The lily beetle is alive and kicking in the Calgary area. I was already battling them last year, and this year they are again proving to be very destructive. In my experience the beetles do not go all the way to the top of the plant without chewing up the leaves from the bottom up first. So I don't think your problem is the lily beetle. Since the lily beetle is alive in Manitoba and Alberta I don't see how it would have skipped Saskatchewan. I think that some areas have more trouble than others though. In my garden only one of my lily areas have the lily beetle and not the other. Go figure? I have been dilligently picking and drowning both the adults when they first appeared and now the disgusting slug looking young ones. I hope you never get them.

"Sure did, don't you feel like a proud poppa???? It's all uphill for this little booger!!!" Tanya Yes! BIG BUTT I also want to know if anything go array so keep track of what you do next so we can study what or when something goes wrong, BIG BUTT I don't feel it will. Please? I think you could go to the next step now? Take a large styrofoam cup or any container and plant it in what ever soil you like to use. Then punch a hole just below the crown level for drainage, BIG BUTT I don't think it matters above the crown or below. I've done it both ways with no problem, BIG BUTT I'm very confident of this method. After 1 week punch a drainage hole 2/3rds down the side from the last hole, then 1 week later punch another hole 1/3 down which will leave 25 percent water retention.

1. If all tomato plants are members of the nightshade family, does that mean that a mutation occured to a nightshade plant in the distant past that resulted in the genetic parent of all tomato plants? The nightshade family, Solanaceae, is very large and has over 100 different genera that includes not just tomatoes, but eggplant, pepper, potato, petunia, shrubs of all kinds and lots of other flowers. They all evolved differently, so no, a single mutation in one member of the Solanaceae family did not give rise to tomatoes. 2. If the answer to the previous question is yes, or partially yes; does that then mean that all subsequent non hybridized tomato vareities are the result of mutation and cross breeding of mutated plants. The answer above was no, but of all the OP ( open pollinated) varieties we know, they first arose by cross pollination to form a hybrid and then some astute farmer or gardener planted out the saved F2 seeds, made selections and kept doing that until the final selection was OP, which takes from maybe 3 to 10 years. And the explanation of how that works is in the link I gave above. The cross pollination is not between mutated plants if I understand what you're trying to tell me. I've seen estimates that say about 95% of OP varieties arose in that manner and only about 5% arose by mutation from a preexisting variety. But it's good to know that there are also about 12 different species of tomatoes of which only our garden tomato and two others are edible. 3. Can a plant be reverse bred to "dehybridize" it? Can you know without examining and comparing the genome of the plants? A known F1 hybrid can sometimes be dehybridized to an OP version. It depends on how many parental genetic inputs there are, to a certain degree. There are OP versions of Sungold F1 and Ramapo F1 and Better Boy F1 and Santa F1 and some others and how close they come to the original F1 is subject to individual opinion. If the new OP walks, talks and tastes close to the original F1 that's about all one can use for assessment b'c DNA sequencing cannot be done for direct comparison b'c not all the genes in the tomato genome are known although it's an area of extreme interest and the Tomato GEnome Project at Cornell is comprised of a lot of researchers who continue to ID tomato genes, as do others not based at Cornell who then report back their findings. There have been instances where a commercial famer has maintained that seeds purchased were not what they should be and there are a few commercial labs that deal with those situations in terms of limited DNA sequencing to determine of the seeds sold were what they should be re any lawsuits that might arise. But I do know of some work, not published, where certain OP varieties are being compared in terms of origin of certain genes, not the whole genome. There is some related work in terms of evolution of tomato shape and size available and was the subject of an article in an issue of Scientific American last year and the cover picture of that issue was showing some of the results. 4. Can a hybrid plant be bred through successive generations which will result in a hybrid which will always breed true in the future? No, if you're talking about doing it via saved seed, thus sexually. Yes, if you're talking about vegetative propagation by using lateral branches, aka suckers, which is cloning, to perpetuate the hybrid. If I missed something or didn't explain it sufficiently please ask me again. Carolyn

Miracle Gro is a perfectly adequate fertilizer and should work well. No need to change it up midseason...it works from planting through to harvest. 5G is a pretty small container for an indeterminate like German Striped. I'd recommend a 15-20G container. If you leave it in that size, you will be watering a lot more frequently and therefore need to fertilize a lot more frequently. Half strength at least weekly or with every other watering.