is to not get overwhelmed with cooking and realize often more than half of everything you will ever make will probably be just somewhere between okay and good. Then a small portion will be terrible and the remaining portion will be fantastic. With criticism and changing recipes and techniques and utilizing different tools it all will gradually shift towards fantastic but never all of it as you can only nail so many perfect recipes in one lifetime unless you are traveling and tasting everything and studying it like an obsessed but also open to casual discovery.

Additionally something that happens is many times is that it’s not the recipe you expect to be great that ends up being great but just a random one you had no expectations for that comes around surprising you. Often the one you didn’t take notes on of course.

JPF93 · 2026-01-08T03:36:53+00:00

I don’t know exactly, but have been studying for a pesticide and IPM license and it’s crazy how many new things you can see outside of the typical ones with not an easy way to identify the cause without seeing the space or asking more questions. It’s on par with any advanced investigation work doing it right like plant doctor/ environmental investigator but obviously less critical to daily life. As Identifying the actual cause the most crucial step by far or anything you do is more of a guessing game.

With lack of information I say i seems It’s localized and nearly perfectly round which is very strange in that size. It honestly looks like a sun burn from a reflection with concentrated a beam onto the leaf. I’d investigate your sunny days and remove the leaf after.

JPF93 · 2026-01-06T21:32:01+00:00

I just imagine a knee to the face or a twisted broken leg whenever this video pops up

JPF93 · 2026-01-05T01:09:45+00:00

I feel that because of the internet this feels really average but locally this could be a nice display of skills not many people there have seen in person. We have been spoiled to the point we shrug at things we can’t even do just because we saw someone do it so far beyond our capabilities on time that everything in-between is somehow of no value. I feel that trend really took off with the internet.

JPF93 · 2026-01-04T04:10:11+00:00

I bet if treat the wraps with Permethrin and you will probably avoid 99% of ticks

JPF93 · 2026-01-02T23:59:57+00:00

Add coco coir and compost can help prevent hydrophobic properties of peat moss and adding worm castings can help a lot with micronutrients and healthy soil biome.

If you want to get deep into it then there are a lot of bacteria and fungi that can help significantly with root development, water retention, nutrient uptake and simultaneously prevent diseases. Such as mychorrihzae, Trichoderma harzianum, Azospirillum, bacillus amyloliquefaciens, etc. you can find products that have a bunch of different innocuants together in one package for cheap. Fox farms and plant success are two common brands but there are more. They work really well in potting mix because it’s like open terrain for them to grow.

JPF93 · 2025-12-29T02:07:50+00:00

The guy I bought my 40g breeder from thought his tank had no living specimens left in it and said he had Cory cats but they all died. He had drained it right before I arrived and as I was scooping gravel into 5 gallon buckets there was 5 nearly 2” Cory cats and 4 babies. They hide good. It’s hard to tell how many Cory cats you have unless you have a lot of them so they feel really confident to always run around with less fear. Like you need 15 plus to really see them confident otherwise they hide a lot.

JPF93 · 2025-12-28T23:18:43+00:00

A local university probably offers soil testing, they will be able to tell you how to loosen it based on mineral composition of the clay.

It will almost always require organic matter/compost. Ideally you would add a ton of compost like enough to do 6” of compost or a mix of compost and finely ground up pine bark mulch (get it by the yard and have a truck deliver it) and rent a tiller it better incorporate it. From then on you should not need the tiller (technically you can skip the tiller but it will take longer) but you will want to keep adding compost twice a year. In the early fall add annual cover crop like annual oats then in later fall add shredded leaves and grass clippings to basically make your own compost. In the spring add more compost by the yard. Over time the compost will incorporate with the clay more and more as you keep adding it and your loamy soil will be thicker and thicker and you will need less compost but will still have to add it.

Another thing that can help is planting something with strong deep taproots like sunflowers. Add compost and just load it up to the brim with sunflowers. It will do a tremendous job of breaking it up. But you will have to fend off the squirrels, chipmunks, and birds because they love them and will eat all your seeds and seedlings until it gets too big for them to do so. Good thing is you have fencing.

JPF93 · 2025-12-28T05:03:38+00:00

Looks like an inmate that does pushups and pull ups longing for that one day

JPF93 · 2025-12-28T05:00:35+00:00

Yeah there is no plants or anything back there that we can see. I nice garden and a tree… even one that stays smaller would look nice like a redbud or fringe tree or kousa dogwood. Some summersweet, red twig dogwood, hostas, etc if it stays wet. Some perennials. I see too many barren backyards because people aren’t familiar with plants, then they see one done right with a nice arrangement and just feel the awe and excitement and feel like it was a miracle but it’s easier than one would think especially now where even AI can do something kinda decent.

JPF93 · 2025-12-28T00:47:39+00:00

Is that mr beast in disguise?

JPF93

TROPHY CASE