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Old April 5, 2011   #23
b54red
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
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Feldon, I haven't given up on RootShield yet since I tried it on all of my plants so far this year. If I see some improvement over last year then I think it might be worth using again.
As for giving in and planting everything in containers, forget about it. Down here containers need watering twice a day and sometimes even more on hot windy days and the tomatoes just don't taste as good nor do they get nearly as large. I have major problems with fusarium but I overcome them by planting a lot of tomatoes and by staggering the plantings and I usually make more than we need. I also keep a large number of seedlings ready to replace the ones that die. I usually can find one variety or another that will survive in that very spot where the previous plant died of fusarium. When it gets mid summer I will also start adding Big Beef to my plantings because of its strong resistance to fusarium and it is a decent tomato for a hybrid. This year I have started seed for over 100 varieties and I know before I start that most will die of either fusarium or TSWV; but I should still make enough tomatoes to fill the freezer with sauce and give away a few hundred. Last year despite losing at least half of my tomato plants before they made ripe fruit, I had the largest production I have ever had in over 35 years of gardening. I quit counting full size tomatoes after 1500 and I still had all of my fall tomatoes to go.
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