Dan:Figs are late to ripe in NJ This Year.After a short Ripening Flash,the cold weather settled in and the figs stop maturing. I noticed it with all my Adult figs. If warmer days ahead we will have a lot more ripe figs starting next week. Also Your fig Bataglia verde,is young and when young figs mature later than normal. It will mature earlier every year for next 4 years and then you will know if it is a late maturing fig for our area. Stay well

Most palm seeds form in spring and summer, but aren't mature until late fall or early winter. Windmill seeds look like big clusters of blueberries and stay on the tight through the winter. Sabal seeds are small blackish berries and also are ripe as winter approaches. They are often stripped bare by birds and animals, or blow off in the wind. So it's best to collect them a bit earlier. Needle palms don't seed as well as other palms. It may be part of the reason their range is more limited even though they are the most cold hardy palm. I've never seen the seeds, but the fruit reportedly smells like rancid butter. Whatever that smells like.

Big Boy is an indeterminate (never stops growing) and a hybrid (big, strong plant). The tomato Cultivar Finder at the forum I can't name here puts it in their 6-8' and also 8-10' categories for height (I interpret that as an average height of 8'). Ventmarin, a French database, gives its height, translated into American measures, as 8'5" to 9'1". Also, it would normally try to grow large-to-very-large tomatoes (some say size averages 10 oz., others 1-2 lbs.). What will happen if it remains in that small pot is more than I can answer. Whoever grew that tomato and put it in that plastic container should be tried for cruelty to plants.

Thank you robeb and ajsmama! I decided that I'm not ready to pull the plants yet. Ajsmama, all four of my plants show leaf signs, but only one (so far) has lesions on the stem. I will take photos tonight and post them, but over the weekend I removed tons of affected leaves and sprayed really well on Sunday. Since then I've removed only about 10 more leaves and I don't see any spots on the fruit so I think if anything I slowed it down. I did put some leaves in a ziplock bag to send for testing, but dear husband forgot to put them in the mail so they got moldy. I'm still planning to send some for testing as I remove more leaves. Overall, the plants don't look too bad considering the battle and if the LB (or gray mold - still not sure, but I hear the treatment and outcome are about the same) doesn't get used to the spray and start spreading more quickly I might actually be able to harvest some tomatoes. I have over 50 green tomatoes on my 4 plants....I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Of course I'm also worried that even if they ripen on the plants they won't taste good, but come on - it's my first year and I'm not giving up without a fight. The spray says to apply every 7 days, but I'm really tempted to spray again tomorrow. I wonder if there will be any benefit to that, if it won't make a difference or if it will actually do more harm......