Jack, I'll stay up north. You can always put on another layer in the cold, but there is only so much you can take off in the heat... High temps here forecast for the high seventies and the 80's for the next few weeks. Just about perfect IMO. My tomatoes are setting well. Big beef has several, the biggest already the size of a baseball and already outgrowing its cage; 4th of July is setting in trusses, and may well live up to its name again this year. The Bush Champions I put in real early are a disappointment. Flowers already showing on the Japanese eggplant, and the Sweet banana peppers are all setting. Yesterday I put in the first of my sweet potatoes (Beauregards) and found out if Sand Hill Preservation was going to make good the miss-shipped order I received from them last week. They said the replacements should arrive here today; so I guess I plant a few more today. They say it is not too late, but then they are a full climate zone south of here too. Oh well... Some years in this country are sweet potato years and some aren't. So far this one looks like a good one for sure. Broke my favorite old trowel digging tulips yesterday. Sad - had that one for years! Finally got smart and switched to the potato fork. Garlic pictures later over on the Allium forum.

According to this website, http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/pages/J5I3A  you cannot tell from looking at Fuji apples as to whether they are ready for picking or not. It goes on to say, "Fujis grown on weak fruiting wood or late flowering young spurs mature later than fruit borne on older wood. Fruit on young and vigorous trees have the dull muddy appearance while fruit on older trees are usually more attractive." Sorry, not much help for you. I usually pick one off and if it's ripe (seeds are dark brown and the apple tastes good), then I usually pick the rest of the apples. Of course, my apple trees are still young and I only let a couple per tree mature...

" It's my first year, and I'm letting mine ripen on the vine. Hello? Am I weird or something?" Not weird. I think many if not most home gardens would agree. From what I read, in advertising, "vine ripened" means picked at the breaker stage or later, but not before. "How Do Vine Ripened Tomatoes Differ From Others?" Also "Tomato Patch: How to Save More Tomatoes" "1. Tomatoes at full red-ripe stage have optimum nutrition, color, and flavor, but they don’t have to be on the vine to reach that point. (Let’s assume this applies to tomatoes of all colors.) 2. Tomatoes start producing ethylene gas internally when they reach full size and turn pale green from their earlier dark green. The ethylene regulates the ripening process. (Tomato growers in Florida, for example, gas their dark-green fruit with ethylene to turn them red in winter, so we can have beautiful red tomatoes that taste like green ones.) 3. When the tomatoes reach the “breaker stage”—about half green and half pink—“a layer of cells forms across their stem, sealing them off from the main vine. At this state, tomatoes can ripen on or off the vine with no loss of quality or flavor,” Marr explained. (If the variety produces a color of fruit other than red, determining “breaker stage” may be more challenging." You might live where it is pretty hot, so ... Tomato Plant Ripening: Can You Slow Down The Ripening Of Tomatoes? "If you live in a region prone to very hot summers, it might be beneficial to know how to slow ripening tomatoes in order to extend your tomato crop harvest. Temperatures over 95 F. (35 C.) will not allow tomatoes to form their red pigments. While they will rapidly ripen, even too rapidly, they end up a yellowish-orange hue. So, can you slow down the ripening of tomatoes? Yes, indeed. Read more at Gardening Know How: Tomato Plant Ripening: Can You Slow Down The Ripening Of Tomatoes? http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/tomato/slow-down-tomato-ripening.htm And Tomato Patch: Learning by Picking at "Breaker Stage"

No. Why? That is putting the cart before the horse. ;-) The fruit is the focus, not saving the vine. When there are vine disease issues then you treat the disease as much as possible. Not to cure it but just to get some life out of it as long as possible to benefit the fruit. Since ripe squash is the goal and since they will not continue to ripen once harvested, then you want to leave them on the vine as long as possible - even until the vines are completely dead if necessary. Early in the season, sure diseased vines get ripped out and replaced but late in the season the focus is just keeping them surviving long enough for the fruit to mature. Dave