Hi, I have some aloe vera and a night blooming cerus that I would like to trade for some of your tomato plants. LMK Thanks, Pat patknln@yahoo.com

I have never had a rabbit problem, but dried blood might help if they are a problem, adding nitrogen to your soil at the same time. Hornworms are a pest and will have to be hand picked, they bite, so haul them off and squish em. Old Germans are my absolute favorite!!! I had one that was 2.6 pounds, and the best tasting tomato I ever had!! Unfortunately mine didn't start well this year so I only have Green Zebras and Cherokee Purples. I usually dig a 1 1/2 foot deep hole about 14 inches in diameter, put 2 shovels of well rotted cow manure in the hole, mix in some soil at the top, and plant my tomato. It won't matter what your soil's like, the tomato will be growing in manure. I've seen my dad grow squash in a pile of rocks this way!!! About the only things that don't like manure are beans and potatoes. Plant the tomato as deep in the soil as you can. I'll usually cut off the bottom few leaves and put it a foot deep [ tomatoes will root from the stem] . I usually don't put manure at the top because I worry about burning, but if it's well rotted and cow this should not be a problem. Happy gardening.

I planted five varieties of heirlooms this year including Dona, Jaunne Flamee, Cherokee Purple, Stupice and Paul Robeson. I was thinking of trying Green Zebra but have read conflicting stories on its disease resistance, crop production and flavor. It was actually a toss-up between Green Zebra and Carmello. Any advice. ***** Dona and Carmello were both french hybrids and I don't know if either of them are still available as hybrids. Both were introduced many years ago by Renee Shepherd. So I assume you have OP versions of both and I have grown both as the original hybrids. Stupice was bred in Czechkoslovakia as a commercial variety and there are actually four versions of it, and is not a family heirloom. It's a good early and produces well. I happen to like its lookalike Matina better b'c I think the taste is better. Just my opinion. All I can say is that I don't like the taste of Green Zebra, which was bred by Tom Wagner and is not a family heirloom although Tom feels that if anything is treasured it's an heirloom. It produces very well. As for disease tolerances, almost none of the OP varieties have any significant tolerance to the foliage diseases, which are most common, or to the systemic diseases such as Fusarium, Verticillium, etc., so I would not make a decision on what to grow based on that factor. If the choice is between Green Zebra and Carmello I guess I'd suggest the latter, which is pretty much a slightly oblate ( flattened) red with decent taste as opposed to Green Zebra, whose taste I don't like.(smile) But the choice is really yours for ANY variety you grow as to how well you like the taste and other traits as grown by you in your gardening zone with your soil, your climate, what amendments you use and all else that goes into growing tomatoes. ( smile) Carolyn

"But who wants to have to climb a 12 foot ladder to pick fruit?" and "i would climb a 12 foot ladder and pick tomatoes." Be careful there, I don't know about that (see hyperlink below). I triple stacked my cages once and haven't done it since. I didn't fall off the ladder, but I came close a few times. Garden dirt gets soft after it rains. And, you have to get the ladder out each time you want to pick fruit. It is a pain. So, I'm with Dave on this one (again). "Deer ate the tops of several of my plants unfortunately, so I am very curious." They should recover just fine, but it'll set 'em back quite a bit. A deer ate the top of one of my plants before I got the cage tops and deer netting up this year. It was quite a stretch but she managed. At the time the plant had been in the ground a couple or few weeks. Right now if I had to call it I would say the plant is going to be 3-5 weeks behind. Good luck. Randy p.s. Before it was all said and done the plants in the attached picture were between 15 and 20 feet I guess. Here is a link that might be useful: