Hi Buyorsell. How large is your pond? How many plants are kept in your gh? Are you using an exhaust fan, ventilation? In summer, I haul every plant out of gh and set in the yard. For one, it saves on electric. Plants love the outdoors..there's nothing like fresh air, rain and sun. Since the electric company increased rates by 24%, my plants will return to the gh as late as possible. But even before the price hike, plants went out in spring. Make sure you gh is getting adequate air circulation, Buy. IMO, fresh air is really important. What type of plants do you have from AZ? Since AZ day temps are hot in summer, what about nights? Is there a drop? If so, then the secret is to replicate their native environment. This is difficult when one grows several types of plants used to different conditions. Most plants need warmth during the day and a decrease at night. Most not all. Treat your Boug 'almost' like a succulent, especially in winter. During summer they need more water and fertilizer. Stop feeding in winter..Even during summer, my boug soil dries before getting a drink. Oh, what type of soil do you use? If you're into soil-less mixes, it's a different ballgame. You may need to fertilizer in winter too. I use soil=less mediums like Perlite, Peat etc, but also add potting soil in plants. (I don't have time to water, feed, Superthrive and Epsom Salt over 300 plants three-four times a week, lol) What type of Boug do you have? Is it evergreen or deciduous? Even if it's deciduous it's way too early for leaf drop. My boug gets a slow=release Boug fert, watered well, then soil dries between. They enjoy sun, fresh air, and cooler temps. They adapt well to less or average humidity. About your leaves yellowing..as you know, there are many reasons this happens..Overwatering, nutrient definciency, insects. A woman from GW who lives in IL turned me on to Epsom Salts..Give it a try..Can't hurt. But I think your problem is related to spider mites. Stephs are unpredictable. Mine was purchased between 1989-1991..but it's never, once bloomed..Leaves are healthy, green, no bugs..I decided to set outdoors. In winter, it goes in the upstairs bathroom, west window. Stephs need humidity. Buy, You've probably read some of my posts..I do NOT use chemical insecticides. I mix up my own concoction. I've won the battle of mites/scale/whitefly..mealy are still ahead, but thank God, they seldom appear..it's been 3 yrs since seeing mealy on a Purple Passion. This is what I use for mites. 2-4 drops dish soap, (Not Dawn) citrus rind or juice, finely chopped garlic. (Garlic can plug a sprayer, so instead of chopping, mix this concoction the day before spraying. Place garlic in water, squeeze juice from garlic if possible. A little Cayenne Pepper wouldn't hurt either. Combine ingredients, shake well, then spray plants thoroughly. Week 1, spray 3 times. Week 2, 2 times, Week 3, 1 time..Mites should be gone after week one, but I continue using week 2 and 3 as a preventative. You can substitute..Say you don't have citrus rind..if you have lemon juice, etc, use that. The object is to spray the entire plant. Leaves, over and under, stems, trunk. Do you hose plants in the gh? They'd love a shower. Though you probably have a lot of humidity because of the pond, hosing would add more, knock off insects, and clean foliage..Dust particles form on leaves, so it's best ridding it. If enough dust form, it'll clog leaf pores. I'd focus on ridding mites for now. Halt fertilizing. If you use Superthrive, add some. Hose plants, and either try the spray I mentioned or a mite insecticide. Good luck, Buy or Sell..Take care, Toni

Thanks guys, no I did not supercrop. In fact, I did prune off the suckers ... later I found out that I should NOT have done that. It will severely hurt your yield they say. However, the plants are much bigger then the previous photos and are setting fruit quite nicely. Ill try to get some pics posted tonight. Also, my green pepper plants have sprouted, along with a pretty purple pepper plant, and a beefmaster indeterimante tomato plant. My basil is growing great, and I have been topping the basil which is in turn responding nicely and starting to grow "tops". My lettuce is like a wildfire as well .. fun stuff! Now that I got my newbie mistakes out of the way I think Im ready to rock on the next grow ;) I need to take a few clones of these totem hybrids though, I really like them. I think my next grow however, will be an INDETERMINANT cherry type tomato plant, and an indeterminant slicer variety as well, along with a few green peppers, lettuce, and spinach. Then I want to try a blueberry bush and some strawberries. I dont think the blueberries will be any problem but the strawberries are a different matter. In trying to find a continously producing line. The june bearers only fruit once a year, and then theres a seasonal variety that fruit twice a year.... neither will fit my requirements. I think I need to go with a day neutral variety to get a continous fuit production for the life of the plant??

Jill, A lot of us are in that 'don't need any more tomatoes, but..." category with you. I have to stop and look at every display of tomato plants I see even though I don't even have room for all the seedlings I'm raising. Scott, FYI....Mountain Princess is an heirloom from the Monagahela National Forest region of West Virginia. It is determinate and produces very, very early. For me it is earlier than Early Girl, Glacier and Sophie's Choice. The fruit are fairly small, about 4 to 6 oz., are red and are fairly 'hard' so they can be transported to Farmer's Markets, etc. fairly well. Mountain Princess did really well for me last year. Mountain Fresh and Mountain Glory came out of NCSU's breeding program and were bred by Dr. Randy Gardner, who recently retired. They're the typical hybrid....they look really nice and have lots of disease resistance, with pretty good flavor and good production. I think Randy has released 22 hybrids from his breeding program over the years and most of them have the word 'Mountain' in the name....Mountain Spring, Mountain Pride, Mountain Glory, Mountain Fresh, etc. Dawn

First, I wouldn't pay any attention to anyone who says they "couldn't use all the tomatoes they got off their 2 or 3 plants". Either they must not like to eat tomatoes or they were growing one of the huge cherry tomato-type plants and only like to eat a few tomatoes. It is simply impossible to get so many tomatoes off 2 or 3 plants that you can't use them all. Second, I live in Minneapolis, MN and I have seeded my tomatoes a little over a month ago but how do the green houses get their plants to grow so big? Do they plant their seeds in January? No they don't start them extra early as a rule. Some commercial growers use growth stimulating chemicals on their transplants - something most of us would prefer to NOT use. Expensive and usually not available to the average grower anyway. But the main factors are all the light that is available in a GH that you simply cannot duplicate with the average indoor set-up for growing seedlings and the seed starting mixes they use. Not to mention that they don't over-water like most home gardeners do. But for best results when it comes to transplanting, you don't really want really large transplants anyway - 6-8" is ideal. Granted you have a short growing season but that doesn't mean you can't work with that limitation. Lots of methods for extending that growing season work much better than just trying to transplant big plants. Have you researched methods for extending the season? Using varieties with shorter DTM? Pre-warming soil, cold frame, using low tunnels, covering with a cloche or WOW for earlier planting in the spring? And in Fall row covers or temporary tent covers. All can add 6 weeks to your season and get you more ripe tomatoes. I have always had trouble getting my tomatoes to bear fruit as well. Excessive nitrogen and over-watering are primary contributing factors to that issue. Variety selection and its DTM can also contribute. So give us more details on the varieties you use, exactly how you are growing them from seed, your light set-up and potting mix used, how you are watering your plants once transplanted to the garden, what fertilizer you use and how often, etc. Dave