To: THURSTON ACKERMAN
Subject: Jet Star tomateos ????
TA>this spring and had to settle for some Jet Stars
TA>So far they have been rather disappointing; with only one medium
TA>fruit each on five and three on the sixth plant. I use Mircle-gro
TA>every other week and water each day to make up for the drought
TA>we have had the past two months here in the Boston suburbs.
  Hmmm, how much foliage do these plants carry, Ack? My recollection is
  that they are fairly sparse in the leaf. If you have real bushes, I'd
  look at my fertilizing methods first. And cut it out!
TA>Is this normal for Jet Stars (or could it be because I cut back
TA>to three tablespoons of epson salt instead of cup per gallon ?-(
  It could be normal for a poor tomato year. Maybe in your rush to urge
  stalled plants along in the cool spring, you stunted their growth and/
  or fruiting ability with too much of a good thing. As an experiment,
  remove a healthy branch and root it in sand. Then plant it in the same
  area in the same soil, but not where you've been fertilizing, and
  watch what happens. The branch can root in less than a week, so you
  have a bit of leeway before frost. You may not get any ripe tomatoes,
  (you can cover it on frosty nights and see), but it may give you
  insight as to the real cause of such disappointing results.
  If the new plant(s) send out a bunch of healthy looking buds and set a
  decent amount of fruit before frost, you can be reasonably sure your
  fertilizing was too heavy handed. You were too good to them. :-)
  If the plants make MORE leaves and more buds simultaneously, I'd
  consider not using magnesium at all. My peppers failed the one and
   only time I used magnesium on them.
   And ask any tomato-growing neighbours how their plants are doing. A
   rain yesterday ended a mini-drought that had my usual complement of
   mice slurping my almost ripe tomatoes for moisture. Again. They do
   prefer Brandywine and Pruden's Purple, my top tasty ones. :-(
                     ...Sandra...
---
 þ QMPro 1.52 þ I'm justa possum on the Information Super Highway of life
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
---------------