Oh jeeze. Now I really don't know what to think. New developments... First, I fertilize with a 6-12-12 granular fertilizer that says it is specifically for tomatoes. The soil was mixed with compost and topped with a peat mulch. I added more compost once about a month after planting. Admittedly, I forgot to fertilize for about a month, but did so about 3 weeks ago. I have thought about nutrient deficiency but it still could be almost anything, right? I would be happy if that were it! Water: We have had a good distribution of rain. Fairly frequent, no major dry spells. There have been a couple of very hard storms, lasting several hours, in the last month. Of course, on the off days I look at the soil and temp. and determine if I will water. For example, if we have just had a major downpour, I will skip a days watering. I do not have a soaker hose, but put my sprinkler on so that it just drizzles out (not wetting the leaves) and leave it for about 10-15 min. I try to aim for the recommended 1" per week, it is likely they get a little more than that, but not by much. New stuff: I can now see some areas that DO look like round-ish brown spots, without a doubt (good call, Carolyn). Not only that, but some of the very lower branches look purple-ish. It's faint and I'm not sure if I'm imagining it :) Also, there are some areas that have very small extremely dark (black?) shiny spots, not always perfectly round. It looks like it is something that dripped or splashed on the leaves (i.e. it's raised), maybe it is, but maybe it's the leaves themselves? There are only a few like this but they are not close together and I cannot imagine what would have dropped on them that would look like that. I took more pics and will try to post them, but I think I broke something on the laptop trying to get the memory card in and (sadly, I know) have to wait for my DH to come home. I feel bad, I know there are a hundred questions just as vague, but I'm trying. And we all desperately want our plants to survive. What will I do without REAL tomatoes this year? I should mention that before this, the plants were amazing, by far better than any I have seen in my neighbourhood (yep, I snoop). Thanks again. a sad gardener.

Catman, "NARX" doesn't stand a chance in "reoccurring mention" as only one person posting here has ever grown it. LOL! If Tom Trees were to post, that would make TWO ... since Tom and Ray are the only two growers who refer to the tomato as "NARX." In other words, don't count my picture of Brandywine x NAR as "NARX" since my picture is of the F1 tomato and Ray would have to be growing a subsequent generation from that. But I'm sure it's a great tomato! Not stable enough to depend on 100% repeat of a previous performance though. In fact, I have 20 seedlings of Brandywine x Neves Azorean Red (F4-Red-PL large fruited version) sitting right here on my desk, and I'm seeing a bit of variation in the leaf shapes between the seedlings with three sets of true leaves. I have a couple dozen other seedlings of various siblings under lights on the table to my left, each with more variations of leaf forms, etc. And over the past 3 generations (F2, F3 and now F4), I have seed some radical differences in fruit size, fruit shape, leaf forms, vine heights, internode spacing, fruit set, days to maturity, etc. Been real interesting. Looking forward to stabilizing several lines of BWxNAR and hope everyone is enjoying their current runs ... regardless of what they call it.

Sorry to have disappeared. Had to travel out of town for work. So here are some details. I used the welded wire fencing as it is sturdy enough to stand up but flexible enough to be bent/cut easily. To save your hands get a decent pair of wire cutters. You can buy this in 25-100 foot rolls at anywhere from 3ft to 6ft tall. Depends on how much you think you will use as to which size you buy. Also, how much cutting you want to do. Three foot sections give you perfect 1/2 cut (one cut to give you the 18inches) and still works well for the tent sides to use at the beginning and end of season. I use the 6 mil clear plastic sheeting and would fold it over a few times at the edges where I would attach it to the fencing. I usually used a hole punch to put a hole in the folded plastic then used string (anything that will stand up to the outdoors) to tie the plastic onto the fencing. You could use twist ties, zip ties, light weight wire. I think I tried staples and they ripped through the plastic, so something you can "tie" around the wired fence works best. Depending on how your plant layout goes, will depend on whether you need to do one around each plant or one long wrap around a whole area. I gardened using the square foot method in most cases, so I used long sections of the plastic lined fencing around up to 10 plants at a time. If you use the conduit for supports, you can either cut them to just stick up enough to support the surround (after they are stuck in the ground as deep as you can) or you can make them taller and use them to support the tent lid later. If you have a windy area, you may wish to tie the surround to the supports. If you have the supports sticking up at least 4-6 inches over the side fencing, you can slip the tent over those support poles and use that to hold the tent up. Picture a dog house. The surrounds are the walls and the tent is the lid. You just cut a small hole in the plastic right where it will go onto the lower support poles and you are set. You can also use the parts sticking up to open the tent, by setting the tent on top of the supports (not through the holes) to give some ventilation on warmer days. I wish I had photos of this set up to share, but so far I have not found any in my BOXES and CDs of photos. I'll keep looking though. The two years I did the tent over my tomatoes, I had grown them against the south wall of our house, then shed, so I hung a lean-to top (one sided) from overhang of the house instead of "tenting". I did use the tent method over my peppers though. Again, the great part about this system is it's fairly cheap and is reusable for years and years. I don't mind spending the first year to get things going, but I like to reuse as much as I can. Good luck and if I find some photos, I'll post them.

yup that is exactly one way that you can freeze them - throw them in a bag & toss them in the freezer. They sound like billiard balls clacking around in the bag when they are frozen. This method has the added benefit of helping you remove the skins - you just drop the frozen tomatoes in a bowl of hot water and you can rub the skins right off after a minute of soaking. The tomatoes will be of a softer texture, but not as bad as tomatoes from a storebought or home-preserved can. Canning salsa and tomato sauce is really very easy, you don't need a lot of space or equipment (you could get started for less than $20 if you have a big spaghetti pot and a normal equipped kitchen (spoons and bowls and such) and it is a lot more space and energy efficient way to store the tomatoes. Making salsa is easy and makes great gifts and saves a lot of money (I love salsa). Making sauce takes a lot of work, though, and saves fairly little money. But it tastes a LOT better than storebought, and you don't have to pay income tax on your savings. I just bought a dehydrator and I'm hoping that will be an interesting way to preserve the taste...