Thanks for the reply It is one plant, planted alone in a 5 gallon container. Yes, it has been sunny the last 2 days so it has received 6-7 hours full sun. Next few days will be cloudier and a little rainy. Temps got up to about 73 yesterday. I did not harden it off, like I said I am a novice, but I figured it was sitting outside at the nursery for several days. Only about 4-6 inches tall. It does get in the 40/s and 50/s over night right now. I did notice when I watered them more yesterday they perked up, but some of the leaves are dry. I will continue to water but am afraid to over water at this point - how do I know what to do? Any other suggestions? Thanks again!

As I read through the various postings I see a common thread that I refer to as "over-care." How I limit myself is as follows. My strategy is to properly amend the planting site to provide a suitable soil profile to the liking of the tuber. Once planted, I provide a biologic preventative treatment to foster microbial activity for a variety of reasons. At time of planting, thwarting potential fungal disease is crucial. With my soil balanced between good drainage, sufficient organic content and balanced nutrition to include a mycorrhizal inoculum. In addition, I mix up a batch of biological products to support my effort to keep my tubers healthy. So, I use Actinovate, Companion 2-3-2, Earth Juice - Catalyst, Ful-Power and Maxi-crop [liquid form]. This cocktail along with my addition of Jobe's Organic Granular fertilizer lends itself to a high degree of success. The planting site gets a lot of attention as I focus on increasing tilth through the addition of gypsum, azomite, live earth [humates], fish bone meal, kelp and composted manure. I really get down and dirty while creating these sites and love the challenge of finding the energy to do a really thorough job. In my area, unamended soil means heavy clay which if left unattended spells real disappointment over the season. Once, sufficiently amended it produces tremendous results and rewards us with a bounty of veggies, flowers, etc. Recognizing that a living soil is what provides us with a glorious garden, my effort to contribute to just that is later realized in the wellness of what it is we decide to grow for the season. Of course, I'd be the first to agree that there are a lot of approaches to how one plants and cares for their plantings. So, to this I say, find what works best for you and once you've completed the task...stand back and let Mother Nature do her thing. Analogous to watching a pot of water come to boil, we distract ourselves by weeding, mulching, pruning, and bickering all the while loving the joy of growing. [laughing as I sit scratching my mosquito bites from last evening.] I also highly recommend the use of azadirachtin products over neem oil, Monterrey Garden Insect spray [spinosad A & B] in combination with the azadirachtin and, of late, I have begun using Serenade - Biological Fungicide as a preventative in my effort to thwart gray mold, powdery mildew and the various leaf blights sometimes affecting our planting.

I don't think their stems broke because I put them around the wire ring and then tie them to it as they grow (this is the format I use http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/extension/articles/japtomatoring.html). I did this last Fall and I got over 60 lbs of tomatoes from 2 Marion and 2 Better Boy plants. It was amazing. I got the idea from Tom Maccubbin's Florida Home Grown book (the bible for FL garden, I think....) But anything is possible with tomatoes as we all know. I may have inadvertently scraped the stem, etc. Who knows. I drenched the soil with dithane-45 yesterday and then did a foliar sulfur spray last night. I know it's overkill, but I figured I need to wipe out whatever it is as quickly as possible. The german queen plant came back a bit but it's still rather wilty and sad. Here's a breakdown of the timeline of what I did and what happened in case any of you deal with this: 1. Late February - (weather is in 40s-50s, no rain) prepare 6' circle by breaking up soil and spade in 25 lbs Black Kow compost. Area used to be a pine bark mulch area with general use landscape plants such as muhly grass and conifers. Area has light shade in morning and full sun in afternoon (I think this may be part of problem- perhaps lack of strong morning sun encourages fungus....). 2. Early March (after last Frost) - set up wire ring and fill ring with 50 lbs Black Kow compost, 1/2 bale peat moss and 10 lbs 6-6-6- and crushed eggshells. 3. Early March - Plant 4 tomato plants evenly spaced around each ring. 4. Early March - begin weekly spray of Fish Emulsion / Organocide or Neem Oil 5. Early March - 2 days after planting, first Beefsteak wilts and dies 6. Early March - Remove beefsteak, drench soil with organocide 7. Mid March - Weather warms up to 80s, flea beetles attack, spray with organocide 8. Mid March - Cold snap comes in, Flea Beetles disappear 9. Late March - 2nd Beefsteak wilts and dies; other plants growing vigorously with flowers and first fruit set 10. Early April - First soil drench with Dithane 45 11. Early April - Continue spray with neem oil. Stop fish emulsion and move to Worm's Way solid fertilizer made with guano, kelp, etc. 12. Early April - Strong winds and light rain burn edges of Tomato plant leaves 13. April 14 - Weather system moves in and dumps lots of much needed rain and not-needed wind. 14. April 15 - It's a nice sunny days, temps in low 70s. Top shoots (including leaves and flowers) of German Queen plant are wilted to point of almost dry BUT bottom stems, leaves and shoots perfectly fine. I check soil for moisture- it's moist. I look for any sign of mechanical injury or broken stem - there is none. I delicately dig around base of plant looking for cut worm, etc. There is none. Other plants are not wilting. I drench soil with Dithane 45 and then foliar spray with Sulfur (Bonide) at night. 15. April 16 - Wash foliar spray off with hose. german queen tomato plant is still a little wilted but not as bad as yesterday. So I don't know what is going to happen. The GQ may die suddenly like Beefsteak or have a slow and protracted wilting death. If she does kick the bucket, I'll make sure to cut the stem and see if there are any clues in there.... When you guys spray, do you leave the spray on or wash it off later? Whenever I have sprayed organocide or copper in early AM (like 6 AM), the plants sometimes get leaf burn (especially my cukes and squash!!). So, my nursery friend recommended I spray them the night before and then wash spray off in the early AM before the sun can fry the plants. Do you agree with this?

I too am having a tough time with NG's this year. I think it's been mostly because of the high 90 degree temperatures. I'm watering 3 large NG pots every day now, which is getting old. Two of the pots are generally OK, but the third pot has lost almost all of its flowers. My NG pots are on our south facing deck which gets a lot of sun. But I have 2 large umbrellas which shade the pots some of the day. I moved the ill NG pot to a more shady location and I hope it recovers. Last year our NGs in the same locations were fine, but they did take a lot of watering. Next year, no NGs for my deck.