Thanks Mvespa for the suggestion. No I hadn't given it any liquid fertilizer yet as I thought I should wait until there was more growth. But I will give it a try. In Mass, we've had cold, rainy weather and we've had to run the heat until recently. May be if I give it a little fertilizer and we have warmer temperatures it will grow. I guess I was discouraged that one of them rotted. I have always been fascinated with these plants and when I saw the bulbs I thought I'd give them a try without a big investment if they proved difficult to grow.

Pam, It's true that some of yours, mine, and all of our bulbs may not exhibit symptoms especially if they are kept in optimum cercomstances,i.e., cool roots with good drainage, the proper amount of dappled sun for most of the day, or full sun at the right times of the day so as not to burn or stress the bulb and of course the proper amount of nutrients and moisture. But, most all bulbs at some time or another find themselves under stress. I have about 15 virused bulbs from a co-op from 2 years ago that when the leaves first emerged they were clear and green. A month or so on my too hot deck in full sun brought the virus symptoms on the leaves. They have been segregated and and this year when the new leaves emerged once again they are clear and green with no signs of virus. Looking at them currently, no one would believe they are affected. Now, I have planted these bulbs in 2 whiskey barrels at the far end of my yard and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this year with their roots cool and able to stretch all the way out into the moist fertilized soil that they never exhibit any signs of virus.. I also have a virused Estrella that I've had for 4 or more years now that every year sends up a clean first flush of leaves and blooms with 2 stalks with 4 to 6 flowers each time. Later in the summer it puts up a second flush of leaves and these show signs of virus. But once again, it blooms with 2 stalks with the appropriate number of flowers. This only goes to show that certain bulbs can live with this disease and aside from streaks in the leaves goes on it's merry way...my guess is that a NBF larvae will kill this bulb before the virus ever does. If one has a small collection.. 10 to 15 bulbs it may be possible to keep the virus at bay but if one, like most of the rest of us on this forum, keep adding to our collection from here and there and everywhere (which most of us do) we will all end up with virused bulbs and yes, you may never know it until it's way too late. It doesn't bode good for the future and we may have to just learn to live with it. They say that papilio is virus free, someone on this forum had some tested that were planted in the ground among other virused bulbs and the tests came back clean for their papilios..Most of the experts also state that papilio does not contract virus..but could it be a carrier? As I've stated many times on this forum I've lost probably up to 25 healthy bulbs to the Narcissis Bulb Fly over the past 2+ years..and last year I though I had it all figured out that by using a granular systemic containing imidacloprid I'd fix em..I lost as many last year as the year before....maybe more! Donna

Jo, I don't winter sow tomatoes, so someone else will have to suggest how you deal with them now that they've sprouted. No, your tomatoes are not confused---they are performing exactly as they are biologically designed to peform. Tomato seeds don't "know" when to sprout intellectually, but rather they simply sprout when the soil temperatures reach the right range, assuming they have enough moisture to induce germination along with the soil temp. Since it has warmed up early this year, the right temps for seed germination are a bit earlier than usual. To the tomatoes, it doesn't really matter if the calendar says December or Febuary or April....they will germinate when the soil is warm enough, provided it is moist. (In very, very dry soil they either won't germinate or they'll germinate and die soon thereafter.) If they were mine and I had them in vented containers, I'd leave the containers closed if the venting was cooling them off well enough. If I thought it was too hot and sunny, I'd open then up during the heat of the day and close them up a couple of hours before sunset so enough heat would build up inside to keep them warm all night long in case the temps border on being too cold. Remember that your containers are like little mini-greenhouses protecting the young seedlings. If I had wintersown tomatoes that had sprouted this early, I wouldn't move them inside but I'd throw a heavy blanket over the containers on nights the temperatures are going to get down near freezing. Moving them inside would sort of negate one of the benefits of wintersown seeds---that the plants are well-adapted to outdoor temperatures and light levels. Once you start moving them inside, you lose that advantage. I hope someone who actually does wintersows tomatoes can answer you questions about what to do with them because it is easy to say what I'd do with them, but since I don't wintersow them, it is a hypothetical answer to your question. I only wintersow a few flowers and herbs, generally only those that need cold stratification and, since they need cold stratification they don't germinate too early anyway or, if they do, they are pretty cold-hardy types by nature. You might check the wintersown website to see what they suggest. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Wintersown.org

At earthbox dot com you can buy just the container set (without the wheels and trellis system) for about $30 each plus shipping. There are discounts for quantity orders. I rig my own supports with $5 towers from Lowes and they work fine. The larger tan ones are great. They are called EarthTainers and you make these yourself. Find instructions at Raybo's site www dot earthtainer dot org. The advantage to Raybo's design, IMO, is the 10 gallon water tank. The Earthboxes have a 3 gallon water supply, which is fine if you monitor it every day or run a drip hose into the water tube. My plants in the smaller Earthboxes are just as big and healthy as the ones in the larger Earthtainer. Truthfully, I think the EarthTainer costs more like $55 to build, especially if you get the heavy duty cages, which aren't cheap. The two Rubbermaid tubs you use to put it together cost $13-$15 a piece. Anyway, I'm sold on 'em both.