Released April 8, 2010

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Some junipers – including Kansas’ native Eastern red cedars – are now developing what appears to be strange fruit.

The structures are actually brown, brain-shaped galls. In spring, these galls [...]]]>

Send article as PDF to

A recent call prompted me to write this list [...]]]>

I sometimes get calls from customers in a panic because their misting system or some component of it is not working correctly. Most times they have hundreds or thousands of cuttings being rooted that are in danger of dying if the misting system is not fixed immediately.

A recent call prompted me to write this list of the components of your misting system that you should have a spare part on hand in case they malfunction while you are in the process of rooting softwood cuttings:

• Filter
• Solenoid
• Wire
• Wire nuts
• Hose washers
• Batteries
• Misting nozzles
• Misc fittings

Stay tuned for a more in depth discussion of each component.

Deliver Your Digital Products Automatically &

Securely with MyDigitalDispatch!

Send article as PDF to

I had a customer call saying she was having trouble with her DIG misting controller. Very strange since she had purchased it just a week earlier and I had programmed it and tested [...]]]>

I like to think I can solve all my customers needs when they call. Truth is, sometimes I can’t. Or so I thought…

I had a customer call saying she was having trouble with her DIG misting controller. Very strange since she had purchased it just a week earlier and I had programmed it and tested it before shipping it to her.

She explained that it would not follow the program I had set. It was supposed to mist every 5 minutes and wouldn’t. Hmm…I have programmed hundreds if not thousands of these timers, did I make a mistake?

I asked her to slowly walk me through each screen and tell me what the settings were:

• Current time- CHECK
• Current Day- CHECK
• Zone one- CHECK
• Required misting duration- CHECK
• Required interval between mists- CHECK
• AM start time- CHECK
• PM stop time- CHECK

Hmmm…I asked if it arrived not working; yes, it arrived this way.

OK, so we start from scratch by unplugging and removing the battery. This erases all prior programming from the timer ans allows us to start over. I had her replace the battery and walked her through the programming. It immediately started to mist and she was thrilled. Another fine example of customer satisfaction! We said our goodbyes and hung up.

The next day she called back. The timer was doing the same thing; it would turn on and mist every 5 minutes about 1/2 of the day then not mist at all until the next day. Strange…we just programmed this thing the previous day…

I walked her through the programming again and it worked flawlessly. Whew!

Ten minutes later, she called back. It would not mist according to the schedule. She wanted mist every 5 minutes and after the initial mist, nothing.

I had her go through the settings again and tell me what they were, and I found that the controller was not scheduled to turn back on to mist until the next day. Huh? We set it to mist every 5 minutes. Why was it shutting itself off until the next day? I told her I would immediately send her a new one because hers must be defective. Very strange. I have had excellent luck with the DIG misting controllers.

I grabbed a new timer, programmed it per her original order specifications, added a new piece of wire so she would not have to do it herself, included a return shipping label, and shipped the timer overnight.

She called to let me know that she received it the next day and had it up and running. Ten minutes later she called to inform me that it was doing exactly the same as the previous one. Oh, no, do I have a bad batch of timers? Did I just overnight a defective replacement? I had tested the unit for 1/2 hour to be sure it was working correctly, what was going on?

I decided to ask a few questions before panicking. What were the settings that were programmed in the timer? As she was going through the settings, I noticed that the interval between mists was not what I had set the day before. I asked if she had changed it. Yes, she wanted mist every 10 minutes, not 5 so she changed it. I then asked if she had changed the first one. Yes, she changed it to 10 minutes, then back to 5. Now we are getting somewhere! Both units work incorrectly after she made changes.

We went to the duration screen where I had her describe what she saw. She said she saw 10:00. I asked again, what does it say? 10:00, ten minutes. AHA! that isn’t ten minutes, that is ten HOURS! She had been setting the interval in hours and not minutes! When we had first programmed it together I had asked if she was familiar with the programming of the controller and she said yes. However, she had mistaken that screen to be minutes and not minutes and hours. To the left of the colon is hours, to the right, minutes. She assumed it was strictly minutes so changed it accordingly. No wonder the timer would come on initially and shut off until the next day.

I talked her through making the correct changes and waited on the phone for the required 5 minutes she had programmed. It came on exactly as it should have. And it did again and again.

During the programming of the timer, if I had said “change that screen to read 0:10″, we would have solved the problem immediately and I would not have had to send another “defective” unit overnight. As well as the high cost of the overnight shipping, the new misting controller and wire, and the the cost of the return postage, we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out the problem. Luckily she had taken a few days off from work and could keep her cuttings moist while we tried to figure out the problem, but she just as easily could have lost thousands of cuttings and with it, thousands of dollars.

I now make a point of trying to communicate more clearly and ask a lot of questions to be able to troubleshoot the problem correctly.

Looking for a way make money with landscape plants? You will definitely need a misting system to be successful. Check out Mistkits.com for complete systems or components to build your own.

Send article as PDF to

About 6 months goes by after the new water softener is installed when I get the rotten egg smell. Oh yea, I forgot the water heater needed an new anode [...]]]>

Now that we know what the smell is and why my water softener needed to be replaced, I will explain what my plan of attack is.

About 6 months goes by after the new water softener is installed when I get the rotten egg smell. Oh yea, I forgot the water heater needed an new anode rod, DUH! I decided that rather than put money into an old water tank, I would just buy a new, more efficient one. I removed the old tank and replaced it with a bigger and better one. Finally, the smell was gone! Or so I thought…

Yep, a few months later the smell was back. I just didn’t get it. I chlorinated the heck out of the well, installed a new water softening system that removed the iron too, installed a new water heater, and I still had the smell! What was going on?

I decided to investigate and found that a water softener will aggravate the problem! Great, I had a small problem and made it much worse with the new system and new water heater. It seems that the Calcium that the softener is removing to make the water soft, causes the anode rod to be far less effective, reducing it’s ability to protect against corrosion, the same metal corrosion the bacteria thrive on!

So now what do I do? Well, I am not entirely sure yet. My research suggests a few ways to eliminate the problem:

• Replace the Magnesium anode with one that does not support the process that causes the chemical reaction

*Removing the anode rod completely was also suggested, but doing so voids the warranty!

• Install a chlorination system or simply chlorinate the well every few weeks
• Increase the temperature of the water heater to kill the bacteria

Of the three, I started with the temperature to see if it actually does kill the bacteria. The thermostat on my hot water heater only goes up to 150F, 10 degrees less than the recommended 160F, but I figured I would see if that had any effect (so much for the energy efficiency). I didn’t plan on actually keeping the temperature so high because 160F is HOT!

Well, the high temperature seemed to lessen the smell, but it was still there. I stopped by the company that installed the water softener to see what they recommend. They suggested an activated charcoal filter as the next logical step (why didn’t my research mention that ?). They said that depending on the severity of the organics in the water, the smaller filter that will fit my current whole house filter may or may not work. It was also mentioned that if the charcoal filter does work, but the odor comes back after a few months or so, I should step up to a larger filter system and the corresponding larger filter.

If the filters do not resolve the problem, they mentioned a system that would take care of it, but because it costs around $1900.00, that is the last resort. I agree. I didn’t ask about what the system does. I think I will wait to see if the filters work before I go down that road.

Grab this PDF that goes into great detail about odor problems with hot water. The PDF is courtesy of cottonwoodwater.org.

Send article as PDF to

About 6 months after chlorinating the well, the smell was back. At that point I figured the anode rod in the hot water heater was completely gone. Before I could figure out [...]]]>

The last post explained a bit about why my hot water smells. This post will explain why I had to replace my water softener.

About 6 months after chlorinating the well, the smell was back. At that point I figured the anode rod in the hot water heater was completely gone. Before I could figure out which rod I needed, I got extremely busy selling my misting systems and pretty much forgot about it. I did however chlorinate the well again shortly thereafter to be sure I had killed all the bacteria.

Then one night I was awakened by the sound of water running, lots of water. When I went to investigate, I found the old water softener tank had sprung a leak. I quickly turned the bypass valve and went back to bed, knowing I had to purchase a new softener. As I said, I was extremely busy and didn’t get a chance to work on the softener issue for a few weeks. By that time, all my white clothes were a nice shade of reddish/orange. This was obviously a result of a lot of iron in the water and decided to get the water tested so I could take care of all the issues with the water at the same time.

I called in a local company that deals with all sorts of water related issues, pumps, filters, etc. They took the results of my water test and suggested a new system that would reduce the iron in the water and soften it at the same time. This new system uses salt to treat the water. Without going into a lot of detail, the salt is used to attract the iron in the water. The softener tank has small beads that the salt sticks to because the salt has a positive charge. The iron also has a positive charge, so when it passes over the beads the iron replaces the salt, which gets carried out with the water. When the beads are “full”, a stronger salt solution is used to force the iron off the beads and the salt then again sticks to the beads. The company had me chlorinate the well again and a new system was installed which had something the old one didn’t; a tank to hold the salt. This made me wonder if the old system was actually working…

Looking to start your own propagation nursery? A misting system may be just what you are looking for. Check out Mistkits.com for complete systems or components to build your own.

Send article as PDF to

When I purchased my house in 2004, it had an iron filter/water softener installed under the house. This was my first experience with this system so I knew very little about them, but I soon learned that it would cycle on and off each evening, so I assumed it was doing what [...]]]>

Here is the scoop:

When I purchased my house in 2004, it had an iron filter/water softener installed under the house. This was my first experience with this system so I knew very little about them, but I soon learned that it would cycle on and off each evening, so I assumed it was doing what it was designed to do.

About 3 months after moving in, I noticed a smell when I used my hot water. It was quite foul and had a rotten egg smell. Having done plumbing in my past life, I knew that smelly hot water was caused by bacteria in the water. These bacteria are not harmful to humans, and the bacteria feed on sulfates in the water. Sulfates are usually caused by decaying organic matter in the water or the corrosion of metals.

I also knew that hot water heaters have a part called an anode rod immersed in the water that is made up of a sacrificial metal. This sacrificial metal corrodes at a much faster rate than the steel that the hot water tank is made of, thus protecting the steel so it lasts longer. I knew from past experience that when the rod has decayed to a certain point, it is no longer effective. This can cause the smelly rotten egg odor. Knowing this, I assumed my anode rod had corroded to the point that it was not working correctly which allowed the rotten egg odor to develop. I also knew that chlorinating the well would kill off that bacteria.

So what exactly IS the rotten egg odor? Hydrogen Sulfide. Hydrogen Sulfide is produced by a chemical reaction when  three components are present:

• sulfur
• electrons
• bacteria

(I won’t get into the details of the reaction, but if you really want to know, I have provided a link to a great PDF that explains it very well.)

I decided to chlorinate the well to kill the bacteria. This should buy me some time to locate the proper anode rod for the hot water heater. I chlorinated the well, turned on my hot water faucet to draw the chlorine into the hot water tank, and let everything sit for a few hours. I then turned on each hot water faucet in the house one at a time until I no longer smelled the rotten egg smell or chlorine.

Success! Or so I thought…

Send article as PDF to

Although mechanical timers like the Intermatic timer have been [...]]]>

Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with using an Intermatic timer. In fact, I own a few myself; one controls my hot water heater,  but if you are looking for an Intermatic timer to control your misting system, you may want to think again.

Although mechanical timers like the Intermatic timer have been used for many years to successfully control intermittent misting systems, there have been great advancements within the last few years with digital technology that far surpasses what those mechanical timers can do.

First, lets have some comparisons:

Mechanically operated misting systems have many more components and moving parts than the newer digital ones. Below is a list of components needed for each type of system.

Mechanical misting system require the following:

1. 24 hour timer
2. interval timer
3. 24 volt transformer
4. water piping
5. misting nozzles
6. assorted wire (for high and low voltage)

Digital misting systems require:

1. digital timer
2. water piping
3. misting nozzles
4. length of wire (low voltage)

So right from the start the newer digital timer controlled misting system requires fewer components to purchase. Why?

The new digital misting timers replace the 24 hour and interval timer as well as the
transformer. Along with replacing these components, the entire digital misting timer
takes up much less space. Two mechanical timers along with the transformer will take up
an area about 12 inches by 18 inches, where the digital timer will take up an area 4 inches
by 8 inches and include both timers and transformer.

Two other features of the digital misting timer worth mentioning are the ability to use the
timer to control 6 entirely different misting beds separately and the battery backup.
Mechanical misting systems generally control only one misting bed (or “zone”) with only
one program. Every cutting in the bed (“zone”) gets the same amount of mist. Digital
timers increase the number of beds (“zones”) you can mist by five times as mechanical
systems. They accomplish this by being able to have 6 entirely different programs, one
for each “zone”. Each zone operates independently of each other.

The battery backup is by far the best feature of the digitally controlled misting system. In
the event of a power failure, the battery will retain the program that was set. Once power
is restored, the timer automatically knows whether it needs to mist according to the
program, or whether it needs to wait until the next day. In the event of a power failure
with mechanically controlled misting systems, YOU have to physically adjust the 24 hour
timer to get the system running again. If you are unaware that the power had gone out for
a number of hours, the mechanical systems program will be off by the same number of
hours. Your cuttings could receive mist during the evening hours, which may lead to
stress, or receive no mist at all during the hottest hours of the day, which would surely
kill them.

Intermittent misting systems that use digital timers require only minimal supervision to
ensure the system is operating correctly, there are no broken pipes or leaks, and to ensure
the cuttings are getting the correct amount of mist. This can usually be accomplished in a
few minutes time, then you can walk away knowing the system is taking care of
everything all by itself.

So to recap:

• Digital misting system controllers require less space
• contains the required two timers and transformer
• is much safer because it uses low voltage
• can control many more zones
• has a battery backup that will retain the programming in the event of a power failure
• is smart enough to know if it needs to mist after the power is restored
• is much less expensive than the two timers needed for the mechanically operated misting system

Oh, did you notice that last bullet point? Yes, the newer digital misting timers are much less expensive then the Intermatic type mechanical timers. On average, a digital timer will cost less than $100. A 24 hour mechanical timer costs around $30-$40, and the 24 volt transformer can usually be purchased for about $20. Not bad actually, but the interval timer that will control the actual mist duration is extremely expensive, and that is if you can actually find the one you need. This timer alone is more than $100. Yes, you read that right, OVER $100 just for one mechanical timer.

So, for comparison:

• Digital timers include the 24 hour timer, interval timer, and transformer. You need to purchase a 24 hour timer, interval timer, and transformer for the mechanical system.
• Digital timers can control 6 individual beds/zones, all with different durations and frequencies. Mechanical timers can control 1 zone and regardless of how large it is, the bed all gets the exact same amount of mist regardless of the plant’s requirements.
• Digital timers immediately convert 110 volt household current to a much safer 24 volts. Every part of the digital misting system including the timer is low voltage, and extremely safe to work on. The 110 voltage that a mechanical misting system that uses Intermatic type timers is carried through both timers to the transformer where it is then converted to a lower and safer 24 volts.
• A digital misting timer has a battery backup that retains the timers program in the event of a power failure. When the power is restored, the timer is intelligent enough to know whether it needs to begin misting immediately or wait until the next day, resulting in little human intervention. A misting system that is controlled by mechanical timers has no feature that can determine whether it should begin to mist. Mechanical timers MUST have electricity at all times to be able to keep track of the time. When the power is interrupted, the timers clock stops working and will only resume when the power is restored. For lengthy power outages, this can be a disaster. When the power is restored, the timer will continue to run as if the power was never interrupted. Your cuttings may receive mist during the evening or other times when they should not. Using mechanical timers to control your misting system requires the human operator to frequently check to be sure the system is running correctly.
• Digital misting timers are MUCH less expensive than just ONE of the mechanical misting timers.

Be sure to grab a copy of the “10 Reasons You Should Be Using Intermittent Mist” title=”Why you should be using a misting system to propagate plants” free report

Looking for a way make money with landscape plants? You will definitely need a misting system to be successful. Check out Mistkits.com for complete systems or components to build your own.

Send article as PDF to

With this book, you [...]]]>

I just ran across a book that I think every gardener, landscaper, homeowner, plant propagator, and plant lover should have. It is called What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?): A Visual Guide to Easy Diagnosis and Organic Remedies and I thought I would pass along my opinion.

With this book, you can identify problems with flowers, fruits, vegetables, bulbs, houseplants, seeds and seedlings, shrubs, trees, and even lawns. The book is very easy to read and understand. It is set up with flow charts that guide you along using your answers to specific questions and is very simple to follow.

As well as the flow charts, organic solutions are given for each problem, whatever it is caused by. Then there is a photo gallery of all common problems likely to affect your plants.

I have owned this book only 2 days and already, I have identified a problem with one of my plants! Luckily, it is a very easy fix.

If you only buy one book this year, make it this one. I promise you will love it!

What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?): A Visual Guide to Easy Diagnosis and Organic Remedies

Deliver Your Digital Products Automatically &

Securely with MyDigitalDispatch!

Send article as PDF to