pnbrown, Getting two crops may not be out of the possibility. As little as 10 'grow' weeks might get you there. Of course, what I observed in reduction in days to maturity (DTM) may have been a fluke that I will not be able to duplicate. It wouldn't be the first time. Things under consideration as a cause of the reduction in DRM are: 1. A change in the root system caused by being constricted to the container size. 2. The even distribution of fertilizer in the soil at transplanting. 3. The extra aeration from a deep fluffing of the soil at transplanting and immediately before the corn makes a growth surge. I have another trial underway with the same variety where the container time was extended to 36 days. The corn is just starting to show tassels. The DTM seems to be reduced but the plants don't look as well developed and I wonder if there will be a harvest. I also have started another variety with a listed DTM of 72 days. Hopefully I will see a reduction of DTM to something around 65 days. For starting early, I have a great micro climate of shelves on a south facing concrete wall. Next year I'm going to push the start date back to 3 weeks before last frost date. With the corn in containers I can just bring it inside for the probable hard freeze. If I can duplicate the reduction in DTM with some certainty, I propose to do corn in 4 small locations next year as shown in the calendar below.

If those were my trees they'd carry some fruit. How many is the question. You seem pretty conservative about the number so I'd say go for it. I've found that if I thin to what seems about right and then take off every other fruit now I'm getting close. The fruit seems much thicker and heavier after it gets full size. And on a small tree it's as much about the weight as anything. The tree should easily support what's left at full size or it's too much.

Im in PA, not too far from NY. The rain has been awful this year. I did potatoes for the first time too and out of about 12 plants came 10 giant ones and 20 small ones. Atleast I got something though. That was a 25 foot row of potato plants. After planting I only hilled them once. If I would have hilled again maybe those little tiny ones I found around the surface would have grown into something. Tomatoes have spirals around the skin and sometimes when I looked at them, they looked orange and not ready to pick. I had to start picking them becuase the plants were full of them. When I cut into them many had white hard flesh and not meaty red flesh. Many of the tops around the navel stayed green. I never saw that before. Thank god I put in 9 plants. I never got the big toms I had in other years. Everybody is complaining about toms down here this year. The guy that owns the nursery says it was a bad year for toms. My toms are still better than a store-bought one. For the first year they stayed short, too. Usually they get like 8 feet tall. This year they are at 3.5 feet. Strange indeed. I planted them early in the season. Across town, my brother put in 6 plants. He had very few toms. He's been eating ours!! My brussels started to turn black with rot (rain?), I left them on to get bigger. Big mistake. I should have harvested them when they were smaller. I'd have had double by now. First time I've brought brocolli to the table, only to have worms in them. That happened 4 times. That's gross. I'm not exact on how temps affect each of our plants but we've had alot of 70's and 80's down here. I think we only hit 90 like 5 days max. We could hardly use our pool this year. Since two weeks our pool temp is at 70 and only gets as warm as 76. That's too cool for me. I suppose it's too cool to get red toms too. Dont give up though. You cant control the weather conditions. Some stuff works and some doesnt. Last year I put in zucchini and the worms killed the whole crop. I am learning alot here but for the most part, I just put stuff in the ground and hope for the best. P.S. This is a totally freshly dug garden with no soil added, nor anything except Osmocote during planting. I did not do a soil test this year. This whole property was farm land for years and years so I figured I had a chance. I take the good with the bad. Manure from the local farmer is on the way in autumn.........

My husband was just reading over my shoulder and said, "These women are all full of crop!" Can you believe it? He was being silly, of course. (Read his statement carefully- there are no typos.) It was a pun, a joke, a hehe-haha kind of thing- please don't write me nasty letters! LOL Anyway, Carla, you are right. As a beginner, I was thrilled to hear all these responses from the seasoned professionals. Boy, oh boy, Mar, are YOU a professional or what?! :) I think the best suggestion is getting double prints of all your pictures, then label the envelopes and save them in tact. That way, you have a set to keep all those other "background object" memories and focus your scrapbooking on the focal points of the photots. You could even indicate on the envelopes which scrapbook page(s) used that particular set of pictures. So if you screw up when cutting, or want several copies of the picture on one page, or want to do a whole page over, you can just pull out the right pack of pictures, grab the negative, get a copy made for a quarter (that's all it costs at my grocery store) and voila! Easy organization, too, for when you want to see ALL the pictures from Christmas '99 for example, not just the few you selected for the pages. I love reading these posts. I just went to a craft store and spent *ahem* dollars on supplies. I haven't completed a full page yet and I'm addicted already! I think I'm in big trouble, don't you? Thanks for all the wonderful input so far- can't wait to read the new stuff, too!