Hmm, that could be an explanation too, then, because the beans were planted in the bed that is under the hose, so it would get the drip-drip every time I used the hose. Hmm... =P We live in a damp climate. Moisture can be tricky in that bed, and I am told we almost always end the season with powdery mildew (which was true for me, with the peas, squash, and cukes). Oh, I guess I should have specified that they are bush beans. The peas have a twine trellis on the fence. I did twine last year in a different spot, with stakes, and they seemed to do okay (although the trellis didn't end up being tall enough, and the top half of them fell over at the end of the season, lol). Planting in bags was recommended to me by a local. It worked well for the season, but I found that I had to retire the bag at the end of the year because it was too rootbound to be planted in again (which was contrary to what I had been told). That was a question I kept forgetting to ask. I tried to transplant a bean plant once, and it died. Are they finicky? Do I need to do anything special to give them a good chance?

Mike - there is a relationship between pot size, plant size, and the physical characteristics of your soil. If you use a heavy, water retentive soil and a large pot, you can expect problems no matter how bright or perfect the light is, the temperature is, the nutritional program is. Roots begin to die very quickly in soils deprived of air. If you have a large mass of soil that is saturated, the plant may not be able to use it before some % of the roots die. This cyclic death & regeneration of roots is expensive to the plant. On the other hand, if you are using a soil that holds no, or very little perched water, you're almost unlimited in how large a pot you can use. If the soil holds NO perched water, you can safely plant the tiniest seedling in a 100 gallon container if you choose - with no worry for root rot caused by airless conditions. The plant also greatly appreciates the added aeration, and will reward you with more robust growth and better vitality, all else being equal. So you can see that as the soil improves in drainage and aeration, you are less limited in the choice of pot size. It's probably better not to think of larger soil masses as a superior stress buffer. The plant will eventually be subjected to the same stresses in a large pot as in a smaller container, though again, deeper containers will have a higher % of well-aerated soil when the soil is fully saturated. Buffering against cold is probably of no consideration, and buffering against heat can work for OR against you. Soil masses large enough to heat up slowly also cool slowly ..... Depth of planting doesn't have an impact on aeration. Roots will colonize all parts of a container that provides a favorable mix of air/water/nutrients. While there are good reasons not to bury the trees buttress roots, aeration isn't one of them. Larger pots DO postpone the incidence of encircling/girdling roots, but you need to be sure you're not trading one problem for another (over-potting and it's accompanying problems for girdling/encircling roots. Even if you can't see them, you WILL have problems related to incremental and cyclic root death when you overpot with heavy soils. Fast draining, well-aerated soils, as noted, reduce the potential for problems. Al

Looks like fasciated growth from the stem on up. You'll sometimes see it only in the flowers of some species, but "full body" or a single stem/branch fasciation is common in peppers when it happens (which it doesn't happen often). It's a genetic "whoops" most all of the time. Though it can be caused by a variety of other things (disease, hormones, environmental factors, etc), it's generally nothing much to worry about as far as disease goes when it comes to this happening in peppers. It leads to really strange looking and strange acting plants. Unfortunately, it also generally leads to undersized fruits which may or may not ripen properly...which isn't so nice for the vegetable grower. This post was edited by nc-crn on Fri, May 2, 14 at 2:31

It has been a number of years since I tried this but per my garden notes it wasn't all that great an experiment. I guess my first question would be why? Well actually the first question would be where are you as that would make a world of difference in how well it works. Northern, cooler climates - maybe. Southern, hotter climates - not much. So why? Why not big containers? Why not bigger bags? Why are you doing this? "Should I expect a smaller harvest and smaller fruit on the soil-bag grown tomatoes compared to what someone would get if they a) had good soil and b) had garden space to plant them in-ground?" Definitely yes. That difference in production is a given and so is at least a portion of the smaller fruit size. Stressed plants produce less and smaller fruits. Dave