Thanks for the ideas. I would be slightly surprised if it is hardening off issues; they'd been outside for a few weeks in gallon container before moving up to the larger container. They did experience a small hail storm (fairly unusual for this area), and at the time, leaves were clearly damaged by that. The hail damaged leaves have fallen off already though. Moreover, damage has appeared on new growth. I'll keep an eye on water. I've still only watered the one time, plus the bit of rain. The watering I did was when I transplanted them in the first place��"I should have made that clearer in my first post. I gave them each a Dr. Earth 5-7-3 fertilizer (http://www.groworganic.com/dr-earth-tom-veg-herb-573-12-lb.html) when I transplanted to the larger pots. I have not given any fertilizer since.

The first suggestion would be to grow determinate cherries which will work better with the weave system you are currently using. Mountain Belle is one such variety. Determinate cultivars will hold up better (firmer and probably better crack resistance) but will also limit choices of colors and flavor. If you want to take things to the next level, woodshed with some cultural information about cultural techniques used in greenhouses (even if you arent growing in a greenhouse/hoophouse) or hydroponic systems. Here you can learn about systems of production like a "limited truss cropping" where you remove the growing point and concentrate/limit production to a certain number of trusses only. You may have to adapt that to cherries as that is used mostly for heirloom beefstakes (it concentrates their flavor but more importantly it makes up for the difference of the lack long term cropping ability of heirlooms vs hybrids). Limited truss systems can also help overcome cracking problems. A good resource for in depth information would be a book by Dr Lynette Morgan (professor of horticulture at Massey University in New Zealand). You can purchase this book or obtain it from an interlibrary loan (NCSU's DH Hill library has it). Author: Morgan, Lynette, 1970- Title: Hydroponic tomato crop production / Lynette Morgan. Published: Tokomaru, N.Z. : Suntec, 2008. ISBN: 9780473132248 (pbk.) 0473132249 (pbk.) Call Number: SB349 .M65 2008 She also has written a number of articles for various trade magazines.

I ended up with a cherry fort - not a maze. The signif other decided to downsize the whole deal... so I ended up with a 10 X 10 area. We were starting with lawn... So I planted a tomato every 6-8 inches. I know inches... I put in: Gajo De Melon Suncherry red star sungold green doctors zebra cherry black cherry snow white Riesentraube OSU Blue Oh heavens, I'll have to go home and check again... there were others... I got a lot of people who wanted to donate seed, so I took them up on them and added them to the 'fort'. I have to take recent pictures, but this is what it looked like early on. I haven't been gung-ho on documenting this because I didn't want to document a complete failure if it happened... :) Then I went back to the original farm (without my camera) this weekend and they have extended their tomato maze - lots more varieties and much bigger this year... I will bring the camera next time I go. Again they told the kids "come back with your basket and belly full." SO cute and SO gets them excited about gardening. I want that!!! I'll take pictures tonight and post them tonight or tomorrow.

Lower leaves had a grayish appearance and were curling in, but since I posted, I moved the pot where it gets more sun, and I eased up on the watering. It seems to be doing much better now.