Inside Darnell’s Head: Should Gonzaga and BYU opt out of WCC Tourney? (Feb. 1)

“That the younger generation can say, “OK, Boomer” to tease Baby Boomers like me. What can I say in return? “OK, Millennial?” “OK, Gen Z-er?”

I use, “Okay, Millie” and “Okay, Genzer.” It works as they seem more sensitive than I am. — Talon Jensen

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson tours Spanish Fork vaccination facility with Utah County officials (Jan. 30)

Glad to see Shotco open and providing hope and vaccines to residents. Now as the Biden/Harris Administration increases the number of available doses we are on the path to less infections and deaths.

I just hope the staff do not get intimidated by supposed “caregivers” who escort their legitimate family members in hopes of jumping the line to get their vaccination.

“Sleepy Joe” is helping the American people get some well needed sleep at night!! — tom tom

Too bad the regular peasants cannot get a reservation for a vaccination. The Utah County Health system is unusable, inaccessible, and only the people who know something can get in. Don’t believe me, try getting in. Impossible! — BlazeofLight

Utah health department report shows no increase in suicide or overdoses during pandemic (Jan. 28)

The Utah Health Department is an Ostrich with its head stuck in the ground. Never have I witnessed a more inept corrupt organization then our current COVID vaccination boondoggle. They are either the dumbest inept organization ever, or they are the most dishonest corrupt organization ever. I am beginning to think it’s both. — BlazeofLight

I ABSOLUTELY professionally disagree to this! — Terri Nicole Whetstone Sawyer

Orem asking residents with land to do brownfield testing (Jan. 29)

I would not be surprised if all of the land around the old Geneva site were found to be contaminated with arsenic, lead and other poisons. I would never live in Vineyard or the area around there. I am glad they are doing this testing. — Jason Campbell

Garden Help Desk: Home gardeners face different hurdles than commercial growers (Jan. 31)

Fireblight cannot be protected against, only treated.

Bees spread it and we don’t need to kill more bees.

Many nurseries fail to inform their customers that most flowering pears and hawthorn sold in spring actually harbor fireblight due to being immediately infected with it when they are visited by bees as they flower in a nursery.

To start seeds indoors under lights with LED lights I use no less than 20 watts of LED light per square foot and for some plants I use as much as 85w per square foot.

These days light bulb companies print misinformation on the box with the wattage information. The box will say that a bulb is 100 watt equivalent for example. Those values are straight up lies designed to sell bulbs and are not accurate whatsoever. The wattage that matters is the actual wattage used, typically printed on the bulb. It is this type of wattage that you want 20 watts per square foot minimum.

You want bright light. Grow lights are garbage because they are made in a poor spectrum for plant growth. Recent study in Utah at Utah State University by Bruce Bugbee goes into this in depth and he has several YouTube videos about this.

Previous concepts stated that green light was not used by plants much at all and we now know that this is entirely false and green light actually drives the majority of photosynthesis in nature. For best results a full-spectrum white light is ideal, as that this is what plants have literally been using on this planet for over 100 million years.

For the actual light quality you want at least 5,000-6,000 Kelvin color temp and a Color Rendition Index (CRI) of 80 or more. The sun has a CRI of 100 and the closer the light source is to 100 the better it is.

Last year I planted Delosperma in my yard that I grew from seed under lights indoors. I paid about $20 a month in electricity for this for 3 months and if I bought the same amount of Delosperma at a nursery it would have cost me over $1,000.

Right now I have hot pepper seedlings under lights in preparation for the last frost date planting. They need bright light. I have over 30 types and over 50 plants. Just one pepper plant of the types I am growing (super hot plants like CP115 and Despair that make Carolina Reaper seem mild) tend to cost $20. I have plans to give out seedlings to friends in the spring!

I’ve been saving absurd amounts of money over the years by starting my own seeds under lights before I plant them out. It is so important to have bright light that I give some plants as much light as I can without overheating them. 85 watts per square foot is my standard for cacti light Echinocereus triglochidiatus var. inermis but that is too bright for Capsicum. As much light as possible is ideal as long as the temp stays under 85 ?.

I’ve done paid consultation for this type of work and have over 20 years firsthand experience with it. I get results that commercial growers typically only fantasize about. — [\/]?[X] [\]![-]![L]