@Amymeme for that I have a saws-all use it one the scrub out here that gets out of hand!

Hmmm...I think I remember you saying that before. Unfortunately, our reciprocating saw is old fashioned corded. Where I need to trim is about 300 ft from nearest outlet

Hoo boy. One pissed off potential customer here. Per usual, before completing purchase I read reviews, question/answers and manuals. Found some disturbing contradictions as shown in the following chat with customer service:

10:00 AM
Amy Sharaf
I had plans to purchase 3 ryobi products: the 40V string trimmer, the expand-it brush cutter attachment and the expand-it cultivator. On reading the trimmer manual, the brush cutter attachment is not listed as possible attachment yet in the manual for the brush cutter attachment, it lists the trimmer as compatible. I don't need a trimmer, I need a brush cutter and cultivator. I need to clear my vegetable garden of brambles, multiflora rose and goldenrod, the string trimmer would not be adequate.

10:01 AM
Agent
Thank you for contacting RYOBI.

After checking with technicians, the RYOBI Expand-It attachments will not work with RYOBI 40v power heads.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

10:03 AM
Amy Sharaf
You do realize that hone depot is marketing these attachments with the 40V head. So which tools are the expand-it attachments good for.

10:04 AM
Agent
The RYOBI attachments can be use with RYOBI gas power heads.

10:05 AM
Amy Sharaf
Thank you for the information. I suggest ryobi marketing and home depot marketing converter with one another. This leaves quite the distaste in a potential customer's mouth.

10:07 AM
Agent
My pleasure. You have a great rest of your day.

Thanks for choosing RYOBI.

10:07 AM

While I like the Ryobi products I have - and have enough "invested" that I can't make the switch to something else - I also have to acknowledge that their "support" borders on useless.

In chat with Ryobi Support now (discussing an inflator I bought that crapped out):

Agent wrote:

RYOBI products are sold exclusively through the Home Depot and Direct Tools Factory Outlet, so it shouldn't have been from Wal-Mart. And with our warranty, if it is not purchased from Home Depot, Direct Tools Factory Outlet, or an authorized reseller, it will void your warranty.
 
9:46 AM

But of course you can't by Ryobi products from WalMart  If you detect an undercurrent of aggravation here, you might just be right.

Oddly, I keep most email history that I might go back to and can't find anything about / from Ryobi in History - which means I got really disgusted and wiped it all out!

Welp. The good news in all this is I discovered, after a rather impressive rant, I must say so myself, that we have a Poulan Pro pole saw. Which, in reading through the multitudes of question/answers on the ryobi, is compatible with the universal expand-it tools. And from there, that Poulan has its own brush cutter attachment. Which may, in fact, be a somewhat better tool. But. Which comes deliberately dull and needs sharpening. I do not have that skill, don't know if hubby does or not. And its gas. Pull start. Which may mean I still need hubby to start the thing

Does have a cultivator attachment but reviews are a no go. Will take other brands, Lowes has a trimmer plus line that has a cultivator attachment well rated.

Now I just have to take the Poulan power head off the wall and see if its something I can work with...

Trimmer plus line of attachments seem the safer product - made by MTD with 2 year warranty. Poulan only has 90 day warranty on attacments. And they are in stock locally at lowes.

Ive been looking at augers. I worry about my back with it. If only we had a lowes or home depot where i could rent one. Alamosa just got a harbor freight.

All this talk of power tools and at the moment id be happy just having my rake not encased in ice. One day i will buy or build a shed or do the colorado hillbilly shipping container in the front yard. Old railcars also make good storage its getting it delivered.

I don't have a shed up in the garden, do down near the back door but is a PIA to drag stuff back and forth from there. I tried leaving tools in the shop building that's only about 100 ft from the garden but hubby for pissy about MY stuff cluttering up HIS shop. So I went and bought myself this to store tools, gloves, fertilizers, hoses, sprinklers etc. This is not the actually one I purchased, that one not sold at the moment. Mine has little roll up windows in it. Some day I'd like a real, honest to goodness greenhouse, potting shed for myself. Sigh. One can dream.

https://www.amazon.com/Greenhouse-Shelves-Waterproof-Portable-Seedlings/dp/B07H89NSYF/ref=pd_bap_m_pd_ys_c_rfy_rp_crs_csi_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=3Hlbd&pf_rd_p=6204c11b-82f9-47d0-9662-9c21ca9db22f&pf_rd_r=HA4T2PJN0324MTMN9QQS&pd_rd_r=210219c6-ca58-4fc5-ae53-d6f463f6591d&pd_rd_wg=pHiuk

Those dont work with our wind, they tear. I forgot if it was harbor freight or wayfair or home depot but they have a frame kit for a 10 x10 that can either be a greenhouse or a shed. It doesnt have a roof or floor or siding, that is all separate. I was also looking at this https://www.wayfair.com/outdoor/pdp/palram-nature-4-ft-w-x-8-ft-d-lean-to-greenhouse-palr1137.html

I dont have a shed or garage or anything at all right now to store gas powered anything because i dont want that in the house. From what is going on today i may need to prioritize differently. Other side of the irrigation ditch they have a well rig going. Last fall they staked the property. My fence will not hold if the dogs are on it all day every day. Since the pandemic there is lots of building going on around here.

Waiting on stimulus checks before i can really do anything big. Because jerry is bipolar and im just financially irresponsible, the va assigned a fiduciary. I have to have a good justification to spend money like that or they will say no. Them being responsible for the bills has made it so when animal or people emergencies come up we dont have to worry about it. Mostly it just effects disposable income and thats what social security disability is for.

That's a neat little greenhouse.
Just checked some of my seed trays I started a few days ago. Even though covered with humidity domes, some of the soil dried out. The edges of one tray has germinated and is damp. I sure hope the others dried out BEFORE they germinated and not after

Emily - I wonder if that's what happened with your seeds that didn't germinate, ie, they dried out BEFORE you noticed the germination and they died intro nothingness?

Welp. I've now had 2 pool contractors decline to put new liner in, too far out, pool needs too much work. I know it's on its last legs but the damn thing holds water, the pump works, yeah, the wall bulges in 3 places but that has been stable for years. I do need 2 return lines dug up and fixed/replaced but it's been done before, don't see what the big deal is. I now have a third guy coming out, he's young so he may be more hungry... Hopefully

And. I just whacked my lower leg on the compressor just inside the garage door. Trying to keep Ami out I didn't open the door very wide. Just wanted to hang up an extension cord and not have to spend 10 minutes convincing Ami they're was no car ride coming. Quarter sized skin tear This time I made sure the flap lays flat even if it hurt to do so. Last time, on my arm, I didn't do that I just slapped a bandaid on it before Wayne insisted on cleaning and steri strips. Now I have an elevated bump on my forearm. It's starting to flatten but it's been months. Wayne estimates a year before it's level with the surrounding skin  Learned my lesson on that one.

If anything they were too wet and rotted. Usually i do stuff downstairs but i started early and i think the temp may or may not be most of the problem. Also my mj seeds are all several years old and just came out of buds so they might not be viable. The cilantro perplexes me. I replanted seeds last week and this time i bought new seeds and those say takes 14 to 28 days to sprout. Now my bunching onion sprouts are doing amazing and i have 1 mj seedling out of about 20 i planted and lucked out that its a she. I also i have 1 pink Berkeley tiedye seedling.

So a greenhouse like that would fit perfect on the south facing back deck. Im looking at what building one by hand would cost. Anything to keep me from panicking about the weird medical crap going on. I hate when doctors tell you something is wrong but not what. I had an abnormal ekg yesterday and a referral to cardio, there is speculation i have tb again and i got a referral to immunology yay

I sure hope your tb has not come back. Did you recently have a covid-19 vaccine? Or maybe have asymptomatic covid? Maybe that could account for your ekg and be transient.

Ive been having chest and rib pain for about 3 months. Thought it was something i was on, especially since my labs have been mostly normal. So i stopped everything and it didnt go away. Saw pcp yesterday because its that, 3 swollen lymph nodes that wont go completely down that popped the same time as the chest pain and rib bone pain started. So labs were elevated platelets high egfr everything else in normal range. Still ana positive. And then there is having allergic type reactions to things im not allergic too. In 2009 there was speculation at johns hopkins that i had outgrown the jra and had developed cvid (not covid). Cvid is an umbrella term for about 400 things but basically means some type of my globulins dont exist.

The screwy thing is, this may all be from the humira. I stopped it the first week of march but it may have already done damage. I know the elevated egfr is directly related to the humira.

Ugh, Emily. You've got your plate full. I hope it is nothing permanently serious and just a temporary blip. Hugs.

Yeah. The only reassurance is my pcp would have sent me to the hospital if the ekg was really bad.

2 happy thoughts are humira can cause demylinating diseas and ms and im pretty i dont have either.

My pain management tools are really helpful right now because i am afraid to take anything. If it gets much worse i might have to invest in vr gear. Short instant gratification games for me work better then any pain med in the market. Turns out it also works for anxiety of the unknown right now.

So went up to turn out the light and 2 violator kush seeds sprouted. One i know is female one im not sure

Pink Berkeley tiedye tomato

Jungle M.A.C

Husband is curious about the ekg. Specifically did it show left or right sided heart block? If so, he wonders if you could have had a lyme exposure?

I cant think if ive been tested for lyme. I cant remember being bitten by a tick in the last 10 years, but my whole life has basically been outside in the woods or around horses and both md and fl have high tick/lyme rates. I also worry about mosquito related issues because i lived in houston for a few years. And i also dont think i got covid but with being on humira that could have happened. Im more surprised i didnt get it considering ive had measles, chicken pox twice, tb, systemic strep, staph that hit my lymph nodes, and now this mystery.

They didnt tell me what specifically was wrong on the ekg but i have an appointment about that in 2 weeks. When i was 18 a yearling kicked me in the chest and my sternum broke and my heart stopped for 10 seconds. My ekg was abnormal after that but had since been normal until the other day and in the back of my mind i wonder if something happened then effecting now.

Lights are frustrating. Im trying to figure out what i want to do lightning wise, on a $200 budget and basically i need to order sooner then later.I almost am locked into led or something that doesnt produce alot of heat. Has anyone tried narrow/targeted spectrum lightning. Or any recommendations for something between 600 and 2000 watts?

And why is it that i cant ask anyone local? We have a really nice greenhouse and growing supply store. It happens to be in a part of alamosa that i wont park and leave my car in. And then there is the employees. I swear to whoever that if i have to hear " you dont have to call your pot plants tomatoes, its legal to grow pot here" again im going to throw something at someone. I can get lots of light advice about pot plants, and i probably could get advice on other things too if people weren't so convinced the other things are code for pot. That and most people that do vegetables have big greenhouses that are partially naturally lit but they also usually have much bigger budgets.

Give this a read:

https://www.towergarden.com/blog.read.html/en/2016/9/growing-tomatoes-indoors.html

"Grow light type
I wrote about grow lights two years ago. And my opinion now is as it was then: For the average home gardener, T5 fluorescent lights cannot be beaten.

Other common options include high-intensity discharge (HID) and light-emitting diode (LED) lights. Both of these cost significantly more than T5 fluorescent lights and aren’t really worth the investment unless you’re running a large-scale indoor operation.

Plus, in the case of HIDs, you’ll also need to buy ballasts, fixtures, fans, and other equipment. And the lights themselves produce a lot of heat, which can negatively impact plant growth, pose a fire risk, and even bleach fabric.

Within the world of fluorescent lights, you have a few options. T5, T8, and T12 bulbs are long and narrow — often referred to as “shop lights.” Of these, T5s (the bulbs that come with the Tower Garden Grow Lights Kit) are by far the most efficient and powerful.

You can also use compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) for spotlighting specific plants.

Color temperature
Regardless of what type of grow lights you use (*cough* T5 fluorescent *cough*), the light color temperature also matters.

Grow lights are generally divided into two groups: cool-colored, which is considered blue, and warm-colored, which is considered red. These light colors are measured in Kelvin (k) units — a theoretical measurement of temperature.

Cool-colored (~6500k) lights are good for compact vegetative growth, but not ideal for convincing plants to flower. Warm-colored lights (~2700k) are the opposite — great if you want to encourage your plants to flower and set fruit, but not the best for leafy growth.

Note: You should be able to find a bulb’s color temperature listed on its package.

If you’re reading carefully, you may have guessed that fruiting crops need red light. And that’s correct. But here’s an interesting detail: They also need blue light.

In fact, all plants need both red and blue light.

So it’s best to use a combination of cool-colored and warm-colored lights. If you’re using the Tower Garden Grow Lights Kit and want to grow fruiting crops, customer Joe Daugirdas suggested a clever idea:

Replace two of the bulbs included with the kit (which are 6,500k) with warm-colored (~3,000k) T5 fluorescent bulbs, which you should be able to find on Amazon.com or possibly at a local garden store. Then, simply alternate the bulbs: blue, red, blue, red.

This configuration should encourage balanced growth for all your plants and, when the time is right, induce flowering in your fruiting varieties.

If you don’t want to change out the bulbs in your Grow Lights Kit, you can alternatively spotlight the fruiting crops with a warm-colored CFL when you’re ready to initiate flowering."

For growing my seedlings for transplant, I just use T8 shop light fixtures that I picked up cheap at Walmart. Lights are 6500K that I bought in a contractors pack at Lowes. I'm thinking that you could mix up the "K" to get the right combination of light for fruiting.

But. I've never done it

So that is actually outdated. The temp/ color matteres less then the PAR and the florescent dont produce the uv spectrum. To do properly would take red far red blue uva/uvb white plus extra blue for growth and extra red for bloom so we are looking shoplight fixture that can handle a min of 6 tubes plus the lights starts getting expensive. I have lots of the hanging bulb shop light fixtures with different spec bulbs and a full spec 24 inch tube grow light. Im just at a loss of how to hang everything. Tried hooks in the ceiling yesterday but nothing stayed.. the drywall just crumbled. I also have what that refers to as HID i have a 800 watt soduim halide metal halide hood but it gets way hot.

I was looking at a spider farmer https://www.spider-farmer.com/collections/all/products/sf1000d maybe 2 of those. Im just waiting on them to email me back about if it has veg and bloom settings. 3 years ago i spent 300 on a 1200 watt led setup and several of the diodes melted. It does run but im worried it will start a fire. Spider farmer has warranty and the lights are fixable. Also from an electrical perspective those are much cheaper to run.

This is all practice run. Once i get the setup figured out and a little better at the mj, im going to order femminized banana kush seeds. They avg $120 for 5, and that is also where the guide went wrong. When 1 plant has an avg production cost of $200 in a 60 to 90 day period plus electricity the lights matter more because it directly effects the amount of production. Same with tomatoes.

Where im confused is PAR. Lumens and lux and color temp are alot less important then the par. All that other stuff is based off the visable spectrum to humans with a light particle size greater then 900. So most plants the 550 to 650 range is useable for above ground growth but 200 to 550 is good for root growth and anything above 750 is going to bounce off the leaf. And then i get lost.

Can't tell you on all that. All I know is that my transplants are dark green, stocky and grow well.

Seedlings are easy its when they get bigger the lights become an issue.

The season begins. Or. It did. We're starting a week of really cold weather Sunday and Monday night forecast in down  to 10-11°.  Fortunately, I've been around the sun enough times to know a March foray into tee shirt weather is only the devil's temptation and so, have not planted anything outside yet. Daffodils are all 2" tall so they're gonna get a bit of a shock but they are up to it.

Had a snafu with my grow lights. The fluorescent tubes are all 3 years old now and probably not putting out as much light. So I bit the bullet and bought a contractor's pack of GE LED t8 replacements compatible with electronic ballasts. At least that's what the box says. I put 2 bulbs in the first fixture, plugged it in, it worked. Started putting the bulbs in the second fixture and the first fixture weren't out. Finished the 2nd and started trouble shooting the second fixture starts smoking... Unplug that and try the first fixture with the old bulbs. NADA. Kaput. Burnt out my fixture.

The real kicker is, fluorescent shop lights are no available. And any leftover new stock is going for a king's ransom. So now I'm doing an experiment. Six fixtures with the 3 year old bulbs, one fixture with new T8 fluorescent tubes and a new Archipelago 4 ft LED 2 light grow light fixture. Has red and blue LEDs alternating the whole length and switchable to all blue, all red or both. I'm not terribly impressed with reviews on affordable LED grow lights. They're all over the place from glowing (no pun intended) to abysmal. Both performance and reliability. So we shall see... I'll report as info evolves.

For the moment, I have 2 shelves filled with onions, leeks, lettuces, arugula, all sprouted, and Mache not sprouted.

I have a 400 or 600 sodium Hl bulb (yellow hue), hood, ballast, power cord for sale for $100. Dunno what shipping to ny would cost. Or anyone else looking for a light.

And your refering to blurples. The blue and red alternating lights. They lack ir and uv so they cant be the only light you use. Some of the more expensive ones do have the ir and deep red. Spider farmer has ones that are better then blurples but similar in price and look similar. Look for the samsung led chipsets. Also if your house has the type of wiring that makes led light bulbs die way before they should, it will do the same to a led grow light. Other then flower stage you only need the blue or if it has options run both but not just the red alone. Red alone is for the flower phase.

You do mention affordable so spiderfarmer might not be what you want. Not sure what price range that means.