bejay9_10, Sadly, I had 2 life-long friends that lost their homes, one in Ramona and one in Poway. Growing up, I remember my Dad hauling livestock for folks every fall during the Santa Ana season. I actually grew up on ranch in the corner of Mexico, Calif. & Arizona. All my agriculture family have relocated to Montana and Wyoming which is where many of them started out originally, so many years ago. Land is just too valuable in California to run cows on. I read recently that California is losing 15% of its agriculture land to housing each year. Someone here said that they did not care what happened to California but we all should care. We all "eat" off that state 6 months out of the year. I cannot blame farmers/ranchers 'tho. They can sell their land to developers and earn more than they could in 2 lifetimes of farming/ranching. As I said, I really miss the California of my youth. It was all wide-open spaces then and you could get on your horse and ride forever. Wyoming is fortunate to have only 500,000 people in the whole state, a statistic that has remained the same for 5 census. Yet, even here, we are begining to see "tract Housing" in the more urban areas (We only have one...Cheyenne. LOL) And I know you all think we live in one big blizzard for 8 months but actually, I am in the far north, just inside the Montana/Wyoming border. We are surrounded by mountains on 3 sides (Big Horn's, Pryor's & Absaroka's) and go most of the winter with no snow on the ground. Huge agriculture area here: cows, Sheep, Sugar Beets, Barley (For Coors & Budweiser) and fabulous Alfalfa hay. I usually average 150 days growing season. After I read your post I remembered that the Bakery was not in Julian but Santa Isabel. They had GREAT bread. Have a great Thanksgiving! Mary

It is, in my experience, common for the older leaves to brown and die as the plants grow. the rest of the plant looks quite nice. If it were my plant, I'd simply cut off the browning leaf segments and watch to see if and/or how it progresses. However, if you're fairly certain it's not normal, you could look into these things: If it was too strong a nutrient, you'd also be seeing the effects in the upper leaves. if not, that's probably not it plus it takes a lot to over fertilize a tomato. It's possible there is some kind of nutrient deficiency that wasn't present earlier and the plant is taking the necessary nutrients it needs from the older leaves to use on new growth and / or fruit. Have you been changing your nutrients at regular intervals? It could also be the older roots are dying off, possibly being constricted by the newer roots. since the older roots feed the older leaves (in general) that could be causing what you're seeing. how big is the bottle of clay pellets you have this in? does the medium appear root bound? have you examined the brown leaves for bugs? sometimes you need a 10X or better magnifying glass to see little things like mites. From the picture, it doesn't look like mite damage, but that's not to say it couldn't be something else. as for the green on your tube, that IS likely algae. it won't hurt your plants though it does compete for nutrients. algae only grows where there is adequate light, so you might try covering the pipe with something that'll block the light. I like to put a piece of black pipe (used for landscape irrigation) over my clear pipes to deter just such a thing. Really though, if it's only in your pipe and not all over the place in your nutrient solution, you needn't be too concerned with it. well except for aesthetics.

Tough to say much when we cn only see a frgmentof a plant. One thing: Looks starved. Another: short of water (dry leaf edges) Also probably heat stressed if against a south- or west-facing wall. What size container? What did you use to fill the container? Any fertilizer yet? Please post image of entire plant.

Sure! My changes and info is in ()s. Oven dried tomatoes (Patris) In large bowl combine: 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar 1 Tsp. Lemon juice 1/4 cup fresh chopped (or dried) Parsley (I skipped) 1 Tbl. chopped Rosemary (I skipped) Dried Pepper flacks to your taste, oppt. (I skipped) Salt & Pepper to taste (just pepper for me) Leave skin on and cut tomatoes in to bite size pieces. Take out any seeds. (I sliced mine in abt 1/8" slices) Place tomatoes in the mixture and refrg. for at least 2 hours. (better if left over night and it's best if they sit in the marinate. I used a tupperware bowl and just turned it upside down ever hour so the marinate was distributed well.) Set oven on lowest temp. Max. 200 degrees. Take tomatoes out of mixture and spread on cookie sheet. It's OK if they touch. (I put mine on a cookie sheet with parchment paper) They will need to Oven dry for about 14 to 16 hours. Size of pieces will determine time. (Mine were dried in 4-5 hrs) Amount of tomatoes is up to you. You will not be able to stop eating them. I have put most of mine up in the freezer. They are especially wonderful in pasta dishes or salads. Michelle