Hi Sharon: Gypsum has double-the-salt at 8, versus lime (calcium carbonate) at 4. Gypsum is slightly acidic, best used to break up rock-hard clay. I throw gypsum around Romanticas (French rose) with dark-green leaves ... they HATE that stuff: become wilted. Both Romantica Liv Tyler and Austin Evelyn broke out in rust when I put gypsum. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is acidic, the release of calcium is fast, thus driving down potassium. The ratio of nutrients in fertilizer is important, manure has that balanced ratio. Horse manure, even alkaline, kept my roses clean for 3 years ... until the stable switched to wet & acidic straw, and stopped liming. I won't use more than 1 teaspoon of sulfate of potash per gallon ... I learn the hardway, that stuff is VERY HIGH in potassium NPK 0-0-50. Too much potassium without EQUAL ratio of nitrogen, will stunt plants. If you use 1 teaspoon of sulfate of potash, I would also 4 teaspoon of blood meal, NPK 12-0-0 it has iron that stimulate growth. In the past I received 3" band, with zero leaves such as Duchess de Rohan & Mirandy roses. Nothing can make them sprout, not even alfalfa tea, high-nitrogen chemical ... until I put a bit of blood meal. For 3 years I used horse manure as mulch ... it worked well in suppressing weeds, if it's the black-well-composted stuff. The fresher the manure is, the more chance of containing oat seeds. When we have humid weather .. mushroom grow in ALL the mulches (including cypress and $$$ dark ones that smell good), but much less in the red-dyed-recycled wood chips. Even Purdue University article on artillery fungus (similar to black spots), stated that recycled wood-chips is best. Walmart sells them dyed brown, or red. Recycled wood-chips often were treated with fungicide to stop them from rotting. If you use alkaline horse manure, or recycled wood-chips ... there's no need for dusting with corn meal. Dusting with corn meal is effective only if DONE before the humidity starts. Once black spots develop on leaves, the best approach is to ensure balanced-nutrients for new & clean leaves. Dry & alkaline horse manure is the best weapon. I would still use horse manure, but my beds are over-flowed to the max. See below link for the ratio of nutrients in horse manure: perfect for roses, with 0.5 nitrogen, 0.3 phosphorus, 0.6 potassium, 0.3 calcium, and 0.12 magnesium. The advantage of using extra potassium (sulfate of potash), extra nitrogen (blood meal), and extra calcium (lime pellet, or ground limestone) is faster and better root-growth, if done IN THE SAME RATIOS as horse manure. I grew band-size roses in soil amended with compost & manure .... versus MiracleGro NPK 18-24-16 ... versus this approach: 1 part nitrogen, a bit more than 1 part potassium, 1/2 phosphorus, and 1/2 calcium. The last approach yielded thick & strong roots at 2-gallon size, after a few months. Here is a link that might be useful: Composition of manures This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Mon, Jul 21, 14 at 14:30

My four cherokee purple plants came from tomatoes I grew last summer, that came from a tomato I ate in NC the summer before. Last year I had a huge yield from 4 plants. This year, all 4 plants have been stricken with leaves curling up, new and larger leaves. Leathery, really curly little leaves and curled (up) larger leaves. Some small brown spots on larger, older leaves, no yellowing, no dead edges. Growing conditions are ditto to last year. Plants leaves are stunted, growth is stunted. You can see through the plants and overall, the leaves are small yep, and curled. I was told to use Happy Frog fertilizer due to calcium shortage. I don't think this will work. I am going to spray for fungus AND insects. These tomatoes are the best I ever ate, and I've eaten a lot of them. No more seeds available. I should have saved a few.

Bad news coming. Really nice pictures of herbicide (weed killer) damage. If you or someone else didn't use herbicide, possibly contaminated compost or manure. Similar damage on potato could occur with either scenario. RE the contaminated compost or mulch, see this from WSU: http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/Clopyralid.htm If you think that might be possible, be certain to run the simple bio-assay described at the above site. Here is a link that might be useful: herbicide contaminated OM

I believe that there is a big misunderstanding here, as you are lumping tomato yellow leaf-curl begomovirus and tomato yellow leaf curl virus into the same thing. These are two different viruses. Ms. Pfaff is correct: there are no varieties available to home or commercial gardeners for Tomato Yellow Leaf-Curl Begomovirus (or to those of us that study pathology, Sarania). This is a disease that was first found in about 2002/2003 and is a 'newer' strain of the original Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus. It is a small problem for a large grower, but I highly doubt a home gardener would have it. As Ms. Pfaff mentioned, using resistant varieties for other diseases would keep plants healthy enough to combat Sarania if it should strike. What I think you guys are talking about in this thread and getting rather confused on is there good old Tomato Yellow Leaf-Curl Virus. This has been around since forever and any seed company that carries hybrid tomatoes has a tomato that will be resistant to it. The varieties listed above are good examples. The way that Tomato Yellow Leaf-Curl Virus morfed into Toamto Yellow Leaf-Curl Begomovirus is linked to insecticide resistance in the whitefly. The white fly acts as a vector to transmit the disease from plant to plant through it's sucking mouth parts. Initially, farmers treated their viruses by taking out the flies. As the flies built resistance, the virus transcribed into a more virulent form. Thus, it is now a begomovirus. I applaude Ms. Pfaff for being up on her information. GMO varieties for Bego-resistance have only been on the market for a couple years. Quentin, PhD in Plant Pathology and Tomato Breeder working on non-GMO Bego-resistant tomato varieties