Here's the question: In your opinion..do I really need to fertilize these plants in these conditions? Or would it be sufficient to feel the tomatoes (which I realize are heavy feeders) with a solution of compost or manure tea? I see so many points of information here and elsewhere that I admit I'm thoroughly confused. I realize the question I am quoting is from March 2006 and the thread has long since diverged into another (interesting) discussion, but I think the question posed is well worth spending a bit of time on. The question, as I read it is this: Do I need to fertilize (name the plant here) if I grow it in (fill in the growing medium here). The answer is, the plant will tell you. Unfortunately the plant won't tell you in a timely manner. It will tell you only after you notice the effects of the plant getting too much or too little of something. There really is no shortcut to experience and don't be in any rush to have perfect growing results from day one. There is always the farmer's market or grocery when the garden plants fail ;-) It simply takes time to learn what conditions a given plant does best in and all the guides in the world are, at best, approximations and often they are simply inaccurate or only accurate in the writer's growing conditions. As an example, srburk said in his OP that he realizes tomatos are heavy feeders. Now, where did s/he get that idea from? No criticism of srburk intended at all, it is a common misperception propagated by many sources. Tomatos are not heavy feeders, they are moderate feeders. This is an example of the kind of misinformation involved in gardening that is spread by many otherwise helpful and knowlegable sources. How on earth can the newbie seperate the wheat from the chaff? It can't really be done. Nothing short cuts experience with a plant. Whether or not a plant requires supplemental fertilization or not can really only be determined by the grower after observing the plant. If you know you are growing in a nutrient poor condition (like growing in containers) then you can pretty much be assured that supplementation will be required, but when growing in soil amended with organic matter, the plants simply have to be observed. There is no short cut.

Let's get away from squash for a minute and back on focus. I started my farm, and have run it for 20 years, and am starting another one now, to sell to restaurants. Only. What does that mean? 1) Know your market. I sell to high-end restaurants. There are 17 Mobil 5-star restaurants in the entire country. 3 of them have served my vegetables. They buy their lamb from 3 farms, lobster from 2 vendors, cheese from farms whose names they know and who have been written about in the New York Times. If you don't read Food Arts or Saveur, you aren't competing in that market, but any good chef in even the smallest city is reading those magazines, and so by definition that is who you are competing with. Delicata squash was 10 years ago. 2) Good restaurants don't care about price. It all goes on the menu. If a person is spending $150 for dinner, per person, it really doesn't make that much difference if your baby green beans are 50 cents a pound more than Farmer Browns', what makes a difference is that they are tastier, smaller, better color, fresher, crisper. Chefs may not know what it takes to grow great produce (many do), but most know what great produce is. In the main, it is the growers who don't understand what makes restaurant-quality produce, and that is why they don't make those sales. Chefs and farmers work on opposite ends of the clock. Good farmers are typically getting up when good chefs are going to bed. When either of them judges the other based on that timetable, both suffer. No chef worth the title is done before the last diner leaves - typically, the most sophisticated diners - those who know what good produce is - come in for dinner after 8:30 pm and leave after midnight - and spend $130 per person or more for that privilege. A good chef will not only be there to say "thank you" and "good night" to them, but will have shucked their heirloom peas and explained the importance of serving Gilfeather turnips. A grower who wants to market to restaurants has to understand this. 4) there are restaurants and there are restaurants. If all you do is grow one thing, you sell wholesale to a chain. If you grow lots of things, you sell, ideally, a few excellent things to a very few excellent restaurants. Otherwise, you spend 3 days a week driving around to many places trying to sell the same damn thing everyone else is trying to sell. If all of your produce is generated by hyperbole from seed catalogs, you're already a year behind - if you are reading food blogs and European gastronomical journals, you might get a jump on the competition. If you are talking to Melissa Kelly or Dan Brown, you might be actually setting trends for the growers who will be reading about you next year - which could be three years too late. This is the age of the internet, and the market for edible flowers in Iowa is only a precursor to the purple Rosemary blossom foam that is selling on Telegraph hill. If you're reading the seed catalogs to decide what to sell, your market is the people who watch the food network, not the chefs who are on it. 6) The restaurants that you want to sell to are the ones that are busy. This economy has meant a major shake-down for the restaurant industry - there are three sectors that are doing well - chains - grow a lot of the same thing. it must be good, consistent, and constant. it doesn't have to be great. the money won't be either good restaurants - grow excellent produce, be reliable and communicate constantly, expect excellence from yourself to not always be affordable, but have a steady income 3 excellent restaurants - arrive at 2:17 with 7.4 kilos of blanched European celery and 13.2 kilos of haricot verts, with stems attached. If you have sea-kale early in the season, or local green-house ripened raspberries in February, after cognac with the chef go directly to the bank to make your deposit... once every 5 weeks. 5) No chef wants to taste your tomatoes at 11 AM. But if you have blue radishes at midnight you might have a good conversation. Don't expect to get an exclusive arrangement if you don't have a good understanding of what they want - don't try to sell arugula when they want agretti, or Charentaise carrots when Nantes are in favor. Selling to restaurants means volume - the 10 pounds of garlic per week you read about earlier - or quality - the best tasting, hardest to find, most beautiful produce they can get. There is really no point in growing onions or carrots or potatoes or corn for restaurants unless you grow hundreds of acres or a half acre of endangered varieties - some huge conglomerate in Iowa (or Argentina or China) can do the bulk stuff cheaper and maybe even better. If you want to sell to restaurants, you have to make a choice about what you want to grow, and how, and you have to have the market to support it. I can sell my produce in Maine in July and August, but I can sell it in Philadelphia year-round, because the winter market in Philly can afford what I grow, and will gladly pay for it, but the Maine market will not - can not. every restaurant market has these same limitations. 6) Most farmers - hell, most people - don't have the budget to afford to pay me what I expect for my produce. But most restaurants have 36% of their clientele coming in for a special occasion, so on any given night it is possible that I can sell my peas (or potatoes or parsnips or persimmons) to someone who will have the chance to taste such perfect produce professionally prepared and proudly presented more than once or twice year - at best - so it better be memorable. That is why they come back, to spend $130 per person for dinner. That is the kind of produce you need to be marketing. Nobody who knows good food is going to drive a half hour to some annoying "dining room" to have a snooty hostess and a dismissive waiter sell them week-old iceberg from California, if they can drive ten minutes more for winter spinach from some teenage server who really believes in biodynamics. You have to be the guy who grows the spinach, and it has to be delicious, and fresh, and clean. That's how you sell to restaurants.

...Everyone that emailed me about getting the Naga Jolokia seeds, I will email you again when the seeds are prepared... A little bit more about my garden... Currently, it is 2 raised beds 9' x 3' When I get a little time off of work soon (probably around thanksgiving) I will combine these 2 beds (which will make 1 bed around 21' x 3'. Then I am adding up to 4 more beds (depending on how much lumber costs ect ect. Each of these beds will be 13' x 3'. Right now my plan is to have each bed dedicated to 1 pepper variety. 1 bed Bhut Jolokia (the 21' bed), 1/2 bed Orange Hab, 1/2 bed Red Savina, 1/2 bed Scotch Bonnet 1/2 bed Chocolate Hab, 1/2 bed Jalapeno (who can recomend a good Jap to look for?) 1/2 bed TO BE DETERMINED (HELP!) 1 bed Lemon Drop ... What do you guys think about 3 feet width for the beds? Is that enough to fit 2 rows of pepper plants and have them not be crowded? I have peppers like that this year, and they seem a little croweded, but they also seem to be healthy. I *COULD* build them bigger, if your advice as to if it would be beneficial to the plants (like 3.5 or 4 feet)

Yes, I'd be concerned with cross contamination as well - just as sushipup explained so well. I use a different mill for gluten-free flours (grains/beans/seeds) to avoid cross contamination and never use gluten-containing grains in it. I was hired to make a selection of GF cookies for Christmas for a person who has celiac disease, as a surprise from her husband. I wouldn't mill flour containing gluten in the kitchen for a week prior to making the GF foods, and throughly wiped down every surface in the kitchen before making anything GF. I use stainless steel bowls, rather than plastic to make sure there's NOTHING to cross contaminate things. My mother (now deceased) had celiac disease and I did a lot of food prep. to stock her freezer for her BEFORE there were so many things so readily available. There are a number of ingredients used in gluten-free baking that you're better off having than trying to substitute. These additional ingredients help to reduce dryness, increase volume and tenderness, and enhance flavor in baked goods and other foods. I was challenged to come up with cookie recipes, for a sorghum mill outside of town, that were made with "common" ingredients. WHAT, no xanthan gum, potato starch, arrow root, guar gum....??? But I did it! Instead of potato starch or potato flour I've used dried potato flakes (used for instant mashed potatoes), BUT, I made sure I found a brand at the health food store that didn't contain a lot of questionable ingredients. FYI - Potato FLOUR has a strong potato taste and I don't use it as much as potato starch. Potato STARCH, however, is often used in GF baking, especially in combination with other flours. I consider potato STARCH a staple ingredient for GF baking. Combining gluten-free flours with NUT FLOURS will increase protein and help mask the gritty texture often associated with GF flours. Nut FLOURS are made AFTER the nut oil has been expressed from the nuts and is a fine flour. Nut MEALS are made from the ground nut (oil included) and are more gritty than nut flour. You'll find the names are often interchanged, so buyer beware.... Ground almond meal can replace dry milk powder in recipes as a dairy-free alternative. You can also make your own nut milk at home to use as a dairy-free alternative. You'll find some great information and recipes at the link below. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Ener-G Foods