Kandhi!! I remember you from the fragrance forum. NIce to see you! I LOVE all your plants and especially the plumeria, which Laura knows I have a thing for, and your Jasmines. How in the world do you avoid or keep mites at bay with such tall jasmines? That is the one thing I am so afraid of battling with if I buy some. I love them, yet know there are so many hiding spots on the leaves. That room must smell so good. That jasmine with the white flowers, is it one of the best fragrance ones? Have you ever grown night blooming jasmine? I tried once, and no matter what I did, I could not keep mites off of that 3 years ago. I was told to just cut them back and let them go wild in the spring outdoors. Is this what you do? I too have the same likes in plants in you if you have not already noticed. They have to give off a fragrance, flower, or be quite unique in color appearance on the leaves to occupy prime space in my house. Hello everyone else. I hope you all have a great day! Mike

From what I hear, this is a public garden planted with donated plants in unamended soil...don't get involved in soil testing and micro examinations of the soil as you might if you were growing a display rose garden. You sure can broadcast epsom saolt on the top of your soil and water it in...or just wait for rain. Also remember too much rain on heavy clay means pooling water....and yellowing leaves. Start now abd beg all the free compost youc an find....grass clippings, leaves, shredded wood, coffee grounds, saw dust ( but not from treated deck lumber) and pile it on between the plants. You will be surprised at the improvement in a year....and a second year will bring even more improvement. Good luck! This is a good thing you are doing...but don't drive your self crazy over it. Compost and organic additions will make all soil difficulties better....even shredded paper is good. Linda C

digdirt I think gardening should be fun, too, but people gradually come to understand more and more about what they're doing. There's different kinds of folks, and that's good. I have an analytical mind, so to speak, want to know not just that something's happening but WHY it's happening. That's fun to me! And I'm not alone. As far as BER goes, for three years I had it on every single Park's Whopper Tomato I grew. It didn't appear on any of the other varieties I grew those same years. That's when I finally began to wonder if it was the "fault" of different varieties of tomatoes and other veggies that get it under some conditions (did you know that WATERMELONS can develop BER?) and not mine! I'd done everything recommended -- prepared the soil with lime/calcium ahead of time, watered regularly, fertilized just right, waited the season out, ad nauseum. I had to discard at least 80%-90% of those Whopper tomatoes each year. Finally, I stopped growing them and started looking for varieties that didn't develop BER. That's the point -- there are varieties that don't get it, at least not to the extent of no crop produced, and in some cases, perhaps admittedly rare, maybe you can do something about BER and lessen its impact. So, it's a balance between laissez-faire, letting things take their course, and figuring out what's wrong when you put a lot of energy and planning into making your garden grow. I've been gardening for a LONG time, too, and none of the varieties I've grown developed BER except sporadically until I began gardening here in Georgia. It was bad for every gardener I spoke with last summer, all of them trying to buy calcium sprays in the garden centers! The weather must have been part of the problem since everybody has a different system for growing tomatoes. But it was the third year for me with those Whoppers and I'd had enough. And I agree -- there may be newbies for whom gardening is overwhelming, but I think people absorb what they're interested in or need to know at the moment. What that is depends on their prior experience and knowledge. The GardenWeb search function is of great value -- when you're ready with a new question, it's probably already been answered somewhere here.

I'm also growing in containers and in the ground. About half of my container tomatoes show similar signs of mg deficiency (least that's what I assume it is, the bottom leaves are exactly like your final photo). Many of my tops are more purple with rolled over leaves and purple veins. So I'd be curious to hear other suggestions. I've been spraying with epsom salt and liquid worm casing for a couple weeks. It hasn't seemed to help. *shrug* Of course, maybe it'd be worse now without. Next year I'll be adding some Epsom salt to the soil mix. Wish Raybo was still posting. I believe he has an ongoing experiment with this? Strangely, it does seem to depend on the plant. Anna's Russian, Black Krim, Krijna Oxheart, and Knin have it bad. Stupice, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Persimmon, Sungold, and Coustralee have little or no sign. All are in SWCs with identical soil and additives.