Hadn't checked on this thread for awhile. Squirrel, your tomatoes and cukes look great considering your rain! Have you tried top dressing with compost or dry fert and letting the rain take it in? It's true that rain really interferes with fruit set. Your plants might be a little challenged in their container vs. the ground, but the weather this year might have done the same thing to in-ground plants.
fonseca - I would definitely consider you an advanced organic container gardener. I would say I'm intermediate. I'm very impressed by your soil mix and all the amendments. I mostly depend on liquid ferts, and feel lucky if a worm chooses to live in my container. Did you put worms in yours or did they just migrate in on their own? I wonder if they like your big troughs better than smaller containers?
What brand of Neem are you buying, fonseca?
I have made aerated compost tea in the past, and I think this really helps innoculate containers with soil life they would lack otherwise. Some people say organics in containers causes "boom and bust" cycles instead of going along evenly like in the soil. I think if we regularly add life it can really help. This year I haven't made any compost tea (got rid of all that stuff a couple moves ago) but I have been using Texas Tomato Food with mycos, which seems to be very helpful.
Here's this morning's harvest:
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Jenn
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