I made one application about 3 weeks ago, and my 'garden' is doing rather poorly this year. Can't help wondering if this is why (tho we also have had lots of rain and very little sun the past month or so).

"Over the weekend, I treated my plants to the third (now fourth) application of Messenger at approx two week intervals. I applied it to about 100 trees & shrubs in training for bonsai, about 30 containers I have scattered about the garden, and another 50 or so smaller individual containerized plantings. At each application, I included a foliar feeding of 5-1-1 fish emulsion and a Daconil treatment.

I build all my own soils & have a good working relationship with them. They perform very well & I have pretty much worked out all the problems. This allows me to keep containerized plants looking near their peak potential. For that reason, I cannot say with any certainty that my plants look better than in past years, but I think they do. I can also say that I think bloom time is extended. I have 2 plantings of containerized pansies that are still blooming strongly & looking good. In past years, they had faded by this time. I have eliminated temperature as the reason they still look appealing, as we've gone through a couple of really hot spells that should have laid them low, but it could be something I'm unaware of, still. Other bloomers I regularly pot up seem to have more persistent blooms as well. All the containers are showing lush green foliage & are producing plenty of blooms, but as noted, its not much of a departure from normal. It's difficult to make short term judgments on the trees & shrubs for bonsai, so I'm observing floral stuff most carefully.

I'm usually very careful about drawing conclusions from what would surely be considered anecdotal observations, so I have to say "The jury's still out", but I'll continue to observe for the rest of the summer."

Expensive, though. ;o)

Al