I'm in zone 7 the tomato plants I put out in April will live a put out good tomatoes till we get frost. But I plant 50 to 100 plants each year.If I was going to plant some later tomatoes I would start them 4-15-10 and put them in the ground in 4 to 6 weeks. They will grow faster out side in the warm air and sun shine, than they will under lights.If you can get them in the ground around May 15th to June 1st that will give you from about August 15th to Oct 15th to pick tomatoes from them. And if you are Lucky they may make it till Nov. Thats what I would try to do for my area. But I am know expert. I have only been gardening for 35 years. Good luck with your garden and let us know how it works out for you.

If you saved seeds from a hybrid tomato and planted them, would the resulting plants be one or the other of the two parents? (Let's keep it simple by not having more than that.) Or could you come up with an entirely different tomato not like the hybrid and not like either parent? **** If you planted the saved F2 seeds from a known hybrid you wouldn't really get plants that resemble either parent genetically. You're assuming that there are only two parents and that was true with some of the earliest hybrids bred but is not true for more modern hybrids where there are two breeding lines, both OP, that lead to the creation of the final hybrid and each line can have up to maybe 4 genetic inputs. YEs, some have tried dehybridizing a known heirloom and I did it with Ramapo F1 , which is one of the earlier hybrids that has only two parents, and others have done it with Sungold F1 and Big Boy and Dona and others. I tried to dehybridize Big Boy but only to get out the one parent, Teddy Jones, a large pink heirloom from the midwest, and Dr. Oved Schifriss, who bred Big Boy, told me that I'd be lucky to get out only about 80% of the genes for Teddy Jones. (I've read threads where people are enthusiastically "dehybridizing" tomatoes and have wondered if the aim is to grow one or the other parent or rather a new plant altogether. I've been unable to understand what the goal is. Tomato Fest has seeds of a dehybridized Big Beef that seems to have most of the BB characteristics but is OP. It's just not clear to me if it's a "new tomato" or just one of the BB parents.) Since one can never get out 100% of the genes of any known hybrid such as Big Beef, you can only assume it has most of the traits of the original hybrid by growing both and comparing. The goal in dehybridizing known hybrids is to get an OP version that resembles the original OP so that hybrid seeds don't have to be bought. Another goal for just a few folks is tog et out just one parent, but I don't know of others who have tried that other than myself with Big Boy and Teddy Jones, although there must be others who have their own projects. The other situation is where quite a few folks now are doing their own crosses, creating hybrids and then dehybridizing those to look for interesting plants/fruits in the F2 and F3 generations, making selections, and then continuing to grow out and make selections to get an OP derivative that's genetically stable in that all seeds planted give the same plants/fruits. There are also those situations where an accidental cross has occurred to create a hybrid and sometimes folks save the F2 seeds, etc., and plant out just to see what they get. So any OP version of a known hybrid doesn't usually have all the genes that the original hybrid had. I'm linking to the website of Keith, who posts here so you can read about dehybridization and how long it would take to get nearer and nearer to 100% of the genes back. I should live so long. LOL From the home page click on CULTURE and then select what you want from the other links shown. An excellent explanation of making crosses, dehybridizing by making selections, etc. Does that answer most of your questions? Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Online Tomato Vine

First a couple of Earthboxes means 4 plants total and you are listing several indeterminate varieties rather than determinate varieties too so that will greatly affect which varieties you can plant if you plan to put 2 in each box. ie: Brandywine will take up 1 box all by itself and 2 Early Girls in one box is 'possible' but not ideal despite what the company claims. I have used several Earthboxes for years and quickly learned that some of the EB advertising is hype. They can work wonderfully well but less is more when it comes to type and number of plants in them. Question 1: probably multiple plants that didn't get thinned out properly. I would pass on those. Question 2: No pinching, Just plant them deeper. Strip off the lower leaves and bury as much of the stem as possible. Pass on the really leggy ones in favor of shorter, stockier plants. Dave

We compost everything in our garden. I have 4 bins right now. It gets very hot in the summer and I leave my diseased and weeds gone to seed in there for a month or two. Most items are composted when in a month or 2. I then move it another bin to complete the process and that bin is still 100+ most of the time. Once its complete compost, it will be put in storage been to age and used for next season. 3rd bin is setup for non disease slow slow composting. I then have another bin set up as holding bin for grass clippings and leaves that I do not have room for or when I need a hand full to cover the kitchen scraps. A master composter once told me and my class that you can compost weeds, diseased, hard woods (mulched of course)and a lot of paper waste as long as you have the proper heat to kill everything. What I do is if I am not sure or if I have serious plant disease it get tossed in the city dump trash can.