Hello all, I will respond to all of your replies shortly. Thanks for the advice on providing better contact. The thing is, is that I have had privacy issues with stalkers in the past (ex boyfriends). Yes, I know sounds dramatic. But I guess that's one of the many perils of the internet these days. They've found that all they have to do is troll these boards, respond, get a response, and boom they have my email address. It gets annoying. So it's a little tricky.. Will change that, still. If you go to 'my page' you should be able to email/contact me directly now - the link is present. =) This post was edited by RiverNymph on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 18:52

I've used Fafard 3B, 52, and nursery mix. 3B is a medium mix where as the other 2 are a heavier weight good for larger containers. I did the 5-1-1 the first 2 years I did containers.... Ridiculously amount of work for me as I have over 200 five gallon containers to fill plus a group of larger ones. Cost wise - a lrg bag of fafard was under 20 and filled 5ish five gallon containers. Less then 4 dollars each. 5-1-1 cost close to 3 dollars each and literally took hours to sift and mix... Didn't see any difference in production and health of plants. ( I use a slow release fertilizer in both- ) For me fafard is worth that extra dollar any day! Those green eggplant! None of my seeds have germinated this year. I threw an email to my source out in Arizona and she is having he same problem. One nursery out near New Orleans has the plants but doesn't ship. I'm trying to convince them to make an exception! I'm growing a green apple and rosa Bianca . Have been told the rosa Bianca is just as sweet and mild as the green heirloom.. Will have to see. I'll have plenty of tomatoes and peppers (hots and sweets) and such to share... I've been wanting to make a trip to the arboretum end April, first May time frame so definitely can meet up. It's going to be difficult missing the exchange this Spring, took a gamble that it would be held end of April time frame and booked May. Luckily the Fall one is not too far away! And just for the record, you're the one that brings the most awesome plants! Got me addicted to salvias., Heucheras , etc. Ha

Jamie - thanks for posting this link! And I hope you continue to post links to the remaining articles. I didn't read all of the reviews yet but did read the reviews for the dwarfs I grew this season if he listed them. Beauty King, Tasmanian Chocolate, Wild Fred, Mr. Snow, Brandyfred( in a 5 gallon bucket), and Rosella Purple. I was most impressed with Beauty King, Brandyfred, and Mr. Snow. I think I let Wild Fred set too many fruit and they didn't size up very well for me. Rosella Purple had a nice early fruit set and ripened earliest of all the dwarfs. All 5 of my dwarfs in raised beds eventually succumbed to Septoria but the Brandyfred that was about 100 yards from my garden and any other tomatoes and was protected by a tree line never got Septoria. It did get knocked over by wind 3 times and lost a few green fruit each time. I'm going to grow all of my dwarfs in containers next year but I need to figure out a better way to keep them upright when a storm rolls through. Maybe a large rock in the bottom of each container. I have saved seeds for 4 varieties and purchased seeds for 8 varieties if would like some for next season. I'm fermenting seeds from the last 2 Brandyfred right now. ETA: the other varieties I have seed for that I didn't list are Iditarod Red and Sleeping Lady that Heritage Seed Market included as a bonus. I also bought some of my dwarfs from Victory seeds.

I grew about 10 dwarfs for the first time last year and they did grow slower than the standard sized tomatoes. I'm planning to start my dwarfs a week or 10 days earlier than the others this year. They have very thick stems compared to non dwarfs.