Never heard of the stump.
OG-50 rocks for me.

hybridized heirloom?????
Oh my lol.

No heirlooms around here unless you like spraying 2-3X/week. Fungus and disease will take out heirlooms in a heartbeat. If I want nay production, I buy hybrid and plus varieties. Spray less and get more veggies.

I try to spray natural/organic insecticides/fungicides but sometimes I have to spray synthetic. I try my best to not use any roundup. Black tarps/covers work extremely well.

Been real dry around here. I mean REALLY dry. Glad I use fertigation.

Hope everyone has a bumper crop!

Are there Mushrooms in Siberia ?

Funny guy!

I tried planting some Banana Legs tomatoes in the past two years but they germinated very poorly and were sickly. A lot of people on different websites who also tried planting this variety complain about the same thing. Only one plant survived last year. I kept the seeds to plant this year, but forgot where I put them. I still wanted to grow some so I rummaged through a big jar with dried tomatoes and found some pieces that looked like Banana Legs, but I because dried them at 75C/167F (probably a bit lower in the upper trays, but still hot) the pieces were browned, almost caramelized. I though I wouldn't lose anything if I tried, so I planted a dozen seeds hoping at least some of them weren't cooked, and not only did they ALL germinate, the sprouts were very robust, with thick stems. The same happened with my Silvery Spruce Tree heirloom tomatoes. Also from the dryer, and the young plants are unusually robust.



I discussed it with some local women who happen to be molecular geneticists and they said it was very obviously the beneficial effect of heat shock. It kills pathogens in the seeds including viruses, turns on protective genes, alters accumulated epigenetic changes and triggers DNA repair mechanisms. None of them had tried it with their vegetable seeds though. Accumulated sickness with heirloom seeds seems to be a big issue especially because the tomato originates from equatorial countries and probably needs extreme heat sometimes. I thought I'd share this trick.


The biggest, healthiest transplant this year however is from a seed that got stuck and dried up on the cutting board, from a cherry tomato that I bought in a local booze store this winter that also sells cheap food. It's 1.5 times taller than the rest (and I have quite a few other tall varieties this year).

Very interesting about the heat.
Have heard about forest fire and
wild fire affects but not on food crops.
I will bring this up for a
Penn State Guru grad friend.
Thanks.

Today--- 90F degree weather
not the seasonal norm

Have been picking a few cherry tomatoes and jalapeño peppers. I grow all my tomatoes in containers mow, so when some kind of wilt or virus hits them, I can just throw out the dirt, bleach the container, and plant again next year



My green beans will be ready to start picking in a few days