I would love to have a few of your crosses! I have these if interested: chocolate silk akatsuki no umi bluish-purple flake kniola black and these from korea- pharbitis nil Choisy pharbitis nil L gloria I know I have some yellow ones also. I also may have a few others but will have to check. Thanks, Melinda

My next comparison was Miracle-Gro vs. Natural Beginnings seed starting mix from Gardens Alive. Chichiquelite Huckleberry - Gardens Alive left, Miracle-Gro right Chichiquelite Huckleberry germination: 3/3 MG 1/3 GA Ground Cherry germination: 4/6 MG 6/6 GA No clear winner on germination, but long-term growth was better in the Gardens Alive mix. While results were pretty clear comparing Jiffy vs. Miracle-Gro, I will do some more comparison plantings between Miracle-Gro and Gardens Alive. Obviously this is a very limited survey, your mileage may vary.

mnwsgal, do you have a pic of your mt fuji morning glory to post? could be you had mislabeled seeds, No, I don't pinch the vines to keep them short. It's been a bad growing season, nothing but rain and cool temps for close to 2 months. finally have some really hot and humid weather now and things are growing. these MG are are blooming on 3-6 inch vines. Fran

simmran1, thanks for the compliment on the pics. i've been through the tomato problem solver so much now i think i've got those pics memorized :) didn't help much here, but definitely a good resource. Dave, we did have a brief aphid visitation on our tomatoes earlier this month (among other plants...artichokes and pomegranates) a light pruning and spot sprays of insecticidal soap seems to have taken care of that. nothing noticed on the peppers... no spider mites either. we did have some ladybugs show up around aphid time :) yay! over watering was a concern earlier but we've gone from twice a week to once a week, based on the earlier leaf curl symptoms. checking with a moisture meter confirms this, the root zone was 'wet' even after quite a few days. hence the previous leaf curl on lower leaves 'overwatering' stress. in AZ i think we tend to overwater, just cause it's a desert really ;) but looking objectively, our beds have really great soil, mulched heavily and temps have only been avg. in the high 80's lately. (although we did hit 102 yesterday!!) again, I'm leaning toward under fertilization/overwatering. we've only been giving light fish emulsion and seaweed 2x/month. (after a good planting with chicken/cow manure compost) which would give a great start like we've had. i agree with you on nutrient deficiency first/ disease process later. so we'll see how this latest fert. works over the week. now for more questions if people don't mind :) Is 1 TBS/gal sufficient mgs04? i've seen recommended up to 4 TBS/gal. err'd on cautious side.... (what i most want to know) will the affected leaves correct soon or should i judge by new growth? I'm not worried about the old curled growth, thats been there for while. but the new growth yellowing and curling worries me a bit. fruit production seems right on track for all varieties. do i ride out the symptoms and get what fruit matures or cull the plants and spare the other healthy ones? ahh... the suspense of gardening!! will monitor over the next week! :) we have had major aphid infestation on our brussels sprouts on the bed next to these. we've been gradually feeding the greens to our chickens. i'm a bit hesitant maintaining a 'pest resevoir' like this just for sake of chicken feed. I would mostly prefer to uproot and toss...please advise. my feeling is to just get rid of them, but dont' want to waste resources if aphids and plants are better in the stream for chickens rather than compost. upcoming... i did notice whiteflies on some of our youngest 'tumbler tomatoes', they're in a basket and doing great so far. thanks and look forward to any more insights and wisdom:) rob