In previous years I have coddled my tomato babies and used different contraptions to protect them from inclement weather. I usually have great success. This year, I can barely spare 5min away from my baby girl to sneak into the garden to see how the maters are doing. They aren't doing so great. So, from my original list, I have had to do a few replacements with whatever I could find from the "big box" stores or local plant sales. 1.Great White (need a beefsteak) UPDATE - DEAD 2.Purple Calabash (hoping for taste since I liked purple prince) UPDATE - 1 barely alive (Jbox) 3.Green Sausage (novelty) UPDATE - DEAD 4.Purple Prince (LOVE the taste) UPDATE - DEAD 5.Polish Linguisa (need a paste!) UPDATE - Pretty sure it will be dead when I get home today. 6.Black Cherry (hoping for taste and early) UPDATE - Really DEAD 7.Sungold (last year sucked, give it another chance) UPDATE - One of 4 tomatoes I had in 2 J-Boxes(Josho) that is alive 8.Stupice (early) UPDATE - Not sure actually. Suckers are forming where the original branches were sunburned and windwracked (Jbox) 9.SilveryFirTree (for the foliage) UPDATE - I give it 45% survival chance at this stage 10.Oxheart (need a regular red!) UPDATE - ALIVE! One of 4 in jbox. Managed to find - Red Zebra - Amish Paste Box Stores - Lemon Boy - Sweet Million Will probably get something like beefsteak etc. .Will cross my fingers and pray the rest survives!

Texas growing is a bit different from up North here. Maters like warm soil. I trench plant, meaning I dig a shallow trench lay the mater plant horizontal, leaving four true leaves. Planting, this method the maters get warm soil all the time, plus maters grow roots along their stem. I make my "magic mix" for the trench, mix up ground eggshells, soft rock phosphate, kelp meal. Toss in a handful to the trench, then cover the stem and tilt the mater plant top so it stands straight, if it isn't straight it will be a a day or 2. If you stake your plants, now is a good time to do so, so you don't cut a stem in half later. All the while I am digging mini trenching and tossing magic mix in the trenches the maters are soaking in an Epsom salt bath.. I foilar feed with Fish emulsion at 6 inch stage and water in July with rabbit compost tea. All my beds, either floral or veggie get a dose of cornmeal and dry molasses in March. Alfalfa, I get pellets and soak them overnight and incorporate into the soil. My shredder does NOT like straw or hay for some reason even when I mix it with twigs or leaves. I also use BT for the tomato hornworms. As pretty as the hummers they produce, they can strip a pepper or mater plant to a stick overnight. I don't sell my maters so I guess I cannot be called a professional, I have Blue Ribbons, the one year when Daisy my Auraucana hen sat ontop the mater cage I won for heaviest maters.. 3lbs a piece they were. I have hardly any blossom end rot. I won't age myself stating how long I have done this, lol

ajsmama - I know right! I have to break out the ladder if I want to do anything with them. Drew51 - Wow! All of that looks good, so what you are doing works! I doubt I will ever get that ambitious, but that is a spread to aspire to. Daniel_NY - I trimmed branches and leaves near the bottom but I doubt it is 18" from the soil. They are also mulched to stop some of the soil splashing up. It is cypress mulch and I have heard the lecture, so you can save the keystrokes. : ) I read where someone here rotated between copper fungicide, neem oil, and serenade on a weekly basis. I couldn't find the serenade, so I started rotating the copper and neem when I transplanted. Once the plants got so big and was going through the copper and neem, I stopped. I haven't used either in 6+ weeks. The plant in the pic is the Mortgage Lifter that I have not cut out the yellow so I could post the problem here. The Lemon Boy was the one where I cut the yellow out and sprayed with copper and about a week after that with neem, but it steadily yellowed and died. I believe I was still spraying weekly at that point. I just watered for the first month since the potting mix had compost (and peat and coir-peat), then in May I fertilized with a full dose of MG 10-10-10 weekly. When fruit started to set in late May I switched to MG Tomato Food 27-27-27 weekly. I used MG since I had the 10-10-10 on hand and it was something that I was familiar with. I may use organics next season. I didn't weigh any of the fruit so I do not know how many pounds per plant, but I have ate myself silly, have about 12 pints frozen and have given lots away to several family, friends, and neighbors.

1. when did the various colors of tomatoes come into existence? (yellow, red, black, purple, white, green, pink) No one can say for certain. Early records indicate there were yellow, red and green tomatoes possibly being used by different Meso-American or South American peoples as you eluded to below. I would add it's still up for debate. 2. How did this happen. On purpose or accidentally? I assume you mean color changes. Most of the colors known likely occured as spontaneous mutations. There are a few color variations that occured through cross bredding with different species or induced mutations (irradiation). Sherry is one that was induced. 3. Which colors variations appeared first? Probably green, red and yellow based on the wild species. Some of the orange colors likely evloved later especially in the Galapogos species. Ask McCain or DrC, they were probably around back then ;) 4. Which colors have the most recessive traits? A true green fruit like Green Giant probably has the most recessive traits for color. That would be "gr" for green flesh + "r" for yellow trait + "y" for clear skin (gr/gr,r/r,y/y) Green fruit require 2 separate genes to be homozygous for that flesh trait, green flesh and yellow. The skin is either clear (which is recessive) or yellow (dominate). There have been similar recessives (yellow trait, apricot fruit, high pigment and maybe colorless skin) made but they do not exist in the trade. 5. Is there any relationship between color of the tomato and climate it prefers? Most no. However the trait like Aft (anthocynin or true purple fruit) are expressed more in bright light and cooler temperatures. Aft lines have not really hit the market yet. 6. Is there any relationship between color and vine length? Generally no. However there are certain exceptions. Short determinate vines are determined by a separate gene called "self-pruning" (what people refer to as "determinate"). This gene (sp) sits close on the same chromosome (6) as one of the genes for orange color called "Beta". When genes are close together they are often refered to as being "linked" as they most often show up together but are still independent of each other. "Beta" is an introduced gene to normal tomatoes. It was bred into regular tomatoes and can be found in the variety "caro-Rich". The linkage of "sp" and "B" was broken and Caro-Rich plants are indeterminate. But typically plants with the Beta gene are determinate. There is another exception however the gene doesn't form the fruit color rather it makes the fruit color (whether it be red or orange) more intense by increasing the amount of that coloration pigment. These are the "hp" genes (high pigment1 and 2) and the dark green "dg" gene. In the seedling stage these plants can be stunted compared to normal and seed germination is poor. However once the surviving plants start growing there is little size difference. They just tend to be...