I'm going to go ahead and resurrect this old post so hopefully someone can learn and hear from a different perspective from a professional. I would first like to mention, TexasWeed, I know who you are, I've read many of your post, and you have some knowledge. With all due respect, I respectively disagree with you in many aspects though. One of the paint points I disagree with you on, is you suggesting a SLOW RELEASE FERTILIZER in the original posters situation. While slow release fertilizers can be great in many areas, and especially in particular times of the year. This was not a great suggestion for the poster in my honest and fair opinion. Why? The poster is growing a lawn on sand. We know what that means. Lower CEC levels, and little nutrient holding power. Nutrients will never last as long in Sand. The same PPSCU, XCU, and Sulfur coated fertilizers that may claim 2-3 months, is not near the case for turf growing on Sand. Even for lawns growing on Clay such as myself here in Central Texas, many people fail to understand how "Slow Release" products work. Knowing the growth characteristics will put you far ahead of the game. Many PPSCU and various other slow release products contain coatings which are dependent on various factors. If you study these factors, most of these coatings are designed to be broken down with the main factor being "TEMPERATURE." Slow to release nutrients when cool, and they literally dump nutrients when soil temperatures are very warm. In Texas, this is the majority of the time, so what you get left with, is an over-priced bag of "Slow Release" that's dumping much quicker then "SLOW" due to high temperatures being exhibited. My approach, especially on dealing with "SAND" such as the poster is SPOON FEEDING quick release fertilizers. Bermuda especially, needs to be supplied adequate nitrogen for outstanding turf quality, density, and color. The goal is to feed the turf what it needs as it uses it. By doing so, the turf will continue to be fed, and the sandy soils that don't hold nutrients will continue to be ideal for the turf. The original poster had great improvements from doing 1/2 applications from Ammonia Sulfate every few weeks and this supports exactly what I'm saying. However, to the original poster, you are forgetting many important nutrients. A soil test will be MANDATORY for the perfect lawn. Without a soil test, I can't recommend phosphorus, I see enough of it around my parts of Texas. The problem is much of the phosphorus isn't available. Same with Potassium, except I consider this CRUCIAL. Your lawn needs potassium to aid in extreme temperatures and disease pressure such as what we have here in Texas. Potassium is a luxury consumption nutrient, meaning you put it down, the turf is going to use it, if in available form. Much of our potassium in our soils is NOT AVAILABLE when comparing from my recent soil test, to actual TISSUE TEST. Also, using 21-0-0 provides lots of Sulfur that will aid in bringing Texas's natural high pH down and will also aid in uptake up other nutrients, including our long lost Iron. If you've ever applied Iron in Texas, you'll notice, there might or might not be a response, if you get a response, it doesn't last. This is pH related and calls for using only CHLEATED IRON products which is much more usable and available to the turf in our area. If you want a usable mix, trust my word on this, try it, and come back to me and tell me you have the best lawn in the neighborhood after half a growing season. (You might have to source these products), but they are all available in Texas. Depending on your work schedule and free time you can adjust your rates and applications, but you need to apply in adequate water to avoid burn potential. Most likely, you will have to go with the lower spray rates and more often unless you have a high volume sprayer like we use that holds hundreds of gallons. Bermuda: Weekly Fertilizer Mix: .25N per 1,000 Sq. Feet (From Ammonia Sulfate 21-0-0) .25 (SOP) per 1,000 Sq. Feet (Potassium Sulfate) .50 ounces per 1,000 Sq. Feet (Micro nutrients with chleated Iron and mg and mn. The micro nutrient product is really important and will aid in giving your turf the color you are looking for. I (HIGHLY) suggest either using (FeATURE 6-0-0) by loveland products or Main Event Chleated Micro nutrients If you don't have the time to spoon feed your lawn weekly, you can adjust the rates, either double for bi-weekly, or multiply x 4 for monthly. Don't go longer then month long applications. The only catch is, 21-0-0 has burn potential. You will need at (MINIMUM) of 1 gallon of water per 8 ounces of 21-0-0 in your mix to avoid burn potential. Do not adjust the rates above, this mix is tried and true on Texas Turf and will leave you with the greenest lawn in the neighborhood. If you don't have a large enough sprayer with capability of putting out enough water volume, you're better sticking with granular fertilizers. We use 200+ gallon tanks, with walking booms for an even application. Nozzles on the sprayer are also important. We use TeeJet Air Induction and FloodJet tips to reduce drift, depending on the water needed for the application.

Hi Bill, It is so nice to hear from you today. I hope y'all got some rain this week. We did! I agree with you that over-loving one's tomato plants is counter-productive because it gives you lots of watery, underflavored tomatoes. A term commonly used to refer to overwatering and overfeeding is "loving your plants to death". I am really careful about not overwatering (which, considering our droughts here, is not that hard as long as I don't turn on the soaker hoses too often) and not overfeeding. I've also noticed that plants that are overfed and overwatered have incredible pest problems and more disease issues as well. Bill, my absolute worst tomato year ever in my whole life was here in southern OK in 2004. I remember that I got the plants into mostly raised beds (two rows were at grade level in only slightly amended soil) with well-amended soil and I got them planted pretty early. By the end of May I had nice, tall sturdy plants covered with ripening fruit. In June, 12" of rain fell. Twelve inches. That was the end of what had seemed to be a promising tomato year. All the tomatoes had poor flavor and texture and most were spitters. I hope we never have 12" of rain in one month again during tomato growing season. The rain finally stopped falling sometime in July, but I didn't have tomatoes with good flavor until late August or early September. The next two years were drought years also plagued by wildfire, and in 2005 and 2006 we had really, really good-flavored tomatoes and a pretty decent harvest considering the drought and heat. For us, as for most of OK, 2007's spring and early summer was excessively wet and the tomatoes were late and poorly-flavored. Once again the rain stopped in July, and we got decently flavored tomatoes a month or so later. Last year's drought gave us tomatoes with great flavor, even after I completely stopped watering the garden when the water bills became unbearably high. So, I don't really want to "hope for drought", but it does give us our best-flavored tomatoes (and our hottest peppers too). Even though we had over an inch of rain this week here (1.7" to be exact), that only brings 2009's rainfall up to about 50% of normal, and the drought is forecast to persist or improve only slightly, so I am expecting a good tomato year here. This year I am going to grow about 30 plants in containers so I can control the moisure a little more for them than I can for in-the-ground plantings. I can't wait to see how you like SunGold. The only people I've ever known who didn't like SunGold were, perhaps, picking them too early or maybe overwatering them. You have to let them get a deep golden-orange. Sadly, the SunGolds split pretty easily and don't hold for a long time after being harvested which is why you don't see them for sale often in grocery stores or farmer's markets. If you like SunGold, though, and want to grow it to sell, there is a very similar improved variety called SunSugar that doesn't crack and holds for a longer period of time. The flavor of SunSugar (at least to my tastebuds) is identical to the flavor of SunGold. I get the best tomatoes when I give them only organic tomato food that is low in the necessary macronutrients. I like Espoma Tomato Tone which is a 4-7-10. (For anyone newer to gardening, that's 4% nitogen, 7% phosphate, and 10% potash.) What I really like about it is that it contains all the micronutrients tomatoes need: calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sodium, and zinc. I give each plant a handful of Tomato Tone at planting time and then I don't necessarily feed them again unless they are showing signs of nutritional deficiency. I don't water any more often than I have to in order to get the plants to a decent size by the time flowering begins, and I water as little as possible once they are setting fruit, especially as fruit begins to ripen. I like to describe the effect of stress on tomato plants to new gardeners this way: The purpose of a tomato plant is to produce seeds to perpetuate itself. If the plant is living a cushy life and is not in danger of dying, it doesn't get in a big hurry to make seeds and, if it is an indeterminate tomato, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Why shouldn't it? The plant, after all, is living the good life and has reason to think that life will end any time soon. On the other hand, if a tomato plant is a little dry, a little hot, and a little thirsty and hungry, it tends to produce more seed, and earlier, because it is hurrying up to make seed to replace itself in case it dies. So, stress (up to a point) is good since it gives us more seeds (inside our fruit). For most of us here in Oklahoma, it isn't too hard to see to it that our plants get the stress they need--Mother Nature sort of takes care of that for us! LOL Dawn

Appreciation of tomato flavor is subjective, of course, but I think you could use another idea or 2. I see in the Gleckler catalog that they introduced Thessaloniki in 1958. This is one of my best to grow (a long way from east Texas). It seems to stand up to hot weather real well and lasts a long time after harvest -- I've still got one in a kitchen basket that was harvested green, 2 months ago! (I think I'll turn it into cream of tomato soup, today. ;o) My grandmother was from east Texas and she grew a tomato that was probably from Porter & Sons Seed Company of east Texas. The seed came to me about 20 years ago and is probably "Porter." Willhite Seed Company has that seed along with Porter Improved and a number of others that may do well for you in your part of the world. Porter may be a little small for what you are thinking of. It is a saladette. Grandmother's tomato is a real favorite of my wife, however. Steve

Linda, You should have over a 1000 hours chill so should be plenty for any blackberry varieties. Blackberries can take a little shade and should even benefit from some relief from afternoon sun. The hardest thing is going to be the hot temperatures. I lived in that area for about 15 years and the temperatures are much higher than where I am now. However, the summers are better where you are because it never cools down in the summer in Beaumont. Even at night it may be in the upper 80s with high humidity, with the only breeze coming from the mosquitoes wings. Blackberries do require irrigation in the summer. Inkfin, You are probably a little too far south for Triple crown. Prime Ark Freedom should be ok with your chill hours. Heritage Red raspberry has done the best. Anne has survived for my but I am a little cooler temperature wise than you are by 3 or 4 degrees I would guess. I have Baba berry, Did not do well the first year but looks better this year. I will see if it makes it till fall for an autumn harvest. None of them can take the hot afternoon sun after about 3 or 4 oclock. You could try to spray with surround kaolin clay. It would keep the leaves cooler and that would help. If it gets too hot temperature wise it may also kill the raspberries. Temperatures over 100 are tough on them. With all our humidity it only gets over 100 a few days, usually less than 5 or 6 days. Humidity kills me but does help the raspberries. I had mysore last year. It does well in winter and spring but does not like temperatures under 30 degrees. It has to have afternoon shade. Its thorns are sharp and w.iell reach out and get you. It died when the temperature got in the upper 90s. I thought of spraying with surround but the thorns were so bad I was kind of gland when it died. Fruits was not bad, just not worth it fighting the thorns. And I have the thorned variety of blackberries.