I would like to recommend you take the free online course at the NCHFP. It would be really beneficial for you. Then, you will understand more what is and is not considered safe in food preservation. You need to find recipes that are safety tested and stick with them other than to change out dried herbs and spices. The type of vinegar is fine, too, as long as they are all at least 5 % acidity. I really have found that websites such as the one given and also RecipeZaar contain so much unsafe information. Please, stick with the Ball Blue Book or the NCHFP, books that are known to be safe. People that write other recipes online and in books have no food preservation safety training. It isn't that they are not well meaning,just they have no idea what is or is not safe. Check the bottom of the link and you can find how to sign up for the free lessons. Here is a link that might be useful: Free canning lessons online.

It is normal for the bands to be loose when they come out of the canner. That's why the canning instructions say Let the jars sit undisturbed while they cool, from 12 to 24 hours. Do not tighten ring bands on the lids or push down on the center of the flat metal lid until the jar is completely cooled. Now, not to complicate this whole thing even more with yet another issue but you made this on Tuesday and didn't can it until Friday? We are just ignoring the 24 hour rule??? Granted it is somewhat less of an issue with pickled foods than with non-pickled foods but food to be canned isn't supposed to sit in the fridge for 3 days. It is either canned within 24 hours of preparation or it is frozen. So in the future, when in doubt, freeze it. After 24 hours it is "left-overs". I had assumed you went ahead and processed it after the first post and that we were now discussing eating already canned produce. Dave

Most definitely.

Alikhat, I see that you recently joined GardenWeb, welcome to the Tomato Forum. Everyone else that wants to read this post may want to grab a cuppa, it will probably be kinda long.  What part of California are you in? There's a lot of growing zones in California, all the way from 4a near Yosemite to Santa Monica's 11a. What works in one zone, may have no relevance to another zone. If you'd like answers from other GW members that are useful to you, its a good idea to include your location and/or zone in your profile so it shows on your posts. Now, on to the problems at hand. Even though kellogggarden.com lists their GARDNER & BLOOME® POTTING SOIL Natural & Organic For All Indoor & Outdoor Potting as "Ideal for indoor & outdoor potting, container planting, raised bed applications & an excellent addition to existing garden soil.” I have to wonder if that isn’t part of the issue. It is described as ”Organic, long-lasting ingredients including chicken manure, peat moss, worm castings & kelp meal. Perfectly balanced with essential plant nutrients & special water-saving formula features for excellent growth.” Mixes with manure in them tend to compact and not drain well. Your leaves could be droopy and the plants stunted from not enough air and too much water at the roots because of their water-saving feature and compaction of the growing medium. If you are in a zone like 5 or 6, and the weather has been cool, watering every other day may be fine. But, on the other hand if you are in zone 10 or 11, the plants may appear droopy because they aren’t getting enough water. GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: ”Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it’s time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don’t like being over watered and it’s helpful with in ground plants too.” If your moisture is right, it may likely be that your plants are starving. As edweather indicated, plants that are grown in any kind of container will need feeding more often than plants that are grown in the ground because each time they are watered, the water run off carries away vital nutrients. Many container growers will use a dilute solution of a liquid fertilizer every week or so depending on the condition of the plant. Additionally, they may not be able to utilize the nutrients in the “organic” mix you have them planted in because containers don’t usually have the “micro-herd” found in soil that helps plants use many types of micro-nutrients other than NPK. Looking at the stems of your plants, I am surprised the stems are not sturdier. When my tomato plants are that tall, the main stems look almost like small trees, and are 2 - 3 inches (or more) in diameter, the fine stems are possibly another indicator of the need for feeding more often. I don’t see any leaf roll, but I do see droopy leaves: When you've checked the moisture level of the growing medium 3-5" below the surface, you may have an aswer to what is going on with your plants. If it is soggy, they are drowning (and the paleness of the leaves could be an indicator) if it is dry, they need more water, if it is just right, something else is going on. Betsy