jimster - This is only my first time using blocks, so I'm not the best one to give advice. But so far they seem to be holding together. Like Dave says, your mix shouldn't have large chunks. I tested pro mix mixed with compost, and those blocks held together really well. But I wanted a coir based mix, so I mixed my own. That mix uses about 1/2 coir, 1/4 perlite and 1/4 compost, plus a small mixture of amendments. Those blocks aren't as solid as the pro mix/compost blocks. But so far they're doing ok. I messed up with my seed germination, but I'm keeping some of 'em so I can experiment with the blocks. I'm going to start over on the 12th when the moon's in a better place:) I added a link to an ebook on soil blocks. Here is a link that might be useful: link to ebook on soil blocks

Are the bush ones from Tina? She sent me some as well. I was on vacation when they came so I wasn't sure they were going to survive at all. Two survived. One was planted in a large container outside and it doing fantastic! I haven't even tried to harvest because I wasn't sure when/how.... BUT dug my finger into the soil yesterday to find a nice large sweet potato!! You'd have thought I won the lottery I was so excited! LOL........ The other one I planted in a concrete planter on the lanai. It's only half the size and I don't see any signs of potatoes. Probably because the screen cuts down on the sun's energy? So can we take cuttings off of the vines and root them for more plants that will produce?

Thanks Jen Rick

Suzie, I think you'll still get beets. I just don't know what their flavor and texture will be like. In this crazy, mixed-up-weather-year, I don't even know that beets which were planted on time would have produced fine. After all some of us had temperatures in the 90s and 100s in March and April and in the 30s and 40s in May. Who knows what that sort of weirdness does to any cool-season plant? My sugar snap peas were planted exactly on time and have struggled in the erratic weather. They are producing, but they are very heat-stressed and drought-stressed and are not likely to give as good of a harvest as they did last year. However, the onion harvest will be better and the lettuce harvest has been great, but the heat is making the lettuce bolt even earlier than usual. We raised enough lettuce for about 300 servings of "salad", and what we couldn't use ourselves, we fed to our chickens who devoured it gleefully. I guess over the years, it all evens out, but for once I'd like to have all the crops produce well in the same year....but they never do. Kelly, Normally blossom drop is a function of the air temperatures being too low or too high. As soon as the weather normalizes (yes, go ahead and laugh at that thought if you wish), the blossom drop should stop. Usually blossom drop is more of an April or early May problem while nights are a touch too cool. It then returns a couple of months later when high temps start getting too high. Since we have had unseasonably cool nights for the last week or so, it isn't surprising you are seeing some blossom drop. I'd leave the plant alone and let it grow and flower normally with no attempted intervention. It will flower and set fruit when the conditions are right for it. With Blossom End Rot, it is a complex issue not as strongly related to calcium deficiency as once believed. It is more of an issue with the vascular system of the plant and how it utilizes the calcium it has. Uneven watering is much more a direct cause of BER than a lack of calcium in the soil, so strive to maintain evenly moist soil as opposed to cycling from wet soil to dry soil back to wet soil again. I'd throw the eggshells on the compost pile where they'll break down and improve the compost. They often get credit for 'fixing' a BER problem, but they don't break down into a usable form of calcium very quickly so they aren't really the solution people think they are. Once a tomato plant grows and its vascular system is more mature, BER often stops as long as the plant is getting even moisture, and then folks are convinced the eggshells were the reason the BER stopped. I was normal when Tim and I got married almost 30 years ago. By 2003, I had 400 tomato plants in the ground and a husband who wondered what had happened to his seemingly normal wife. He's still wondering, by the way, and I can't grow that many tomato plants any more because the deer eat them nowadays if I plant them outside the fenced garden. My current dogs don't eat tomato plants, but they'll play ball with green tomatoes. That is our own fault. We always have those lime green tennis balls for "play time", and if you leave the garden gate open, they dogs are likely to go inside and find a nice green tomato ball to bring you to throw for them. I can understand why a dog wouldn't be able to look at green tomatoes and understand that they are not tennis balls. My garden is dog-proof as long as I remember to close the gate securely. Sometimes a dog drops an old tennis ball near the garden gate and looks at me pleadingly. I think it is trying to trade in an old, faded, used-up, flat, nearly fuzz-less tennis ball for a fresh, green tomato. Dawn