craig Surprised to hear you have SRH Tomatoes on the vine. I actually thought you started way to early,if you recall I sent you photo's of those I picked in November. You haven't moved them outside have you? I also purchased some Rostova seeds from TGS this year as I am curious to see if there were any difference between the Rostova and the SRH I got from Tomatofest in early 2006. There shouldn't be any difference but I want to know. I will let you know via PM what I will have available. Based on my earlier thread,"I don't" and the knowledgeable responses I received I now have a good idea what I will be planting

Yes, even large plants can get adult damping off - or call it stem fungal disease if you prefer. Every couple of years, I get a larger transplant, growing well for a couple of weeks, with blossoms or even small tomatoes forming that gets a shrunken dried stem area near the ground, which gradually spreads over days to encircle the stem. At first you may mistake it for insect damage, though at this stage the stems are too big and tough for them. The first time I ran into it was because I had newspaper collars wrapped close around the stem to prevent cutworms, and the lack of air circulation and constant damp is a perfect breeding ground for fungus spores. Be sure you keep any mulch away from actually touching the plants stem. Often the first sign is the plant wilting during the heat of the day, but recovering at night. This can go on for several weeks before the plant succumbs. One year I experimented by spraying the damaged stem with hydrogen peroxide every few days (now I think I should have used a bleach solution instead) and though the plant never grew much larger, the Lauerer did produce some tomatoes on scrawny pathetic vines, even with the daily wilting cycle on hot sunny days. Last year I had a Chornyi Tarasenko develop it - possibly in the very same garden spot as the Lauerer, so I wonder if the spores cluster in "home sites" in the soil once they are there. I had no spare plants so late in June, so instead of pulling it I tried an experiment of mounding dirt up over the damaged area, making sure I had healthy live stem above it from which roots could form. I took the bottom out of a large nursery container and fitted it over the plant and filled the pot with dirt up to the top, hoping it could sustain itself through the damaged stem roots, while it grew new roots in the pot above the damaged area. I tried to water it often, since it was a black pot and dried quickly in the sun. For many weeks, the plant was limp and any reasonable person would have removed it from the garden due to looks alone! But the leaves did not turn crispy, so I left it alone, and finally one day I could see the leaves were getting perky. Eventually the bush continued growing well, and did set lots of tomatoes, but it was very late in the season. So the moral of the story is, these larger tomato plants can sometimes be saved -- but it's not worth it.

To the plant, nutrients are nutrients and it doesn't matter where they come from. But an organic soil will provide those nutrients over a longer period of time. Not arguing organic here, just saying that gradual and constant nutrients make a healthier plant than irregular cyclical nutrients do. And a constantly healthier plant will make a better fruit, organic or not.

Glad I found this article as I think I can really help as I have the exact opposite problems, severe Gulf Coast Sand. 1st, you get enough light, dappled light deep in the south is good. Direct sunlight down here just fries stuff. The problems your having are drainage related. Vine ripening vegtables "think tomatoe is more of a semi perinneal vegtable myself more so than a fruit", have a harder time without the light. You have that white swamp clay but it is usually VERY nutrient dense. Usually you need to figure out how to make that soluable to plants. How deep have you dug? I am guessing that 2 1/2 foot down you have a hardpan of clay, so the water doesn't really run off but its more like a swimming pool and that is likely 99% of your problem, but again its just a theoretical guess without being able to dig. The use of double wide "plantings back up to each other and a slightly wider path" traditional rows is every bit as effective as the new raised bed craze. I've done every kind of bed you can think of, I have reversed double wide rows where you plant on the low point to retain moisture because of wind/sandy soil. You should consider planting water loving vegtables and could probably really excel at winter vegtables like purple top, radishes, brussel sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, onion, leeks, etc. You would have a hard time with carrots, garlic, deep roots and or meteraniean climate. I also want to say what have you tried to grow. Tomatoes should never be the standard of a garden in the south. Ex I grow some tomatoes and they do well minus our infestations of hornworms "when they come its not worth the fight, but I let them eat "kill them manually", then what I did this week right before August is cut the tomatoe down to the base rather than pull because of the root structure. I've already gotten spring tomatoes but the tomatoes are already about 2 foot after looking like crap the last two months. I would rather have your soil than mine to boot, yes you heard that correctly. I might as well be in Arizona with salt spray off the Gulf. So you adapt, palms, kale, radishes, turnips, cover crops, sugarcane, peppers, lemongrass, in areas where I get bay salinity flooding. Yous should think of the oppostie, what needs H20. DON"T ADD SAND, you would likely make concrete, in fact if your thinking about that, try a very small spot like 2x2 first. ALWAYS do that when considering extreme measures. Mulch won't help you much because it will just keep stuff cool/damp/wet. I almost NEVER say that. I would try pontomac and a couple other Potatoe varities but I have NO doubt you would EXCEL at growing sweet potatoes because you can root the shoots in water. They grow in straight water like 10x faster than in ground. You seem to be on the right track of trying to get things many gardeners recommend like "just add compost bull and everything is okay". You don't likely need much fertilizer as clay soils tend to pack a lot". I would like to finish with use nature against nature. Change your thinking a little bit from the traditional corn and tomatoe, and think why not take advantage of the nutrients and saturated soil to have a semi hydroponic garden in your backyard. There is a guy on ebay right now selling purple sweet potatoe slips, you can get white, beaureguard, etc. and try out jerusalem artichoke. Again I think you might excel with potatoes and they may suck up some of that h20. we plant them alongside ponds in the country for fdeer plots and for us. Best of luck.