Colorado where mulching for purposes other than weed control is often discouraged Interesting. I wonder what the reasoning behind that belief is? As to grass clippings, many use them with no problems. It may depend on the type of grass for example, I don't think anyone would recommend mulching with bermuda grass. But the average lawn grass should pose no problems. Sure there may be a few seeds if you used early spring mowings while the grass is going to seed but regular mowings, no. Straw and hay may also have some seed in them but as the many past discussions here on using them will show, they are minimal and easily removed if they sprout. That is especially true if you apply the mulch as usually recommended rate of 6-8" thick. Hay is more prone to seeds than straw which is why straw is preferred. But is simply isn't available in many places so hay is the next best thing. Fall leaves can be impossible to find this time of year which is why many of us save bags of them from the previous fall to use on the garden in the spring. Check out the many discussions on mulches and mulching benefits over on the Compost & Mulch forum here. And I also linked some of the most recent discussions on vegetable garden mulching from this forum for you below. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Veggie garden mulching discussions

Until the last few years I've never grown many determinates. Most years 2-3 varieties at most. And usually one plant of each. Two of a variety at most. Although many of the market growers I know have always grown 25-40% determinates. As most will tell you I can be a little hard headed. But the last 4 years of drought has finally changed my planting habits some. The last 4 years with the drought, late springs and early heat I've only had a short harvest window early and another late. Determinates and semi-determinates have been the best performers production wise. Like Dawn stated determinate varieties vary and some will bear longer and have repeated flushes. The advantage of a indeterminate in a normal year is the continuous production. Although the initial flush will usually be smaller they will continue to set for the whole growing season. The last 4 years except in a few instances that hasn't been the case. Randy's Brandy has been an exception. This year as I expect at least some continuation of the drought cycle I'll be planting more determinate and semi- determinate varieties. When I post my 2013 list later I'll try to remember and list them as such. I haven't grown as many varieties as some but overall I'm like Dawn and prefer indeterminates for flavor and also continual production. Jay

Why is it so hard to see what I'm asking with regard to following some sort of protocol to arrive at a verifiable determination rather than "googling" peripheral or irrelevant cultural information and forcing extremely limited data to match some preconceived notion? Same or similar nonsense: 1) Astronomer finds planet in distant solar system. Planet appears to be approximately same size as Earth and approximately same distance from its sun which also appears to be the same size and age as our sun. The distant planet has a single moon approximately the same size as ours and in same or similar orbit as our moon. There appears to be a good deal of water on the distant planet and spectral analysis indicates an atmosphere same or similar to our atmosphere. The astronomer declares a high likelihood there are human beings inhabiting the distant planet ... hogwash!!! 2) Chef loves a particular wild mushroom and uses it frequently in a signature dish. He relies on a professional mushroom gatherer to provide him with the wild mushrooms, but one day the chef finds a clump of mushrooms in his back yard that look almost identical to the mushrooms he loves ... only they are somewhat smaller on average and have some almost inperceptible other differences. Chef assumes they are the same or similar mushrooms as his favorite kind and serves them up in his signature dish ... dead customers!!! Okay ... just trying here to think of some rediculous comparisons to finding two similar tomatoes in two remote locations 500 miles distant from one another and having very limited data to determine any relationship other than visual comparisons and two stories where third parties are relying on anecdotal "evidence" regarding the origin of the two tomatoes which boils down to "they've been grown 'round these parts for 80 - 100 years, and we heard they come from the Indians," or "a particular tribe was known to have had a presence" in both areas from which the two different but similar looking tomatoes came ... therefore they are the same thing just grown in isolation. Now a couple more things to consider ... Both Cherokee Purple and Indian Stripe were 80 to 100 years removed from their supposed Native American origins when they each came as seeds to the gardens of the persons who eventually set them into the SSE collection. During that 80 - 100 years that both Indian Stripe and Cherokee Purple grew independently and 500 miles distant of each other in the gardens of European-Americans, does anyone suppose that no changes occurred in each variety other than the ever so slight size difference and cluster counts? Is everyone assuming the two separate tomatoes we're talking about really remained stable and true to type for 80 - 100 years? Do we know that no cross pollination occurred? No mutations? No evolution of any sort? Come on folks ... in the 10 - 20 years these two types have been in common circulation, at least one of them (CP) has some changes in appearance and exhibitions of instability ... i.e. Cherokee Black, Cherokee Green, and Golden Cherokee. I'm not a scientist. Can someone here who is a scientist please explain the protocol that should be followed when trying to prove that two independent but closely similar cultivars are of the same genetic stock (if that's the right term) ... you know ... to where one can with something approaching certainty say that one of the cultivars "is an excellent example of (the same) variety that was grown in isolation for many years" other than simply because "(a particular ethnic group) were known to have a presence in (both regions from which the two separate cultivars came)." Okay, that's it for me. Y'all feel free to wander off into other "google-formed" fairytales, or take the discussion into irrelevant territory again.

IMHO determnates are more reliable than indeterminates... indeterminates require a longer, more successful growing season. I got more from my determinates than my indeterminates, simply because it was too short a season, and my indeterminates were smaller transplants. But in a good year where the season is long and your plants don't get any major disease that slow down or prematurely end their growth, you should get more from indeterminates. I think the more experienced growers here prefer indeterminates. Of course it also depends on variety as you mentioned.