What's your light level? If you don't have much light, perhaps coffee plants? They grow slow in the shade, but they do survive. And they flower with beautiful-smelling flowers, and yes, produce coffee cherries (although, again, don't expect them to produce well when kept small and in low-light situations)

Very astute, Pagan. Yes, young miniature banana tree that will bear sweet fruit, and Colocasia esculenta - taro. I have an Averrhoa Carambola/Balimbing - starfruit tree growing elsewhere--the one you see here is from same family, Averrhoa Bilimbi. Locals only know it as "pickle" tree because the fruit looks like a pickle and is extremely sour. The coconut palm fronds look abnormal because the heart is being eaten by Rhinoceros beetles. --------------- Adenium seedlings . . . I had to repot all my seedlings when I found Rhino beetle larvae. The beetles are attracted to and lay their offspring in organic media. When seedlings were repotted into media containing 60% perlite, the beetles left them alone. So this is another reason organic media is not good for Adeniums--it attracts all kinds of pests. The article Rick recently shared mentions termites. I apologize, dourbest, for assuming you are a new member, when in fact, you have been a member for a couple of years (read your profile). -bong

My general suspicion and one reason I start all my own seeds is that the store bought plants are over-fertilized. If you think about it, the store will have more success selling huge lush green healthy looking plants, and why wouldn't they, the average person assumes the plant that looks so healthy IS so healthy. But the reality is that the roots are never encouraged to grow because they are #1 in a pot and #2, given ample water and nutrients, so they only do what they need to. Since the water is so readily available (most water daily) and nutrients also, the roots grow but not at a comparable rate with the top growth. When you put the plant in the ground, all of a sudden, the roots are not getting the same amount of water because hopefully you are not watering daily, and they are not getting a super concentration of nutrients, like the nursery was giving them. Thus, the plant tells the top groth to halt, while the roots grow like mad to catch up. Now on thew other hand, if you raise your seedlings the right way, with a little tough love. you let them dry out almost completely between waterings, and you only give them a couple tiny sips of fertilizer so they stay green and don't get too big for their britches. Wehn you plant them in the ground, the roots are already at a good ratio to the top growth, and they are going to go right out and look for more water and nutrients since you have been holding back on them. Now the top starts really taking off only after a day or two, and the plant grows in balance and give you a strong healthy plant with proper watering and care. Again, letting it get dry between waterings so the roots keep growing and getting bigger and bigger and deeper and deeper. And unless your soil is complete sand, you really should only need to give them a light fertilizer boost sometime within the first week after planting them out. After that, let them do what plants do and go find their own nutrients. If you are mulching with compost and organic mulch like grass and leaves, your soil should be pretty good at providing them what they need. CH

Dave, thank you for your input. I'm in Western ND, we plant no earlier than Memorial Weekend. It is a short growing season and big-box are the only sources for plants; Menard's, Wal-mart. The Early Girl is good for a short growing season and I want a medium sized tomato to put in a salad. Marketing always describes a Wonder-Plant. Can you tell me what Early Girl's reputation in the real world is? In this case, the unexpected variety is a Roma tomato, a paste tomato. In a salad, it doesn't have a lot of flavor and chewing into that thick skin is pretty disappointing too. I only have 12 plants but it is the whole crop, and the whole season, that are yielding a much less than expected return. I don't buy tomatoes in the market, the 12 plants give me the only tomatoes I'll be eating for the year. In the past, when starting from seed, I raise about 50 plants. I plant the 30 best plants in the space for 12 and thin down to the 12 healthiest plants. Each day before Memorial Weekend these 50 plants have to be put out in the morning and brought back inside at sunset. That goes on for a month. I don't mind the work too much, but I've not worked with this Early Girl too much. Can it disappoint a grower's expectations too, like mislabeled plants?