The FB that I had 2 years ago effected all three of these varieties and I had to do some severe pruining on all 3, but no fb this year. I also moved DRD, so it spent this year acclimating itself to it's new location. I expect the first fruit from it next year. This year was the first year that Cauley and Summer Banana produced fruit. I'm a firm believer that you can't tell a whole lot from the first years' fruit. I don't let my apples carry fruit, until they are at least 5 years old. I learned that from David Vernon, who sold me the trees. All of that aside, both varieties produced a fair amount of fruit. Cauley is very hard, which I like, has a slightly yellow meat and a pleasant spritely taste, which I think will get better over time. It's prococious and I had to support many of the branches. I understand that it can produce fruit that can weigh up to a pound. Summer Banana is a totally diferent apple. It's mainly a tip bearer. The skin is yellow with white flesh that is somewhat bland to my taste. I didn't smell or taste any hint of banana, so i think the name is somewhat deceiving. I wonder, if Winter banana is the same. As I said before, I don't place a whole of value on first year fruits. I chose this tree because of the name and the fact it came from Marion County, here is SC, plus both of these apples have a historical significance. it's interesting to know what people ate here 200+ years ago. If you'll allow me to reminisce, I bought Bevan's Favorite because my grandfather used to have this tree in his backyard. I can remember climbing the tree, when I was a little boy, fighting my cousin for the apples. THEY SURE WERE GOOD.

I do not support the practice promoting anything that tastes sweeter 'to appeal to kids'. Kids should be taught to appreciate different tastes because different foods taste different, and their taste buds should be allowed to become acclimatized to lower sugar content for their own health. Personally, as a science graduate, I do not like anyone tinkering with the genetics of anything I eat and I try to avoid anything that is genetically modified. As for tomatoes, I like tomatoes that have a little 'tang' as Trudi called it. To me that is a 'real tomato'. I have recently been encouraged to grow yellow tomatoes, which I did, but to me a yellow tomato is not a 'real tomato'. I have done some research lately (don't have links for the sites) which reported that generally, yellow tomatoes have about 40% of the lycopene of the various heirloom tomatoes. When I eat a tomato, lycopene is one of the main nutrients I am after. It's one of the 'super foods', with myriad health benefits. Another article suggested that one should be wary of canning the new 'sweet' tomatoes because the acid content is not high enough to ensure their longevity on the shelf. Another article warned to be wary of tomatoes that come in a package where they are all the 'same size and shape'. Apparently they are genetically modified to save on packaging (uniform containers), or machines which process them for soup/ketchup/paste and the like. Apparently, Heinz is one of the masters of this. So no offence to Ontheteam, but I will stick to my old heirlooms, although I do grow Sugary every year "for the kids"!!

Finding tomatoes that do well in the fall is a HUGE challenge and is so dependent on the summer and early autumn heat. Here are the criteria I use when trying to select tomatoes for fall: 1) Days to Maturity 2) Flavor 3) Ability to set flowers in heat In a way, you could say Days to Maturity is the MOST IMPORTANT factor and, technically, you would be right BUT it seems more important to me that the tomato be able to flower AND set fruit while the weather is still quite warm. Some tomatoes that have the "right" DTM still won't produce a good fall crop because many of their August flowers don't set fruit until the temperatures are more to their liking in mid to late September. And, there is no way to know in advance which tomatoes will or won't set fruit in heat, except perhaps based on the experience of other tomato growers in the hot regions of the country. Based on my experience in growing tomatoes in Oklahoma and Texas, I would say the best fall crops come from plants that: a) produce smaller rather than larger tomatoes b) produce on determinate plants set out earlier than what is usually advised for fall tomatoes c) are often advertised as "plants that produce all summer long", like Arkansas Traveler, Porter or Homestead 24 I generally choose for flavor, and tend to avoid all those tomatoes bred specifically to produce in the heat like Heat Wave or Sunmaster because they lack flavor. For fall cherry tomatoes I favor Sun Gold, Rosalita, and Black Cherry. For smaller slicing or salad tomatoes I usually go with Porter, Black Plum, Martino's Roma or Heidi. For larger tomatoes, I usually go with Purple Cherokee, Earl's Faux, Black Krim, Persimmon and Better Boy. Although Better Boy lacks the outstanding flavor of the heirlooms, it sometimes produces like gangbusters in spite of our extreme heat. Two of my best producing years with Better Boy, I had spring-planted plants produce tomatoes until the first frost in October, and had to pick dozens and dozens of green fruit the day before the freeze. Last year, Persimmon, Black Krim and Cherokee Purple set fruit in August and September despite our high temps that kept hitting 110 to 114 degrees. I thought that was amazing. This year I am going to try a lot of heirlooms for fall tomatoes, especially the heirloom winter storage types. I also am especially interested in seeing how Neves Azorean Red, Cherokee Chocolate, Champion and Little Brandywine do as a fall crop. In the past, Bucks County produced well all summer and into the fall but it appears to be "gone" this year, and there has been speculation in the tomato world that Little Brandywine is, in fact, Bucks County simply re-named. To get a fall tomato harvest, I do ALL of the following: In early- to mid-July, I cut back a few of the healthiest tomato plants to 12" to 18" tall and feed them a good balanced fertilizer. I keep them well-watered and they are usually flowering sometime in August and producing fruit in September In early to mid-June, I set out fall tomatoes that I have raised (in 4" pots) from seed outdoors in the heat. Raising them outside in the hot weather is hard, but it ensures they can handle the heat. I like to get these in the ground as early as possible in June. Setting them out later in June makes it more likely we'll get fruit before a freeze. I always set out a couple of fresh plants in VERY LARGE containers that can be pulled or pushed into the garage to avoid the first freeze and then brought back outside as soon as weather allows. If an early frost is threatening, I will cover two to four of my most productive fall plants with a blanket or heavy 6mm plastic. If you can protect them and get them through that first really cold weather spell of autumn, we often have 4 to 6 weeks of "Indian Summer" and will get a lot more ripe fruit during that time frame. Finally, if really cold weather is inevitable, I pull up the tomato plants that have a lot of fruit and hang them upside down in my tornado shelter or garage. A lot of those fruit will continue to ripen, sometimes for weeks! This is especially true for cherry tomatoes. Many years I pick a lot of green ones in the fall, but would rather have ripe ones than green ones (!) so anything that can be done to stretch the harvest is worth the time involved, I think. And, once in a blue moon the first fall freeze will be VERY, VERY LATE here....sometimes after Thanksgiving, and in a year like that, I have a huge fall harvest and am pretty much the happiest woman in Oklahoma!

George, I bet you're right, but I hate going out on a limb like that. Merton, I thought maybe I could find a comparison of the cucurbita seeds that would help you, so I checked my copy of Suzanne Ashworth's book SEED TO SEED: SEED SAVING AND GROWING TECHNIQUES FOR VEGETABLE GARDENERS and here is how she describes them: Cucurbita maxima: Thick seeds that are white or tan or brown with cream colored margins and thin cellophane coatings. (As George pointed out, your Lakota is a maxima so should fit this description.) C. moschata seeds are small, oblong and beige with a dark beige margin. (Your butternut is a moschata so one of your two solid tan types of seed ought to match this description.) C. pepo seeds are cream-colored and each has a white margin. Your acorn squash is a pepo so its seed should match this description. The problem is that your spaghetti squash is a pepo also, so its' seeds ought to match this description too. C. agyrosperma (formerly mixta) seeds would be the easiest to identify because they usually have small cracks in them. (They are described as white or tan with a pale margin and cracks in the skin coat on the flat sides of the skins which are covered with a thin cellophane covering.) None of the squash in your packet are agyrosperma types though. If you have specific variety names for your spaghetti, butternut, acorn and Lakota squashes, you probably could google and find descriptions of each squash, including the approximate size of the mature squash and that size might help you figure out which of your pepo seeds is which. Or, you might e-mail the seed company and see if they can tell you, by description only, which seed is which variety. Dawn