disease resistance -- then again I have had many heirlooms side by side with hybrid that seems to do just as well and then again they have been around for 100+ yrs -- natural selection maybe!!! ***** it all depends on which specific diseases you're referring to. The foliage diseases are THE most common tomato diseases and NO variety, OP or hybrid has any significant tolerance to those diseases. There are a couple of varieties that have low level tolerance to Early Blight ( A. solani), but that's only of use to the large commercial farmer who can spray every maybe 6-7 days instead of maybe 3-4 days, so are of no use, really, to the home gardener. So one won't see any significant difference at all between hybrids and OP's when it comes to the common foliage diseases. Carolyn

Carol, I found your post a few weeks ago on a search. For some reason, I keep thinking about your questions and the advice you got, and I finally decided to log on and comment. Here are a few comments about your post: 1) You make a good point about being able to get better returns with mutual funds over a MM. 2-3% is very achievable. On the other hand, it is also quite possible to lose 2-3% - or more- with mutual funds. This is the trade-off between risk and reward that is inherent in investing. Typically fixed income investments, such as MM, T-bills, and government bonds are called "risk free" investments. Equities, such as stocks, and stock mutual funds are typically considered to be riskier. In general, the "riskier" the investment, the higher the rate of return. 2) You mentioned investing in a mutual fund. Another aspect of risk/reward is diversification. Again, in general funds that are spread among several different investments are at lower risk (Dont put all your eggs in one basket). Taking this a step further, risk is reduced more by making sure the different investments are sufficiently diverse. Some examples of diversity would be bonds vs. stocks, growth stocks vs. value stocks, US stocks vs. foreign stocks, etc. 3) Everybody has a different risk tolerance. Your husband seems to be very risk averse. You seem to be more risk tolerant. The level of risk is a personal decision that both of you must feel comfortable with. 4) I would like to suggest that you visit a website called www.ifa.com. This is a company of investment advisors that specialize in mutual funds by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). IÂm not suggesting you use DFA at this time. What I am suggesting is that you and your husband take the risk survey that IFA has on their website. It is free, and you donÂt have to sign up or give them your E-mail address. The risk survey is about 20 questions. The results give you an idea where you are on the risk taking spectrum. Based on the results, IFA will suggest one of 20 different portfolios that fit in with your risk tolerance. Again, I wouldnÂt necessarily suggest those portfolios for you, but they will give you a general idea of the types of investments that would be consistent with the level of risk you and your husband would like to take. I may make a few people angry, but I need to comment about the advice you have been given: First, the good advice. 1) I agree with much of what jkom51 says in the first reply. Although you probably donÂt need a CFP, it wonÂt hurt as long as you can find a good one. 2) Chisue suggested treasuries and CDs. These can be good alternatives to MM, but you should research the advantages and differences. 3) Great advice f lphacat. American Funds are "load funds". That means when you buy them, a salesman gets a commission, usually about 5.25%. If you invest $400,000, you will LOSE $21,000 immediately. The big problem with this is that there are "no load" funds out there that will do just as good if not better, and you can get them for about $30 per fund. If you have 10 funds, that would be $300 verses $21,000. Too often an advisor who is recommending a load fund has his best interests at heart instead of yours. I wouldnÂt even consider load funds if I were you. 4) Alphacat also suggested DFA funds. He is correct; almost any DFA fund runs rings around American. They are all no load and have much lower annual fees as well. On a $400,000 investment, the difference in ER between DFA and American can run $4000 per year. With compounding, this is about $60,000 over 10 years that you are giving up. 5) The absolute best advice you got was f lphacat when he recommended you go to www.fundadvice.com. Go there and read every article, especially this one (sorry, I canÂt get the link to work, so I just copied the whole address) http://www.fundadvice.com/articles/buy-hold/the-ultimate-buy-and-hold-strategy.html. Paul Merriman gives great advice to folks. He is also a financial advisor who you might want to consider. I think he will work on a percentage of assets or I know he will give advice on a per hour basis (around $200/hr). This may be your best option. For about $400 you can get some really first rate advice on how best to invest. For disclosure purposes, I donÂt invest with Merriman, but I do read his site quite often. Also, for disclosure, all my IRA assets are invested in DFA funds. Now for the bad advice: 1) The average investor has absolutely no business investing in individual stocks. If you put your money in 10 mutual funds you are invested in 10,000 stocks. Now if one of your stocks goes bankrupt, would you rather lose $40,000 ($400,000/10 stocks) or $4 ($400,000/10,000 stocks). This goes back to diversification. You just canÂt minimize the risk enough with individual stocks. 2) DonÂt bother going to Morningstar.com, or Forbes, or Money . Frankly I consider most of what they put out to be financial ography. They are trying to entice and tempt you with the "hot" stock, the " " stock, the investment that will make you filthy rich. But if you go back and look at last yearÂs "hottie" chances are it is a dog this year. For now, read everything you can at fundadvice.com. Another good site is www.diehards.org. That is a forum primarily by index investors. Go there and post the same message you put on this web, and you will get some fantastic advice (much better than I can give you). Just a few more comments. 1) The best portfolio for you and your husband will probably be one that includes MM, bond funds, and stock funds. Again, your risk tolerance will determine the best portfolio for you. 2) One more article at fundadvice.com is this one. http://www.fundadvice.com/portfolio.html Merriman provides several suggested portfolios with different fund families such as Vanguard and Fidelity. Most of these funds are index funds. Some are managed funds, but all are no load with low fees. 3) Many people prefer index funds. These funds track an index such as the S&P 500 or others. They typically have lower fees than managed funds and studies show that managed fund usually underperform index funds over the long term. You can get a good explanation of this at fundadvice.com 4) You asked for a few good funds. Several are listed in the site referenced in #2 above. 5) Good luck with your investment . Jeff

chisue wrote: "Did you mean to look at the CD yields by deducting the percentage of our tax bracket, or something else?" I'm not a financial planner (and wouldn't want to steer you in the wrong direction) so I would suggest asking your broker or CPA this question. Martin Weiss (Weiss ratings) talked about treasuries in April 06'. Here is what he had to say. "I can put my keep-safe money in 3-month Treasury bills or in a Treasury-only money market fund. The advantages are many: Advantage #1. Safety. As long as I wait the 13 weeks until my T-bills mature, the Treasury Department guarantees zero risk of loss. And even in the very rare event that I sell them on the secondary market at a loss, the loss would be so tiny I'd need a microscope to see it. Is the U.S. Treasury really a good credit risk? Some people are so concerned about the government's bulging debts and run-away deficits they're beginning to wonder, and I don't blame them. But it's still the highest rated borrower on the planet. So until someone offers me a better alternative, that's where my keep-safe money is staying. Advantage #2. Rising yield. A couple of years ago, the yield on short-term Treasury bills was hovering so close to the zero line it felt like I was paying the government for the privilege of loaning it my money. Plus, at that time, there was a big gap between the ultra-low yield on 3-month T-bills and the still-decent yield on 30-year Treasury bonds. But now T-bills yields have mostly caught up, and the gap has narrowed tremendously. Every time the Fed hikes interest rates by a quarter point, the yield on my T-bills promptly rises by about a quarter point. And every time Wall Street trumpets no more rate hikes coming, the Fed sends not-so-subtle hints that it's going to raise them some more. That's what happened after the last Fed meeting. And from everything I can see, that's what's going to continue happening after the next Fed meetings for as far as the eye can see. Good. My T-bill yield, although still not high enough to give me any thrills, just keeps moving up and up. Advantage #3. Liquidity. With a Treasury-only money fund, I can get my money out so quickly it's like having the cold cash in my night table when I wake up every morning. I can write checks on the fund to immediately pay my bills. Or I can call the fund and have them wire the money to my local bank within 24 hours. Advantage #4. One Account. Some people have bank accounts coming out of their ears. They've got checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts and various CDs under the $100,000 FDIC limit. I don't. Except for a local checking account I use for small monthly bills, I have just one single, multi-purpose Treasury-only money market account that does it all. It's not FDIC insured. But that doesn't bother me because the U.S. Treasury Department guarantees all the securities that the fund buys on my behalf. Advantage #5. Exempt from local income taxes. On the surface, the yields on CDs and Treasuries are similar. But there's a significant difference: The Treasuries and Treasury-only money funds are exempt from local and state income taxes. Bank CDs and money funds invested in CDs are not. This isn't an issue for us now because we live in Florida, and Florida has no state income taxes. But it certainly would have made a difference when we lived in New York. Ditto for states like California or Massachussets. Advantage #6. Inflation protection. People ask: Suppose inflation surges or the dollar falls in value? What good are your dollar-denominated Treasury bills going to do you then? Answer: I get most of my protection from the rising yield: The higher inflation goes, the better my yield is going to get. Will the higher yield always be enough to cover the loss in the dollar's purchasing power? Probably not. But in any case, I can get the rest of my protection elsewhere." This story is archived at www.moneyandmarkets.com/press.asp?cat_id=25 "The Big Picture" by Martin Weiss-April 17, 2006 He offers a free newsletter as well as other services. A link that might be useful: SafeMoney.com

Jason, the trees I am talking about are at least 5 feet high and wide. I have many 3 feet or more. Some in smaller pots too...I use to place them on my cold porch that would never fall below 45 and yet never above 65 with no spare lights at all. They would thrive out there but I would have to use a space heater that cost me an arm and a leg to keep warm enough to not freeze. Big porch lots of windows..Easy But now I am trying to save money by not having a space heater running 24 hours a day that could possible kick out and instead will be using CFL lights on timers for only 12 hours a day in a very sunny spare room. All the window face south, east and west while the back wall is north and has no windows..So all the sunlight will fill that room from the other windows to reflect off the plain wall with that reflective material to make maximum brightness if that makes sense..I will show pics soon..I will just hang it like wall temporary wall paper. Do local stores sell Mylar in particular, or is that something you have to order off the net? Just ordered Myler off Amazon! Worth ever penny. Easy to use and hang anywhere I need too.. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013LUKR8/ref=asc_df_B0013LUKR85191297/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395009&creativeASIN=B0013LUKR8&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198107334619&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=656426799136335991&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001881&hvtargid=pla-343191228634 These lights.. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M6SR1JM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Philips 433557 23W 100-watt T2 Twister 6500K CFL Light Bulb, 4-Pack