I've plucked several from my tomatoes this week. I found their huge caterpillar poop outside the bed and went on a search to find what pooped it. They were chowing down on the plants. Those are way to big (and I'll bet juicy) for me to squash so I took them away from the garden and tossed them figuring the birds would get them. When I checked the area the next day, I saw one crawling around out there still, the others were gone. I found another on the tomatoes and this time snipped off the branch it was on. Later, the branch & worm were both gone, I'm guessing they were a snack. I agree, they are pretty (but they still give me the shivers when I pull them off the plants). I'm not a big fan of killing things so even though I most likely fed them to the birds, they could still be alive out there somewhere... Here is a link that might be useful: CSU Hornworm info

I'm not sure where we are growing season-wise to be honest. The weather has been so crummy in July. Even today it looked like we were finally going to have a sunny 80+ degree day and now a front is passing through, it's raining and it feels more like early May than July. Normally, given the abundance of tomatoes I probably will have - I would just transplant to see what happens. But two of the plants are a Carbon & Gold Medal Yellow and those are the only two I have of those varieties that are really producing anything (given their stunted growth from the pot and the weather - not a lot... but at least I may get a half-dozen tomatoes off of each). If the prevailing opinion is transplanting would cause them to drop their fruit, I think I'd rather have six tomatoes from each plant than maybe none. Can a root cutting be any healthy stem off the plant or does it have to be from a certain area?

These are the largest tomatoes from my 09 season: 4.83 Perry 09 UOW = (5.58 Timm X open) 4.14 Perry 09 UOW = (BelMonte X Open) 3.59 Perry 09 UOW = (unknown) 3.52 Perry 09 UOW = (Church) 3.50 Perry 09 UOW = (unknown) 3.24 Perry 09 UOW = (unknown) For a couple of months I held the Ohio State Record with The 4.83 Perry beating my last years Ohio State Record of 4.48 pounds. The record was short lived as it was CRUSHED when Nick Harp brought his 7.18 pound tomato to the OVGPG weigh-off in Canfield, Ohio. You can pick up some of the World's greatest Giant tomato genetics at our first ever Giant Genetics seed auction at www.perrysgreenhouse.com. This may be your ONLY chance to acquire seeds from the new 7.18 N. Harp, Ohio State Record and fourth largest tomato ever grown in the WORLD. This Auction is being held to help support keeping a great community online, running smoothly and offering our members the latest in bulletin board software and features. 90% of the procedes of this auction will be designated to community development and covering associated cost of running the site. 10% of the Net procedes of this auction will be designated to helping disabled veterans via a donation made to: VAMC Care of: Jack C. Montgomery VAMC Voluntary Service (135) 1011 Honor Heights DR. Muskogee OK 74401 Tel: 1-800-397-8387 This will be the first in a two part series of auctions, with the next auction comprising of Giant Pumpkin, Squash, Long Gourd, tall corn, sunflowers and other Giant vegetable genetics. You never know what might show up !?! This years auction is packed full of top quality seeds from a host of the worlds best Heavy Hitter Growers. Bidding opens: Sunday evening Jan. 10th 2010 at 12 pm EST, and ends Sunday Jan. 17th 2010 at 7pm EST. Thank You and Good Luck Bidding! Duane Perry, website administrator.

I assume you understand that given the unusual and artificial indoor growing methods you are using that the flavor and productivity of any variety will be affected and in most cases reduced? Just as one cannot expect field-grown flavor from greenhouse grown tomatoes, one cannot expect nearly the same levels of production from container grown plants. And your methods of leaf reduction, spectrum alteration, and containerized soil moisture control would have even more effects. As someone who does all three - GH, container, and field growing - I learned years ago that you have to learn to keep the expectations in line with the methodology regardless of the variety used. Dave