I once put a broccoli seedling on my railing and went to gather some stuff up before I went outside to plant it. I came back to find my sweet little girl cat (right now purring in my lap) helping herself to a nice fresh salad. Grr! Cats like broccoli?? Most humans don't like broccoli, and cats are carnivores! I took the seedling back up to put it under lights where it could grow another leaf or two before I planted it. It's doing fine, actually. So's the cat. I did not kill her. She's too cute. I just yelled at her. My spare room is a cat-free zone. That's where my quilting, my plants, my crocheting, and all those other delicate items stay, and the cats aren't allowed in. My thoughts and sympathies re: the Virginia Tech shootings. I have a similar back yard. I'm from Colorado.

You have to know what you're doing with rescues. And the success rate is lower than with healthy plants bought new. In addition, there is sometimes a good reason why the plant was thrown out (pest infestation, fungus, mold, other contagious diseases, etc.). Not everyone wants to hunt though things thrown out, take those risks, and wait years for a lovely mature plant (assuming that even happens). As Caro123 says, sometimes you just want a nice plant. If I were getting a first plant, I'd want to know it was healthy so as to give myself and the plant the best chance at a happy relationship. Also, when you're new to a field, it's hard to know what a good price for something is. And that is a beautiful, big, healthy-looking plant. I don't think we should be too hard on No Thanks, just help them along as requested. No Thanks, it's good that you came here. This site has lots of friendly, knowledgeable and experienced plant lovers that are happy to help. Welcome, and good luck with your beautiful plant.

Because it compacts readily and retains a lot of moisture, compost as the sole media for a container plant is not recommended at all. It could very well be that excessive moisture/poor drainage in the container "soil" is contributing to fungal issues like root rots. And unless it is properly 'finished' or aged, it could still be in the active decomposition process and robbing the plants of necessarily nutrients. There are ALL kinds of reasons why compost alone is not recommended for container plantings. Or even as a major component for any container potting soil. I'd suggest you spend some time on the Container Gardening forum and research what constitutes a good "quality" potting soil for any container growing situation. btw, I would just add that a 3G pot is going to be grossly undersized for an indeterminate variety of tomato. I grow mine in 20G pots and the roots of a single indeterminate tomato will completely fill the pot by the end of the season. And I have a very short growing season!

Thanks for the replies and advice:) To Embothrium: In hindsight, the bedding used to soak up the pet urine most likely soaked up the water in the soil, wicking away water from the tree roots. That's my hunch since the trees deteriorated in the same manner as when irrigation is turned off in this desert climate that I live in. And you're right, if it ain't broke... but because the soil in that part of the garden usually runs really dry, I somehow thought the bedding would help retain more moisture. Duh, what was I thinking?!?!?! To rifis: In the desert where I live, it takes forever for anything to decompose if I don't water it. Hmmm, I wonder what mobster treasures have been found in the desert out here? :) Anyhow I agree with you. Manually removing 30 cubic feet of bedding with or without the soil will be a lot of work but it might be the most effective option (if the seeds don't grow per toxcrusadr's advice). It took me 30 minutes today to sift a gallon's worth of soil with minimal results. No can do but seeing the rate of (non)decomposition of the bedding and the time-consuming task of sifting, I might have to remove the soil and start over as Embothrium suggested. To toxcrusadr: I live in Henderson, Nevada, an extremely dry desert climate. The bedding contained duckling urine and feces, so I'm guessing it was high in nitrogen. The leaves turned yellow and brown and new growth stopped altogether by next season even after I hand-watered throughout the spring and summer months. I dug through the soil today- dry but bedding is still intact and moist (irrigation has been turned off for a year and last precipitation was 2 weeks ago). I will take your advice and do a test run of the soil with some seeds and will post the results. That's great advice, btw!