two further thoughts .... i sterilize my perlite ... in the microwave.. per the link ... also 10% on the milk jug ... just like the operating room.. cleanliness is next to godliness .. avoids mold.. mildews ... vermin ... etc.. in a month or two .. dampen the perlite.. cut jug.. insert perlite .... cover with bag.. nuke until it hits 160 ... BUT DONT MELT IT ALL ... lol ... also ... it will stay damp for a long time... but eventually.. clip off a top corner.. so you can put some more water in .... finally .... a little bottom heat will speed it all up ... and... once you get babes going.. get rid of the mom .... start cycling them .. if you succeed ... you just wont need them all ... and in late march or so.. go into high production.. and generate a couple hundred of each ... but do NOT start too early ... lol .. been there done that.. had a couple hundred plants in the high heat of feb in MI ... that is when i learned how to throw away plants.. lol ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

Hairmetal, It's finally forming new buds on the bare part of branches so it should look fuller in a couple weeks. It didn't look good for the past couple weeks with that much brown needles. What I really want is wet, wet, wet week to fill up the lakes around here otherwise we'd get hit with stage 3 watering restriction... It's been too long... Oct 31 was the last time we've gotten good amount of rainfall.

I'm still making some decisions and need to evaluate where I'm going to rotate the toms so I can figure how much space I'll have before I can figure how many plants I'll have next year. Growing next year for sure Bloody Butcher - Early, tasty little tomatoes. Was very prolific in the beginning of the season and is a bit slower now at the end. Cherokee purple- Not very prolific, but one of the best tasting tomatoes. Brandywine - like CP, it wasn't very prolific but right now still holds the title of my favorite tom taste wise. Unless I find a comparable tasting tomato, this one stays (and I'm planning on trying brandy boy next year to compare). Big Beef - BB is an ever dependable producer of tasty beefsteaks. It's also one of the healthiest and more vigorous plants I've grown. Black Cherry - I'm a convert. These are amazingly delicious. Tumbling Tom- Three tumbling tom plants in two different hanging baskets (one basket had one plant, the other had two) had me drowning in cherry toms most of the season. They're not as sweet as I like my cherries to be, but they taste good enough and produce well enough in a small space that I'm sure I'll grow again. On my will regrow if I have room list Bushsteak - My bushsteak met an early demise when the bucket I was growing it upside down in broke and smashed it to the ground. Before that it gave me a decent amount of pretty good sized toms. Flavor is decent, texture was a bit crunchier than Big Beef and there was more seeds. If I have room, I'll grow it again. Red Robin - Cute little mounding plants with really tasty fruit. I'm trying to figure out how to work more of them into my landsacping next year. Orange Roma- Produces typical roma plum shape toms on indeterminate plants. Fruit ripens to a deep yellow-orange. You know, I really wasn't expecting that I'd like OR. I'm not big into paste tomatoes and I had written off regular romas in the past. The only reason why I grew it was that I was sent the seeds free from Tomatofest. It took a long time to put it's first flower clusters out. Was the biggest and most lanky plant I had. Had some blossom end rot issues here and there... but in the end, it's still been extremely prolific and has some nice tasting fruit. It's sweet with a tart finish. If I have space I'll grow it again. Zaps 4th of July - Too similar to bloody butcher. Fruit tends to be a tad smaller overall and flavor isn't quite as good IMHO.

I've got one Yoshino cherry left that has a few blooms on it, mainly due to encroaching shade. We have been below freezing for over 24 hours so far, it will probably get above freezing this PM. Low this morning was 21F, it's been in the 20's for about 15 hours. Tonight's forecast low is 20F, I suspect it will go lower. We had flurries overnight so blooms have some ice on them, not as much as DC though. In the past my cherries have endured 16F while in full bloom and suffered minor damage, not enough to notice at a distance. The difference here this year is the numerous freezing events the past 7-10 days and the duration of this current event. I have a P.s. autumnalis that's been in full bloom for almost 2 weeks and is now past peak and "shedding". Yesterday I looked at the blossoms up close and they had no freeze damage. This AM they look fine from inside, I've not ventured out yet and my dog is getting antsy LOL.