Repentantslide,I'm so glad to know the toxicity from the shells is negligible after a short time. If those shells are that old, like you said they should be fine to use. I have added willow oak acorns to my compost on occasions, but not until I crushed them to avoid them sprouting in the pile! My neighbors tree produces millions of them. Looking for a way to get rid of them other than burning.

Better Boy is a favorite around here. Plant it every year.

Big Boy is the tomato I grew up with. My mom planted Big Boy tomatoes every year.

I love the taste of Bog Boy and Better Boy.

gardenfish said:Repentantslide,I'm so glad to know the toxicity from the shells is negligible after a short time. If those shells are that old, like you said they should be fine to use. I have added willow oak acorns to my compost on occasions, but not until I crushed them to avoid them sprouting in the pile! My neighbors tree produces millions of them. Looking for a way to get rid of them other than burning.

And on the off chance I end up stunting or killing my tomatoes somehow, lesson learned

@repentantslide I wonder what causes the toxicity to fade? As in rain? Or sun? Your shells have been protected by your storage building for the past few years. I would go slow and only use a few for a test. JMO Good luck with them and I hope you keep us posted.

They probably weren't protected in a sweltering hot shed all summer for multiple years. Sunlight doesn't degrade the juglone, the heat/oxygen/moisture does because bacteria are what breaks down juglone. That's why it degrades extremely fast in soil. Plus, the idea that the juglone is going to affect the plants requires it to leech out and reach the roots, which means it has a ton of time to be broken down by the soil bacteria before actually reaching the plants. I'm not going to mix in a ton yet, but I also don't anticipate issues.

So, the burpee supersteak tomato I have is putting everything else to shame with its size SO FAR. I've had things start extremely well only to be way behind in fruit production so I'm not going to go so far as to say it's really doing well yet. But I planted it almost 2 weeks after everything else and it's absolutely dwarfing the next biggest tomato.

Maybe just luck? I've seen the same with my seedlings. Sometimes like dogs, the runts turn out to be the best ones.

I know it's not a good angle, just a small update pic for fun.

gardenfish said:Maybe just luck? I've seen the same with my seedlings. Sometimes like dogs, the runts turn out to be the best ones.

Yeah, luck is probably a significant part of it. Whether your particular seed has a unique gene mutation that helps it, whether your weather is cooperating, whether the plants have some disease with few obvious symptoms but which may stunt growth. Lots of factors.


What are some amendments to the soil that you you guys all swear by? I've got compost I'll mix in to the top few inches of soil, and I'll probably dump my entire 8lb bag of organic fertilizer in with it when I do that, it'll be a bit before planting so the compost and fertilizer have time to mix in with the soil and start decomposing fully. Once I get going on this I'm also going to pH test some of the soil with my digital pH meter (not one of the soil ones, an actual scientific use one) and see if it needs lime or acidifier at all. I know a lot of people swear by throwing lime in with their tomatoes and not worrying about the pH, but if my soil was already say 7.5 on the pH, adding lime would only make it more difficult for tomatoes to grow.

Cottonseed meal, bone meal, my problem is decent roots when they are small. All my soil/water is 7.0 so no lime for me. There has been a theory that seeds have an internal timing and do not purposely all sprout together to insure survival in case of catastrophic events. Sometimes runts succumb.

Checked the pH just now, it's 5.5 on the meter but that's obviously affected by the fact that I dilute it a bit with distilled water so the pH meter can actually get a reading, and other factors in testing methodology. In general I'm gonna say the soil is probably nearly ideal acidity so I won't add lime.

When I made my new tomato bed I used a high quality top soil and good old compost I made. I also threw in about 6 40# bags of that compost/ manure mix you can find everywhere. For fertilizer, two aspirins, crushed eggshell, bone meal and fish scraps in the planting holes. As they grew top dressed them with a 3–5-7 organic tomato mix. They don't need a fertilizer high in nitrogen. I was lazy and didn't test the ph, must have been ok because the tomatoes were beautiful. Several plants succumbed to disease; this was my fault, in my area you need to spray tomatoes as a preventative. We have all sorts of diseases and fungi here. When I spray once a week I have no problems.

Yeah I always use copper fungicide as a preventative. Never had blight when I use that, only towards the end of the season when it gets too cold and the plants die from cold faster than disease.

I had a fungus and a bacterial leaf spot disease last year. I sent in a sample to the U of A. It came back naming the two and recommended using copper which I already was. I'm thinking of using actinovate or serenade this year. A tomato grower ( organic grower ) at my local farmers market used serenade last year and recommended it to me.

Does anyone grow Supersonic ? It was one that grew very well for me but I do not really see it anymore.

Most of the tomato vendors still carry it, Harris, Totally Tomatoes , Tomato Growers supply etc
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Supersonic')

Ok, I'm getting a late start but...

First out of the gate to sprout were the two cherries that I'm planting. Cupid Hybrid (cherry) seeds are 2-3 years old. Black Cherry seeds were bought this year. Three seeds per cup... I haven't been to check the germination tray this morning but maybe more have popped out.

Interesting note... The cherry seeds were the smallest but were the first to sprout.

You are not late, I haven't started anything and it's raining in the last few days so I didn't get a chance.

If the coronavirus thing is still making people crazy in the summer I might have to put up an electric fence around my garden to deter thieves. I don't expect it to come to that but the thought is in the back of my mind that people are already going nuts, on the off chance infection rates kept going up and up and up I wouldn't put it past people to start trying to loot any food they can find around.

In other more relevant news, all the tomatoes seem to be doing well, I've got several herbs, other vegetables, and many flowers started too.

I just got back from checking on the germination and these sprouted overnight...

3 of 3 cups of Big Beef
2 of 2 cups of Bella Rosa
1 cup of Cupid (finishes up a total of 2 cups)
1 cup of Black Cherry (finishes up a total of 2 cups)

Beef Masters haven't broken the ground yet.

Germination/spouting is going along nicely. I just got some Carbon seeds out of the mailbox so will be planting a couple of cups of those along with another couple of cups of Big Beef and Cupids to give to a couple of friends. I think I need to make up a few more tomato cages.