Last year, we grew a couple plants in an earthbox on our back porch/deck, which my parents have had GREAT experiences with. I grew up growing 20+ tomato plants at a time in our rented garden space, so I figured this would be a piece of cake.

That's how it started, with the two plants shooting up and gobbling up water at an amazing rate . . . then EVERYTHING went wrong!

Extremely hot June: Blossom Drop.

Insane Storm: Loss of a large branch and part of one stem.

Early July Vacation: Neigbors promised to water, then left on a week-long vacation themselves.

By the end of July, the plants had gone from yellow to mostly brown, only giving us a token one or two fruit (which stayed on the vine FOREVER before ripening).

Now, who knows which one of these (or all, or something else like a wilt) caused this . . . but there was one interesting thing that made me think. In late July/early August, I moved the plants across the patio AWAY FROM OUR NEIGHBOR'S AIR CONDITIONER, and they STARTED slowly coming back to life! New "shooters" came out and looked great until they finally died in the frost. They also got slightly less sun.

Do you gurus think that the constant hot air of the AC could have messed up the plants, or at least played a role?

Thanks in Advance (and wish me better luck this year),

Jon