As Dave said, if you like them, they're fine. Sometimes fermentation is very slow or at such a low level it's hard to discern. I'm guessing it's cool temperatures affecting the fermentation. Cool enough and foods won't ferment at all, but that's hard to imagine outside a fridge in the summer. Carol

I just made a batch of quick refrigerated pickles and I have a question..... first off, let me say my experence is limited. I used to make pickles by just adding some seasoning, pickling spices, garlic and water, put them in a tupperware, and refrigerated until they tasted OK.... they didn't alwas come out great, but definately edible. Recently I began to grow some Burpee Picklers, and I've been successful, so it was time to try my hand at pickling again. A couple of weeks ago,I boiled a mixture of pickling spices, dill weed, pepper, and sea salt; let cool, and poured over sliced cukes in a cleaned store bought jar with garlic and onion added, with also a small amount of 5% acid vinegar. The pickles taste good, but too sweet for my taste (can taste too much of the cinnemon from the pickling spice.)I call them sweet and sipcy. I let the jar sit at room temp for about 24 hours, then refrigerated. Tonight, I made a new batch. Boiled dill seed, dill weed, "it's a dilly" seasoning (has garlic, lemon peel in it also)and sea salt. After boil, I removed the residue, and poured over the cukes with small amount of vinegar, hot & sweet pepper, garlic, and onion, and topped of with some whole dill greens. It's sitting on the counter as we speak, and I planned on putting in the fridge after about 36 hours. Now, the questions..... am I way off base with my technique? can the pickles be harmful if left ut too long? what effect does the vinegar have in this process? Help, Help, Help!

Jimmy, I would advise two things. Back off on the spray a bit. I don't know the makeup of your washing up liquid, but you may be too strong on your mixture. If you have a small vacuum cleaner, you can actually vacuum the flies off. I do some of my plants that way when the whitefly starts. This helps reduce the number of times I need to spray. Don't trim off the leaves. With the kind of temperatures you're getting, some edge browning would not be unexpected. If you trim too many, the plant can't do enough photosynthesis and will either perform badly or die. The damage to the leaves that I see in your pictures do not look like bacterial spec or spot. It "could" be the beginning of blight, but not far enough along to be absolute. So, I would recommend you wait a bit. You may have to resort to a chemical spray to control the critters. Lincolnshire, eh. I was at RAF Lakenheath, just north of Newmarket. All of the weather came off the North Sea and across The Wash and was cold and wet. But, the British people were warm and accommodated us Yanks as best as they could stand. Got to meet Prince Charles when he toured our facility. Lots of good memories of the time we spent there. My wife and I still talk about the wonderful market on the square at Mildenhall village, and our annual trip to Newmarket for the running of "The 1000 Guineas". Let us know how you do. Ted

Hi Ettenna1, I agree with Dave and I hate to say this, but that looks like herbicide damage to me, although it is remotely possible it could be viral since the thickend curling type of leaf and stem growth are exhibited by both. Herbicide damage is a lot more common that we like to think since so many people use yard maintenance services and they don't always wait for a perfectly still day to spray like they are supposed to do. (If they did, they might have to go out of business since they are so far and few between, LOL!) If no one near you uses a yard service, are you using grass clippings for mulch? That could also transfer a herbicide to your plants, since the half life of many herbicides is pretty long. Years ago I think I killed some small bushes I planted and then mulched with copious amounts of grass clippings that I had been gifted with (free for the hauling!) I no longer use other people's grass clippings unless I know for sure they don't have any herbicides on them. The good news is, that if it is herbicide damage, they will probably grow out of it. If the source is drift, talk to the neighbors because if you know when they are spraying, you can protect your plants (and be sure to share some tomatoes when you have some ripe ones.) If it is from grass clippings, pull them away from your tomatoes. I hope that helps. Betsy