FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF JAN. 11, 1999:
Which documents belong in a safe deposit box?
As a rule, anything you can’t replace or that would be costly or troublesome to replace, says University of Idaho extension educator Marilyn Bischoff. She suggests: adoption papers, automobile titles, birth certificates, bonds and stock certificates, citizenship papers, death certificates, deeds and plats, divorce decrees, household inventory, important contracts, individual retirement account documents, marriage certificates, military papers, passports, wills, real estate papers and abstracts, a list of records and important papers, and the original of your Social Security card (the copy belongs in your wallet).
Which shrubs and fruit trees can I safely prune during the "January thaw"?
Warm spells during January and February can give you a good head start on your landscape, says Danny Barney, University of Idaho extension horticulturist. Apples, pears, blueberries, currants and gooseberries all respond well to winter pruning–as do summer-blooming ornamentals.
To reduce problems from valsa canker disease, wait until early spring to prune cherries, peaches, plums and apricots. Resist taking the shears to rhododendrons, azalaeas and forsythia until after they bloom.
The recommended practices for winter pruning are the same as for spring or summer pruning, Barney says. Use sharp pruners. Remove dead, diseased or damaged wood. Avoid leaving stubs: prune back to another branch. Make cuts to "open up" the tree or shrub, improving light penetration and air movement. Create a strong branching structure that will withstand snow loads. And remove some old wood to stimulate vigorous new growth.
If you’re concerned about spreading diseases, disinfect your pruners between cuts by dipping their blades into 70 percent isopropyl alcohol, available at your pharmacy. Barney says it’s not necessary to apply wound compounds.
I’m gardening on the cheap: Can I use last year’s containers to start seeds indoors and still avoid damping-off fungus?
You sure can, says University of Idaho horticulturist Bob Tripepi. Almost any container that provides good drainage can be used for planting seeds: wooden boxes, plastic flats, metal containers or pots made of clay, pulp or styrofoam. First clean them thoroughly, then soak them for 10 minutes in a solution of 1 part chlorine bleach to 9 parts water, and finally rinse them in clean tap water. If the containers don’t have drainage holes, drill two to four in the base; the larger the pot, the larger the holes should be.
An alternative sanitization method now being used by the university’s forest regeneration staff is to completely submerge the pots in 175-180 degree Fahrenheit tap water for one minute. Professor Dave Wenny says it works just as well as bleach.
We’d like to use our credit cards a little less in 1999 than we’ve done in the past, but we know we won’t be able to go cold-turkey. Are there any broad guidelines on how much credit card debt people should carry?
A common consumer rule-of-thumb is to limit your nonmortgage credit payments to 15 or 20 percent of your take-home pay, says Linda Kirk Fox, University of Idaho extension family economics specialist. If your current credit payments, including your car payment, are less than or equal to 10 percent of your monthly take-home pay, you can generally continue to use credit carefully. But if your nonmortgage credit payments are between 10 and 20 percent, avoid taking on more debt.
Examiner Mark Stephensen of the Idaho Department of Finance estimates that Idaho households, which earn a median income of about $24,000, exceed $11,000 in average non-real-estate debt. According to Fox, Idaho ranks 12th in the nation in consumer debt per household.
Carrying credit card balances for long periods of time is increasingly costly, Fox warns. At an annual percentage rate of 18, the finance charge on a $300 item nearly doubles from $30 over 12 months to $59.28 over two years.