Hi All I guess this is a good time to introduce myself since I feel I can contribute a bit to the current topic. My name is Chris, I live about 8 miles inland in San Diego. I grow a little bit of everything but the introduction of two little ones into my life has greatly cut into my backyard free time so I'm beginning to focus a bit more on winter growing stuff. This way I can let mother nature handle the watering while I make sure my kids don't mistake one of my pots for a soccer ball (it's happened.) I prefer to grow in the ground when I can but with the PBS seed lists I'm taking on some of the smaller stuff that can handle pot culture. Hopefully soon I'll have some things to contribute to the PBX as I can't possibly keep every seed that results in a plant. On the topic of fungus gnats I have used the sand top dressing with much success on aloe seedlings. If you have grown these from seed you know that they spend an agonizingly long time as a tiny plant and have small root structures which are vulnerable to the gnat larvae. The theory that I heard behind the technique is that the adult gnats can't dig down through the sand to lay their eggs. Whatever the case, I don't see many gnats around my pots that have the sand top dressing. I've also heard the technique recommended for indoor plants so that you don't end up with a bunch of flies in your house. I've been using another technique with aloe, and now bulb seeds which involves a modified baggy germinating chamber but I keep the system in the bag for 6 months. This allows the seedlings to grow to a fair size before unleashing them into the wild. It's working great, I can elaborate if anyone is interested. Anyway, this is a great resource, I look forward to all the posts. Chris