Algae are often the precursor of fungii as seeb in lichen growth where they form a symbiotic relationship. The algae sets up the conditions the fungii needs to develop. I've had trees go greeen like that before eventual lichen formation. The first thing I'd suspect in the tree deaths is the black lesion near the ground. I found one last year in a twenty year white oak, oozing wetness. Just out of curiosity, I pulled out a knife and figured I'd see what was hidden by the bark and started cleaning the gunk out, figuring if it was some sort of cancre, I wouldn't do any more harm than what was already occuring. Found some sort of fat, white larva inside the lesion. Cleaned it and hollowed out the hole (size of a golf ball out) and told the tree it was on its own. The wound looked pretty clean and dry going into winter and I'll have a look at it come spring to see if it tries to form callus. I suspect any lesion at ground level. Lost a few tulip poplar from them after only a year or two of decline.

Well, maybe it is a Calvatia--it is somewhat larger than those in the "fun with" site, but the size is close enough, and the overall shape is spot-on. Mine is well past the stage when it was white. It is all a deep brown, the whole top is open and the inside looks like rotten foam rubber--I didn't touch it. It is not like a puffball with the opening at the top that ejects spores when touched. The whole top and down the sides is one brown mass. But when I look closely, I can see how the shell has split leaving the sepal like sections of the shell at the bottom. These don't come up the sides very far. Yes, darn it, I need to get a camera! --Spruce

Wow even1, done already? I am just getting something back from my plants. Granted they are planted in less than ideal conditions. And I have some disease issues going on here. Unfortunately, I thought I was giving the best spot to the ones I was most interested in and they all died. I did get some stunted fruit but nothing I could judge by. That was Kellogg's Breakfast, Marianna's Peace, Aunt Ruby's Green (I did get one normal fruit from that one and it was pretty good but not spectacular)and golden queen - that was suppose to be early Lillian's heirloom yellow - got some small fruit from this and it wasn't anything special. Don't know if it was representative though. However, I got some Cherokee Chocolate very good Sutton White which I think was better than Aunt Ruby's Green Yellow speckled roma keeps getting rotten spots but I think I will get something yet Japanese trifle Black - just picked the first fruit, didn't eat it yet Dove cherry - nice delicate red grape type cherry Sun Sugar and Sungold - seems the same to me Black plum - nothing special, paste type chello - early yellow cherry, nice looking, not sweet but juicy, the people who tend toward the tart like this one better than Sungold. Unknown - grew among the pepper seedlings, nice big pink fruits, didn't eat it yet but it looks good - wish I knew. I'll save some seed anyway. Another unknown red medium boat shape - grew among the sutton's white. I double planted the pot and now I don't know what it is. The star so far is....Black Cherry. Wow, my favorite cherry. Doesn't have that thick skin most of the others have and great flavor. The local farmer sells a grape tomato that looks and tastes like black plum. My fruit is a cherry type and tastier. Unfortunately I planted it in the shade so I have a lot of green fruit and nothing ripe. Had a few early fruits from extras left in the pots and the one in the shade. Otherwise, a lot of green fruit...

Hank, I have grown tomatoes for 25 years on my own, and grew them with my parents and grandparents for virtually my whole life, and I have NEVER had such a bad weather year for tomatoes....although there were a couple of rainy years in the 1970s that came close to being as bad as this year. Tomato yields were affected negatively by the weather in several ways, including: 1) Very Late freezes, including some very late sleet and snow, killed a lot of plants that were already in the ground. The colder soil temps then drastically slowed down regrowth and stunted the plants. This is the worst thing that can happen to tomato plants...even some of the ones that survived remained somewhat stunted and slow to produce. 2) Excessively wet weather impacted tomatoes in several ways, but primarily by keeping the soil so waterlogged that the roots could not grow. In addition, continuous heavy rains leached nutrients out of the soil big-time, so even the plants that survived sitting in waterlogged soil were nutritionally deprived and grew slowly for a long time. 3.) Excessive humidity made pollen sticky, causing it to clump and slowing down/preventing pollination. 4.) Excessive clouds slowed down both the growth and ripening of the tomatoes that eventually formed. Any single one of these four factors is enough to really mess up your tomato production, and having all four at once is highly unusual. I would say that we are unlikely to ever see such awful tomato-growing conditions again, but.....this is Oklahoma, after all, and our weather will do what it will do. Hopefully, though, we will have a better year in 2008 for growing tomatoes. As you learned this year, planting tomatoes at the earliest reasonable time is very important in our climate because we have such a brief period of time in the spring when the nights are warm enough for pollination to occur and the days are not yet too hot to slow down/stop pollination. I tend to plant too early as opposed to planting too late, because most years I can cover up plants and protect them from a late freeze, but you can't do anything to counter the effects of the heat. If you are only going to have 8 plants next year, you probably want the ones that are most productive, so you get the most tomatoes possible in the space you have. If I were growing eight plants and I wanted maximum production for the space available, I would probably plant these: 1. Better Boy--heavy production, excellent disease resistance, very reliable, good to great flavor 2. Jet Star--heavy production, good to great diseaese resistance, usually reliable, good to great flavor 3. Early Girl OR Bush Early Girl OR Early Girl Improved--early tomatoes, good disease resistance, good flavor. Of the three, Bush Early Girl always gives me the most tomatoes per plant. 4. Fourth of July (simply COVERED in 2 to 4 oz. tomatoes all summer long)--Very early producer that continues to produce all summer long, excellent disease resistance, and fair to good flavor. Please note when I describe the flavor as fair to good that they are not bad at all--and certainly taste better than ANY grocery store tomato. They have typical or average hybrid taste, and if you have never had the wonderful flavors of heirlooms, you would think these are perfectly fine. It it just that I am spoiled by the wonderful flavors of all the heirlooms, but most heirlooms produce 1/10th of the yield that Fourth of July will give you. Bloody Butcher is an heirloom that reminds me of 4th of July although it has not been quite as productive in my garden. 5. Sweet Million cherry OR Husky Red Cherry. You probably only need one or the other of these. Husky Red Cherry is a short internode plant. Sweet Million can easily get 8 feet tall if caged or trellised. Sweet Million will give you an abundance of smaller cherries. Husky Red Cherry will give you fewer, but larger, cherries. 6. Porter is a small tomato that is larger than a cherry but NOT a round beefsteak, more of an oval salad type. Fruit are reddish-pink and these plants produce all summer long no matter how hot it gets. They are very disease resistant and VERY heat/drought tolerant. 7. Burpee Porterhouse will give you the huge, tasty red tomatoes of your dreams. New on the market and one that has greatly impressed a lot of tomato maniacs. 8. Celebrity. Chosen for its outstanding disease resistance and reliability. If you could squeeze in 2 or 3 more, SunGold is a great golden-orange cherry that produces in about 57 days, Cherokee Purple and Black Krim are heirlooms that give you some of the tastiest tomatoes you will ever eat. Dawn