Thank you all for your comments on RoundUp and Glyphosate! I did not want to stir up an emotional debate (though I love to when teaching; there sure is no straight answer, but I think nowadays, everyone should at least have some idea about the pros and cons of the methods we use to produce our food). Though I will turn to chemical agents if necessary, I never had to resort to using it myself. I am asked sometimes by people who do, and who think they need to, and I try to advise them to use alternative methods or as little as possible, due to the reason I gave and additionally due to several of the points Erik made. This, however, is independent from RoundUp/Glyphosate itself - I would give the same advice for every chemical treatment: Read the instructions, use as little as you can and as much as you must. Your recommendations for usage will help a lot, thank you! As Tim said; every chemical has its side effects. There is progress, made mainly through the very tiresome circle of admission, monitoring, regulation, and we now know much about Glyphosate we did not know before. The big companies make mistakes as everyone does, but they, too, contribute a lot of good data - who else should pay for admission studies? Disinterestedness is a noble goal to pursue, and almost impossible to reach in applied science, but that does not excuse anyone from making the effort ... The stuff which was used before the chemicals we have now was in many cases much worse. As I tried to express, we have a new type of problem which was impossible to spot when the stuff was first developed. We never used anything in these quantities, for such a long time. And long-term, cumulative, small effects and interactions between diverse ingredients are the most difficult to see. Nils --- Just having spotted the first shoots of Fritillaria camschatcensis and Martagon Lilies; I am going to sow my Tomatoes now. Ranunculus/Ficaria is native and abundant here, and I love seeing it in the wild. I am glad, however, that our sunny, exposed garden is a little too dry for it to spread... _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>