I've learned that I know just enough to be dangerous to bystanders (when I have a hose in my hands) and innocent tomato plants alike.

Well, you mentioned peat pots a couple of times, and I've learned that they really aren't ideal to use when starting plants. :)

I like the active nature of this forum too. There are many enthusiastic and helpful people here...

One important thing I learned is to plant in a very light soil-less mix...plant roots like to spread right out and a compacted soil will not produce large healthy plants. And, that a lot of problems people have with their plants are due to watering issues.

I've learned that there are people here who are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful and have years of valuable experience that they're willing to share. Seriously, nobody else in my family is as interested in tomatoes (other than to consume them). Ha ha! Sometimes I feel so dang touched that there are other people around who have a deep and abiding interest in them. (Wipes away tear) ;)

I learned ...

... how to save tomato seeds by the fermentation method. And I saved some. And they grew!

... how to start tomatoes from seed -- and they grew!

... not to use dirt in containers.

... what Perlite is for.

... that some tomatoes have potato leaves. Never saw one before 2008, I swear!

... about the many different ways to support tomatoes.

... that I'm not the only person who can hear hornworms munching.

... about several good sources of tomato seeds.

... about Tatiana's TOMATObase, Ventmarin's database, Cornell's Late Blight pages, and many, many other sources of good info.

... about many, many -- too many! -- tomato varieties to grow. I could mention how long my List is ... but no one would believe it.

... that for some reason, I'm a total pushover for tomatoes with an Italian background. And tomatoes from Latin America.

... that I could actually enjoy a tomato that isn't red.

I learned that you can't predict or beat BER...

I was growing tomatoes for years before I started using this forum (as well as some others) as a resource and what I learned was...

I was doing a lot of things wrong and I had developed some bad gardening habits. I always had tomatoes to eat, but not as much variety, not as early, and not as many as I have now from the same amount of plants.

My major violations were:
1.) Over-watering
2.) Blindly adding amendments without first getting a soil test
3.) Over-fertilizing
4.) Planting too close
5.) Using stakes instead of Florida Weave or Cages

In addition to what I was doing wrong, I learned some good best practices:

1.) Foliage pruning and mulching to control Early Blight and other foliage diseases.
2.) Mulching heavy to keep soil temperature and moisture levels consistent (with the hopes of preventing or limiting BER).
3.) When supplemental watering is required, water deeply to promote a larger deeper root system.

The single most important thing I learned is that... Not all tomatoes are red. It seems funny now, but growing up, all we grew were burpee hybrids from seed, all of which were red. Red beefsteaks, round reds, and cherries. There is an amazing variety out there, and I now look forward to trying new varieties each year.

I originally started growing different colors as a novelty, but found that Aunt Ruby's German Green is not only different looking, but is a damn good tasting tomato. I grew some yellows (Golden Queen to name one) and gave them away as gifts and now I get requests for them, heh.

Learned alot of things, many mentioned above. My #1 fave has to be dont overwater (i.e. when in doubt, go without). Based on this alone, ive already seen substantial improvement over last year.

A little off topic, but out of curiosity, does the dont overwater rule apply to pepper plants as well?

@Donna-Yeah, I THOUGHT the peat pots to be a good idea this year. I had read on here people using plastic cups, but thought it was just to save money. WELL, after learning their ridiculous moisture wicking properties(so it's harder to know how much to water the plants), and the size I got this year worked, but were probably too small, I'm going with the cups next year. ;) Also, I was worried about the roots growing through before I was ready. Though the tomatoes were decent enough in not growing through to bad, some of my other plants, like the broccoli if my memory serves me right, had grown through too much, in my opinion, to think to take off the pots before planting.

@Rabbit-LoL! Love it. ;) But yeah, I forgot to put that! Gosh, I try so hard to not talk my husband's ear off about my plants, but it's so hard when you're so happy and excited...or nervous and worried(damping off scare anyone? ;) ). I love talking plants, even though this is my first year gardening. ESPECIALLY tomatoes! My husband is quite perplexed as to my unusually high interest in a vegetable that we're not even big eaters of. Well, fresh anyways. But we use a ton of pizza sauce and also other tomato products(soup, paste, etc.). I think I might have told him, but out of all my plants I'm most excited for tomatoes because there's so much variety! Like yeah, there's probably a dozen heirloom broccoli you could find on the internet, but tomatoes, there's thousands! I wanna be a collector/taste tester of every heirloom variety! ;) That's why, like you're saying, this forum's great because all us tomato fans can chat it up.

@Missingtheobvious-About the potato leaf varieties. I was all perplexed when some of my tomatoes came up normal and others were potato leaf. I had read about it previously, but hadn't seen pics, and I hadn't thought to check what kind of leaves the varieties I was planting had. I was all wondering when the normal leaves would come! lol Weird thing is, I don't know if it's related to the varieties I chose or what I'm fixin' to say, but this year two of my varieties of reg. leaf looked awful, had issues, etc., but I hardly lost sleep over the potato leaf varieties. Again, I don't know if it was related to varieties or not, but I can't help but now be more partial to the potato leaf tomatoes. ;)

@Homegarden-That's so cool that you had never had a tomato with a different color than red but now you're branching out. ^_^ I guess I too, when I think about it, hadn't known there was different color tomatoes until this year. I have never tasted a different colored tomato, but I have Sun Gold, Sunsugar, and Paul Robeson(or Rambling Red Stripe, label issue) growing this year, so it'll be neat to see if I taste a difference. :) That's cool you got some people hooked on your Golden Queen so they request 'em. I hope to have a taste test this year for friends and family with my twelve varieties(and others if friends or family wanna donate a tom or two to the mini event). If I got requests as to what to grow next year, I'd be so flattered! ^_^

@Cdon-I hope that's not true about pepper plants! I've been trying to water more because I thought I had read somewhere that, by doing so, you create a hotter pepper. But maybe someone else might know for sure. By the way, like the slogan. I'll have to remember it.

I learned a bunch of things, but my favorite is discovering all the different varieties. Black tomatoes...who knew!

1. Cattle panels and remesh and FL weave oh my!

2. Septoria and bacterial speck and early blight, late blight - I just knew before if my tomatoes were sick but not what it was or what to do (though last year it was too late to do anything).

3. What a "breaker" tomato is (actually, I think that was over on Harvest, but it was Dave who told me - Dave has a wealth of information!) and how to ripen them. Also on Harvest but worth mentioning here - pickled green tomatoes are fantastic!

Cdon,
I always say people kill their plants with kindness more often than neglect. So the same hold true for peppers as tomatoes.

Angela.t,
When the peppers actually set fruit, excess watering makes for less hot peppers. Just as too much water with tomatoes can make for less tasty fruit, and cracked fruit too. Of course when torrential rains come, there's nothing you can do.
Remy

Ah. Thanks for the info Remy! :)