Thanks for posting, mersiepoo. I have not grown russets in years so I do not have any russet in my TPS gene pool - would you be interested in trading this fall? Interesting book suggestion, will look into it further when time permits. I have no time for reading during the busy growing season but I try to read a few books during the winter break. "Anyway, you sound like a committed plant breeder!" - No, just a person whose hobby has gotten way out of control. :-) Hi minnie. Thanks for reconnecting, it has been a while. I have been following your posts on another gardening site regarding your land acquisition. Congratulations! I wish you all the best on your new "digs". Sorry to hear of disease problems happening in your area. Things are going fine here in southwest MN, but a bit on the strange side. I am convinced the reduced solar output last couple years is having an effect as well. Weeds have been absolutely horrible this year in my area. Field corn plants around here are maxing out at 10-11 feet in height but plants are producing only 1 smallish/average ear each. Onions are doing very poorly, will be my worst crop in many years. Will not be any of my traditional fresh batter fried onion rings this year and that is a REAL bummer. May have to go shop my local farmers market to get my onion ring "fix". Garlic harvest was generally mediocre once again but I finally have around 150 very large, healthy German Browns of the quality I had before AY wiped me out. Took three years, almost lost hope and quit - this was going to be my last year attempting to reestablish my crop of market garlic. Have a few other varieties that are now showing promise as well. No way around it, it just takes time to properly acclimate garlic. Pepper plants doing average. I have a hundred ghost pepper plants that are doing very well because I am babying them and spoiling them rotten. I have a contract to sell the peppers. Project has been more labor intensive than I estimated it would be, oh well. First picking of ripe ghost peppers will be tomorrow for Monday delivery. Potato growing went well this year, but CPB was a serious problem. Potato plants were huge but hills yielded average weights and sizes. Very good quality tubers, though, and they are coming out clean with no scab whatsoever. No hollows, no internal brown spots, no insect/wireworm damage. I have harvested 475 pounds of potatoes so far and am a little over halfway done. Carola is my best producer this year, averaging 4.25 lbs. per hill. Most varieties are in the 3 lbs. per hill range. The poorest standard variety is Irish Cobbler at 1.89 lbs. per hill. Cobbler was one of my best producers last year. Strange how that works... Tomato plants here are doing well. This year I waited until April 16 to start my seedlings and I planted them out second week of June. Worked great but next year I am going to push tomato seed starting back even further, to April 23. Planted 80 plants and lost only one. Lots of healthy growth and time now to do a little trimming in order to be able to get in for harvesting. I spaced tomato plant rows six feet apart and I cannot walk through some areas. Guess I have to change the spacing to 8 feet in future. Barring a hail event I will finally be getting a decent tomato crop, probably my best in the last 10 years. Disease issues under control, but I do have some septoria and late blight issues which is typical for this time of year. Problem I have been having is squirrels and raccoons eating into the tomatoes but I have been working on this issue with some success. From one plant, variety "Bull's Heart" oxheart, I have already harvested five tomatoes with a combined weight of 6.25 lbs. and there are still more ripening on the plant. In total I have harvested around 3 dozen tomatoes so far, bulk harvest will be starting probably end of next week based on how many are finally starting to turn. The big processing push is coming very soon and I am looking forward to it. The larder is quite bare of canned tomato goods and I need to restock. I understand your decision to not save seeds and wanting to start with new commercial tuber stock, probably a wise move. As time passes I find myself becoming more and more protective of my soil and less inclined to acquiring outside seed/planting stock from non-commercial sources. Even the commercial sources are starting to concern me. In one of his threads, though, Tom Wagner spoke of how he treats his TPS to kill off anything nasty. My TPS plants are now starting to wind down. Cannot wait to dig them up and see what is there. I hope to post a couple of pics at the appropriate time, but I have had camera issues and have no time or interest to shop for a new one right now. BTW, last winter someone gave me TPS labeled "Rosalina" in trade but I cannot find any information on a potato variety by that name. Likely I misread the packet label, or perhaps that person just came up with their own variety name. Anyway, if anyone knows what it might be I would appreciate a quick comment. Blue flowers, stocky healthy plants with beautiful dark green leaves, somewhat CPB resistant, good seed berry producer, so I really want to correctly ID them if possible for my records. I want to isolate some of those plants next year for growout. Well, gotta go dig taters before it gets too hot outside to work... -Tom

I cannot compare as I chose to plant a Gold Nugget and a Valencia. BTW/ my Washington Navel and Moro do very well in the bay area and the fruits are delicious. Gold Nugget is a better choice if you like seedless mandarins. Trovita, is seeded, if that is a consideration for you. I have read on the cloudforest cafe forums of people in chilly areas of california doing well with Trovita. Please also consider the Oro Blanco grapefruit. It is sweet, unlike a grapefruit, and it was bred for cooler areas and FourWinds recommended to me (I spoke to Aaron Dillon, from their founding family, at one of the local citrus tasting events) that it is a great grapefruit for the bay area and their #1 recommended grapefruit for this region. I use the organic "CitrusTone" fertilizer for mine and sometimes supplement with Iron. I water regularly for new plantings, but once established, I am quite lax about watering. Good luck.

John...He mentioned in both vids that it was pretty much for ornamental looks. Said that you would be able to see the fruit hanging down the trunk. At the same time...I believe there would be a benefit in removing the branches and exposing more fruiting collars. Here's a shot of mine with the bottom branches pruned off. The glass in back is approx. 13' up. This is the tree after pruning the shi$$ out of it. I normally prune this harsh but this time I took out those small, whip branches he mentioned...and any that were hanging down. He hit the nail on the head when he said that they recover and rejuvinate quickly. Mine always bounces back very fast and will be full again in no time. I need to prune the height quite often and need to keep the shape of the plant column-like due to space constraints. Maybe this time there will be some flowers to accompany the new growth!

Well Debi, you have waited a day. How about the guy without much mulch mental muscle taking a swing at it? You aren't wanting to pull back that thick mulch and sow seed below it, right? Your mulch won't know the difference between weed & flower seed if it ends up over the top of it, at some point. Use of mulch on grass seed is probably at a minimal not suppression level. Here is what I've seen people do. They have replaced some of their mulch with potting soil in strategic areas. There, they have sown seeds. Steve