Susan, No, Tomato Tone is not sufficient to prevent BER because BER is not purely a nutritional deficiency issue although that perception exists. Blossom End Rot is more of a physiological condition. BER can be linked to a certain extent to a calcium deficiency in the plant, but not specifically to a calcium deficiency in the soil. The actual cause of BER has more to to with uneven watering at specific points in the plants' growth cycle. The best way to prevent BER is to keep the soil evenly moist at all times and to avoid letting the soil go through wild swings from too dry to too wet. Some other stresses also can contribute to BER, including overfertilizing. When your plant experiences certain stresses at certain points its growth cycle, the plant actually suffers a calcium deficiency within the plant itself and this can cause the calcium to physically leave the fruit and goes back into the main part of the tomato plant to compensate, and then the lack of calcium in the fruit allows the BER to develop. BER normally shows up as the darkened, leathery spot at the blossom end of the fruit and it can cause accelerated ripening. (More rarely, it shows up as a black spot on the inside of the fruit even though the fruit appears normal on the inside. This is known as the internal form of blossom end rot. I have seen it in one of my fruit exactly once in my life.) So, BER can occur even with adequate calcium in the soil because dry roots aren't pulling enough calcium out of the soil, so to speak, and that sets off the chain of events leading to BER. In addition to extreme moisture fluctuations and overfertilizing, BER also can be related to cool, humid weather, compacted soil and excess amounts of either potassium or ammonia in the soil or soil-less potting mix. BER is more common on certain varieties than others and it is more common on soil with a less than ideal pH (either too high or too low). You tend to see it most often early in the season when the tomato plants' vascular systems are still immature and find it hard to cope with the stresses to which they're exposed, which also can include high drying winds. Many years ago it was simply believed the entire cause was a calcium deficiency in the soil, but more recent research shows it to be the more complicated scenario I described above. Some people buy a calcium spray that is supposed to prevent BER but it does not work because calcium cannot be absorbed through the skin of the tomato. Even if you have BER early in the growing season, it tends to go away on its own as the plants grow and become larger and better able to withstand stresses of all types. As far as overfeeding, I find it incredibly hard to overfeed if you use only organic fertilizers because they release slowly and are absorbed slowly. It can be very easy to overfertilize with chemical fertilizers and I avoid them about 95% of the time for that reason. I doubt Espoma considers that people using soil-less potting mixes with pelleted fertilizer are also using their fertilizers. Their focus is, and always has been, on making the best organic fertilizers possible to provide the correct nutrition to plants. They also produce organic soil-less potting mixes and I'm sure they'd prefer we all use them. Whenever any one of us combines more than one fertilizer product with another, especially when they involve chemical or synthetic ferts, we are playing with fire because combining them can lead to levels of some nutrients that are too high. As far as Supersweet 100, it doesn't crack any more or less than many other cherry types. I prefer Sweet Million because I haven't noticed as much cracking with it. Some of the non-cracking cherries have skin so tough that I won't grow them, and if I do grow them, they are only for dehydrating and not for fresh eating since dehydrating makes the skin tough anyway. Lots of cherry types crack and, once again, I think providing evenly moist soil helps prevent it. That's a lot easier to do with container plants that are not necessarily exposed to heavy rainfall since you can move them to a sheltered location out of the rain. Too much moisture causes cracking in tomatoes of all shapes and sizes because it can make the internal portions of the tomatoes grow faster than the skin so the skin has to crack...it can't help itself. I wouldn't put two indeterminates in one 25-gallon pot. For me, both Jet Star and Supersweet 100 routinely top 6' to 8' in the garden soil or if in a large enough (20-25 gallon) container. They also can be 3' to 4' across, so putting two of them in one container, even a large container, is not something I'd do because they will be very cramped and crowded and the crowded foliage can become diseased very easily due to a lack of air flow. Please do not hesitate to ask questions. None of us mind answering them, and you never know when the question you ask will help someone else who is too reserved to ask questions. Lots of folks lurk here and only read and never ask questions, so your questions/our answers may help them too. (Hey, you lurkers, y'all should join the forum and talk to us....it is free...and we are nice 99.9% of the time so---what are you waiting for????) Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: If You Haven't Seen Espoma's Mixes, Here They Are

Depends on how you cook but I'd prefer to have the sink close to the fridge so don't mind your distances and DEFINITELY would want the sink near the range - so would not like sailorman's layout. I have 5 feet between sink and stove and a straight shot of counter (prep space) between and it is almost too much - especially when cleaning the stove. (I'm not complaining about the prep space, don't get me wrong ... esp. since prep space is what we craved in our before model). Don't want to have to walk clear across fridge from stove to sink. That said, I like rhome's idea of bringing the stove closer to the sink in the diagonal wall in your layout especially because it will let you vent the stove out the house. That's a good thing. If your pantries are big enough you may very well be able to get away without any uppers. And with some open shelving you may not even feel too much of a pinch. Check out Pirula's and Rococogurl's kitchens in the Finished Kitchens Blog for a couple of instances showing such an implementation. There are others but I don't recall them now.

Hi... I know this is an old subject, but here is my $3.50 Mama fix. I did not want to use metal against metal (scratch up my new Whirlpool fridge) so I went with nylon. First I bought tarp clamps (Princess Auto $1.99) because the groove was just perfect to fit on the hinge. Then I bought flower wire $1.50 at the dollar tree. I separated 1 clamp and used the disk part and sliced it in half. I drilled two holes, one on each end (see pic) and attached the half disk to the hinge. Now the door does not open too far, is cushioned when it reaches the limiter and can only be seen from the side. If you need it to open further, just cut a slice (like a pie slice) and the door will open further.

Sorry I missed your earlier post. I agree with all Laurie wrote. However, I discourage watering by the clock or the calendar -- by a certain amount in specific intervals. The amount is always drenching until water flows out the bottom. As for the interval, there are too many variables that affect the amount of moisture in the soil to follow a fixed regime: the plants changing needs (health, growth stage, increased size of root ball, decreased size of root ball, preparation for blooming, season, annual cycles, maybe how safe it feels!), ambient temperature, ambient humidity, air flow around the plant, light exposure, probably barometric and other intangibles I'm unaware of. So, for me, that leaves three ways to know when the soil is dry enough to water again: - by touch -- poke a finger well into the soil. If it is bone dry as far as you can reach when it was not a few days or a week earlier, then there is probably moisture below your reach, but not so much that it would not benefit from water during active growth; - with a hygrometer -- same principle as the finger, it just reaches deeper into the soil; - when the leaves begin to soften or wrinkle (when it is not from the age of a specific leaf) after being firm and smooth. I do not recommend waiting for the third indicator. I've never even had healthy leaves become soft after three months without water in mid-winter. Did you happen to take a picture of the root system when you changed the soil? For me, changing soil or repotting is an opportunity to separate the rhizomes, removing and withered sections (they can be added to the new soil as biomatter to break down and feed the plant), examining all the rhizomes for health. respacing plants for ideal growth conditions, possibly starting extra pots for my use or to give away or for restoring weak plants, growing out extra offsets and propagating extra lengths of rhizome. Isolated pieces of rhizome or excessively long rhizomes leading to healthy growth but with no growth points showing will probably die back. So, I remove them or snap them off to propagate in a separate container or containers, where they are likely to sprout new growth. I'm an incorrigible propagator. That's enough for one post! I'll respond to your other questions in a bit.