Laura, Oops, the link didn't work and I know I looked at it right before I hit submit and it was there then. Let me try it again and we'll see if it 'stays' where I put it this time. Don't become too discouraged. We still have the rest of June and all of July, August, September and October--and probably November...before the first freeze comes. You still have tons of time to get tomatoes. Y'all still have reasonable temps and heat indexes up there, so tomato set should still occur....unlike here (my time to whine) where I have been driven in from the garden today by a measley old high temp of 90 degrees, but a heat index of 101. One-oh-one. What did we do to deserve that? Texas is getting the rain and we're getting the humidity, and that doesn't help the dry soil at all. I want to trade my weather for somebody else's weather. Your plants ought to correct quickly if it is waterlogging. Dig a trowel down into the soil right between two plants and see if it has that mucky, sour swampy smell of soil that's been wet too long. --If it does, you'll have to wait it out. --If it doesn't, your soil is already drying and your plants probably need a good feeding to boost them. I'd run straight to the store (or the garage or garden shed if you already have some plant food in it) and get them some Miracle Grow for Tomatoes or, even better, one of the Bloom Booster fertilizers like the one MG makes or Super Bloom (my favorite, and my Lowe's here carries it). Feed them to help them recover from the overabundance of rainfall. In this case, because you want a quick boost for them, a synthetic fertilizer is preferred to an organic one because most organic ferts are slow-release, and you need fast-release in this instance. The plants ought to take off and go mad with growth if their problem is a lack of nourishment due to previous waterlogging. Their leaves will untwist and uncurl and return to a healthy green. My plants last year took about a full month to start looking 'right' and growing at a fast rate after the waterlogging began drying out, but they made an amazing comeback and I bet yours will too. If you feed them, and see a general green-up or new growth, but the old growth stays twisty, then let's worry about a virus or something. Right now, though, without seeing your plants and based on your description, I just think they're hungry. It could be the heavy rains washed available nutrients out of the soil or it could be the roots have been clogged with water and couldn't take up nutrients or it could be both. When you feed them, wet down the ground and wet down the foliage so they can maybe absorb some nutrition both ways--via the roots and via the foliage. Don't give up on your tomatoes. Those plants WANT to grow and produce fruit, but the excess moisture has stopped them. All they need, most likely, is a good feeding and several days without rain to allow the soil to dry up and you'll be back on the road to 'happy times' in the tomato patch. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Tomato Problem Solver

Dream, I loved how excited you are with all the ideas (and how the Enablers here have made you need to go shopping for more stuff!! LOL) Looks like your new plates are going to very good for a number of different settings and I can't wait to see ALL of them. I think the eBay salad plates are very pretty, but as you said...too white to go with yours. (Jeanne and Dream, thank you for compliments on my vignettes and collections. I do ok with them, but truly it is darn DISHES that throw me into a tizzy for some reason! I feel like a first grader, and all of you are in college. LOL). hugs, Karen

thanks for responding- i am talking about a desktop- i do not want a laptop at this time. I guess i thought a router was only for wireless computers- so if i get the wireless card does that mean i then have to get a wireless internet plan or will the wireless card and router work with the regular dsl? For about a year the computers will be by each other and after that they will be on different levels of the house.. So is there a preferable way of how i should go meaning hard wire or wireless? And does whichever way i chose determine what kind of router i need to get or are they all the same? So this also leads me to a question and that is how will i know if my current printer will be compatible with the new computer? i only ask because i heard people had that issue with Vista. I also want to ask about the antivirus programs you are referring too. I have always used AVG..can i still use this on windows 7 or do i need to stick with the ones you are referring to. Thanks again

I am a big proponent of T5HO lights. For the price and if set up correctly it's hard to beat your bang for the buck, IMHO. I grow fruiting plants like tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas with them just fine. You just need to keep them close to the plants which is no issue since they don't put off that much heat. Many will tell you need HID for fruiting plants but that's not the case. You won't get the light penetration you get with HID though. You just have to make sure you're not trying to use them for too much coverage. I use T5HO 4' 4 tube and one fixture covers 3 buckets. You don't a lot of extra coverage other than directly under the lights. I don't have any real experience with LED lights for my own growing but have researched them quite a bit. My local hydro shop, I am there couple times a week, has some they are testing in their grow room. They seem to work really well but the big issue is cost and quality. They are even struggling with knowing what they are actually getting. Info on the units, from the manufacturer and from the distributor varies for the same unit. LEDs put out a specific frequency and knowing if you're getting what they say is difficult as well as the actual quality of the diodes. I have already seen quite a few stories, on forums, of people buying some and then testing them and not getting close to what they were supposed to as far a wattage and frequency. They were mostly the cheaper Chinese made ones but it seems a lot of them are exactly that even when they are coming from a US distributor. Just like a lot of other products! Ha! Either way would work. Or both for that matter. For coverage purposes HID would be ideal with that many plants but you'd have to vent it and would probably still have some heat issues. And with multiple lights make sure you place your plants correctly meaning you don't want a fast growing tall tomato under the same lights as a slow and short cabbage where you're having to move the light farther and farther away to accommodate one plant shorting others of light. Gotta run.