Bogus as far as I am concerned. I want lots of the best FLAVORED tomatoes. That requires a combination of a huge root system and lots of well spread out foliage. The only thing I can see that removing leaves will do is reduce the plants ability to photosynthesize which is a recipe for disaster flavorwise. I don't know a lot of things about growing tomatoes, but in the course of growing them for the last 40 years, I have learned that the biggest healthiest plants make the most best flavored tomatoes. If I want an early maturing tomato, I will grow a variety that is known for early maturity. His 'secret' seems to revolve around keeping air flowing around the plants. My secret is to use a custom weave system that effectively espaliers the plant which makes air flow more than adequate. There is a lot of pure bull in that page too. For example, the reason tomatoes have thick skin is genetic. It is a trait that commercial tomatoes have been selected for over the last 70 odd years. The reason the breeders selected for thick skin is to prevent cracking and improve shippability. The proof is in the pudding re the number of fruit clusters. I routinely get 20 to 30 fruit clusters on my tomato plants. The secret to this is very simple. Give the plants LOTS of nutrients to grow. The very best I've seen was when I put a 4 inch thick layer of rabbit manure down on the soil and planted tomato plants into it. The plants were 15 feet long and made so many tomatoes I completely lost count. Re pest and disease tolerance, I don't care what he does, nematodes are going to infest the roots if you live in the south. That will kill his tomato plants whether they have 3 leaves or 30. The most disease tolerant tomato plants are the healthiest plants. Healthy plants come from having the soil nutrients and foliage cover in balance. The most critical time for tomato plants is when they have set fruit and the first tomatoes get golf ball size. At that point, you should add nutrients, preferrably organic, to keep them in balance as the plant matures fruit. I could go on, but won't. As far as I can see, this guy is just another huckster. DarJones

I have a different spin. He is a Quack for the most part. While most of his potions and tonics are harmless, they are also useless because they are diluted so heavily. He is also a known Fraud. He claims to be a Master Gardner which he is not. He has never attended an accredited Master Gardner program from any university or horticulture program. At the same time his bug killer recipe was deadly and extremely toxic making your own nicotine sulfate. If diluted as he recommended was OK, but keeping a quart bottle of Nicotine Sulfate around is very dangerous. It does not have to be ingested to be deadly as it is easily absorbed in the skin. You can buy books that have the same recipe to kill your lover applying it to clothes like underwear over a period of a week. He had one potion some found useful at times like a back yard Bar-B-Q of 1 tablespoon of Lemon Ammonia and 1 Tablespoon of dish soap to 1 gallon of water to spray down the area. It did make things smell nice and drove insects away for a day or so. But what he did not say is it can damage plants by washing off a protective wax called cuticle. Now if you like organics and quirky potions then the real Deal is my ole friend Paul James from Tulsa OK has a few books on the subject with a zany spin on life. To bad HGTV is no longer a source of Garden information. Just high end home construction. Paul was the best they had and the real deal Master Gardner.

Well, Sears detergent used to be made by Huish, which morphed into Sun Products, which was bought by Henkel; that sale closed in September of last year. That's not quite "out of business" but if he meant that Huish/Sun is no longer a separate company, he is correct. I don't know if Henkel wants to be in the private-label laundry business. That does not seem to be the way they've built their business over the years. They certainly have the know-how. Buying Sun gave them the contract and the capacity. But it could be that Henkel doesn't want to commit to Sears given Sears' financial condition. Or maybe Sears didn't offer Henkel the $$ they want to make on a private-label product. Or Henkel believes that powder detergent is a dying market and they just don't want to perpetuate it. I would not expect a new supplier to provide the same formula detergent that Huish did. I'd stockpile the Huish product if you really like it.

I have a huge horse chestnut tree in my inherited garden and right now the squirrels are finding it irresistible!! My walkway is littered with the spiky halves of the husks and needs to be swept daily to avoid tripping hazards. I have yet to see any half eaten nuts. You can see where they have opened and eaten them here and there, leaving some crumbs but no large chunks. And I know they take them for winter storage as I often discovered buried buckeyes/conkers in my container plantings and beds. According to most sources, the toxic substance, aesculin, has little to no effect on squirrels and deer but can be mildly toxic to other mammals.