OK - I thought the PH reading might have been quite too far acidic based on how well other things have done in the same soil (different location in the yard) and the meter was well, crappy. I have not done a legit soil sample (I'm lazy, yeah) however... I did still have a jar of soil in water I used to gauge the soil particle consistency. (Laziness might have paid off) I saw it sitting around after these responses and decided to try this out. I shook the jar, which has been sealed since I took the dirt out, and divided the portions equally in two containers. You might guess what happened next. Baking Soda into one - Vinegar into the other. Neither of the samples reacted before or after agitation, except for the ghost of a pop in the cup with vinegar added, but certainly no vigorous reaction. In the spirit of bad science, I added a little of the opposite to each, and got the expected fizz. This can't possibly mean that my soil is close to PH neutral, can it? I figure I'm missing something here. I will certainly try and educate myself on legitimate fertilization as well. I hadn't really thought about the hard water we have here, and though i was planning on doing the gradual timing as mentioned, looks like i still have quite a bit to research. As far as the stink bugs... they just take bites from everything, leaving puckers on the fruit, which is lame. I think that the large part of my infestation last year was my own fault from bad practice, but that's been amended. The foil sheets are more for bugs that do ground egg-laying. May be an old wives tale, but i've seen chatter that it can help prevent bugs from laying eggs in the roots. but who knows. Either way, I've been using nematodes as well, and that seemed to help. All i have to do now is handle the first wave of cucumber beetle invasion without losing all of my cucurbits again.

Stink bugs cause that sort of damage here. The first step is to identify what sort of insect is causing your damage, and find out what your local experts recommend for combating it. You'll get the best control if you learn to identify the egg and nymph stages of your pest and learn about their lifecycle, so that you nip the problem in the bud when they're small and easy to control -- adult stinkbugs, if that's what you've got, are hard to control with pesticides.

I gave them a Thorough looking over last night... they are Healthy.. i finally am ahead of my Fungus attack from last month.. and they have grown because there were branches sticking out of the cages. they are a Bit of a Lighter green on some of them not the Dark Pretty Green that i would like to see... we had 2 inches of rain last night and none expected till next week after today and tomorrow morning... i am going to fight watering them till next week.. it will be in the 90-98 range till past sunday... so i think that we should see some progress soon... HOPEFULLY! Thank you all for your Input and help! i did pull up one of the smaller ones and the roots were nice an healthy

Forgot to mention it, but you can see it in the photos, the veins of the Early Girls especially, but on all the tomatoes in general, are purpleish. The leaves aren't turning colors, but they're kind of tough and leathery. I'm starting to feel like a garden hypochondriac. Every time I look up a new tomato disease or pest, I'm convinced that's what I have, so I'm hoping you all can help me narrow it down. After looking at pictures, I'm thinking maybe the bugs are thrips, and maybe they've spread TSWV to the plants, but some of the physical symptoms of TSWV don't sound exactly right on the money. I'm so confused. I always thought gardening was so simple - throw plants in the ground, water, voila! Not so, I'm afraid. Soooo not so.