Karen - You may be thinking of the use of an early Fava beans cover crop (chopped into the soil before flowering) to reduce Verticillium/Fusarium wilt and (maybe) other fungal diseases in tomatoes. I haven't read the research on this one yet, but the idea is that certain amendments to the soil promote the growth of beneficial fungus/bacterial that then protects the tomato against pathogenic fungus. I've been experimenting with several other amendments and have read quite a few (scientific) journal articles on other studies. Some of the research is really interesting, especially what is coming out of Spain. I've been experimenting with amendments for a few years and have had very good luck reducing wilt damage. I've used the addition of beneficial microbes (root zone and rootshield) at planting with shrimp shells and crab shell compost. Last year, I believe these amendments also protect my plants somewhat against late blight. My plants got late blight much later than my immediate neighbors and stayed alive and produced (admittedly, at a reduced level)for about a month and a half. Some plants remained completely alive all season. If you want to try any of these amendments, please be aware that they will not work with chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers inhibit the growth of beneficial microbes and their association with the plants I talked to someone recently who uses the fava bean method with good success against wilt. I am planning on trying it this year. He suggested using the bell favas available from Territorial Seeds. You will need to plant them very soon. I don't know if this method will work against early blight, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Good luck with whatever you try, Bellatrix

I agree with previous posts - my bush beans always put out heavy crops for a month, stop, then restart again and produce up until frost. In fact I cover them for protection from the early frosts to extend the harvest. They stopped producing earlier than usual this year due to heat stress. I am certain they will kick in again if we get a break from the heat - in fact just today I noticed new flower buds are developing. Keep watering them as needed while they are dormant if you are not getting any rain. I am currently harvesting my pole beans, which will carry me over until the bush beans kick in production again. I feel that planting both bush and pole beans is the best strategy for this very reason, if a person has the gardening space. Planting successive crops never really works that well for me because the same heat that shuts down production of the established bush beans also stresses the younger bush bean plants, causing them to stunt and produce mediocre quality beans. But it is always good to try different methods to judge for yourself.

Oh. I thought different vegies needed different ratios of salt and water, for safety reasons. Is that all wrong? Different veggies may benefit flavor-wise from different brine levels but that is a matter of taste. As long as you use one of the recommended salt brine levels - see salt brine charts referenced above in Joy of Pickling (JOP) for example - then you can safely ferment any vegetable or mixture of vegetables. This, of course, assumes you use the proper fermenting techniques too - enough brine to cover the amount of vegetables, time, air temps, cover, skimming, etc. Dave PS: Randy - feel free to start a new thread. That way the OP won'r be getting all the emails if it turns into a long discussion. :) This post was edited by digdirt on Sat, Oct 26, 13 at 11:16

I am having a similar problem ... even no flowers !! It had been very hot, but now a little cooler for the past week or so. Why ?