Toxic Empathy does not help her. It's fine to think you can comprehend what she MAY have had going on...there's no diagnosis remember. But to think she should not pay for these senseless deaths is dangerous at the least.

Well Wildchild…TDS really does look a lot like a psychotic condition-not that far from the hallucinations Clancy claims to have had. Their comments might be pretty apropos here. The man literally LIVES in their head nonstop!

As we see right here-as usual! It always turns to him!

When I thought I heard of them all a new one pops up, or below. Had to look it up and appears to be a hard pest to control, good luck.

This is what AI lists to control them, for what it's worth.

• Fungus-based control: Apply Beauveria bassiana spores as a safe soil drench to target the insects.
• Root drenches: Use organic insecticidal soaps, pyrethrum, or azadirachtin (neem extract) directly into the root zone.
• Hydrogen peroxide: Soak the top few inches of soil with a 3% solution to kill pests on contact.

I'd try the hydrogen peroxide first if it was me.

And why I said, from AI for what it's worth. You found Hydrogen Peroxide is worthless from a creditable source, so good to know. AI has a habit of going to youtube, reddit and doornob garden websites for info, right or wrong. When using AI for serious answers a must tell it first off, no youtube, social sites or garden websites looking for clicks, only creditable sources and peer reviewed data. I didn't do that this time and see what happened.

"They haven't spread to ornamentals or vegetable garden?"

I see them most on the dandelions in the vegetable garden, but I've not noticed them on other plants.

Sounds like you've been very lucky. I was told they will move around the garden.

I made Anna's recipe today and followed it as written but I left the sugar out. It was sweet enough for us with just the tomato paste . Adding sugar has no effect on the PH in either direction at all so won't effect a PH reading. It had a very nice fresh aroma my wife and I both liked, the flavor was very good and nothing was overpowering.

After letting a sample cool to room temperature I only got a few drops of liquid on a #8 strainer after 2 minutes so it's very thick and certainly won't drip from a chip. I turned the salsa sample into a paste with an immersion blender and took the reading with my newest PH meter. The number was 3.99 which is a safe number nearly in the sweet spot commercial producers shoot for, 4.00 to 4.20 and is also my own target.

I didn't sample the liquid to see the Ph difference between juice and solids but because of the low vegetable to tomato ratio and fine chop size (1/4") I'm nearly confident PH equilibrium is complete. In my opinion I don't see the PH creeping above 4.05 and will never hit 4.2, and the chance of the Ph going to 4.6 is an huge absolute ZERO.

The sauce is very safe, but I'm not an approving authority so take it for what it's worth. I would can and eat it with absolutely no fear at all. It's a good salsa but I'm sorry to say I did not can it. Not because it wasn't good, it was, but it just doesn't fit the profile of salsa we personally like with a higher percentage of vegetables and a little less tomato paste and sauce.

It didn't go to waste and we made spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage and knocked out the vinegar with baking soda and MSG s, along with other seasonings.

As I've often said, taste is subjective and not objective, so not everyone likes the same thing.

I'm glad it didn't go to waste.

Annie

Could be the belt came off the trans axle pulley or you forgot to push a button. Then again your mower was made by Husqvarna or MTD and came with very cheap trans axles, both will leak out the hydraulic fluid or if an MTD, just prematurely wear out.

I'll check the belts, but what button did I forget to push?

You are all dancing around the elephant in the room.

What happens when it gets cold? Cold isn't single digits or zero. Cold is -15F, -20F. It is days with single digit highs.

That has always been the real question on this thread. Given the Fred Astaire act, I don't think anyone here knows the answer.

PART 1 - Why your plant looks sickly.

Tomato plants rank priority for available nutrients to the fruit, followed by growth and then roots. When phosphorous, potassium, nitrogen and magnesium are unavailable from the roots the plant takes these nutrients from the bottom leaves to supply the fruits to produce seed, seed is it's main objective, and will sacrifice foliage to achieve it's goal. The first sign of low or unavailable nutrients is if the plant stall out. There should be at least 6 inches of new growth per week even when fruit is hanging on the plant for an indeterminate tomato plant, and what you have. Miracle grow potting soil has little fertilizer in it, and alone will never grow a tomato plant through even half a season. They needs 14 nutrients they aren't getting, and no different than a human not getting all the nutrients and minerals they need.

Part 2 - The fix.

The plant needs fertilized. Organic fertilizers for a potted tomato plant will usually be ineffective because of the long time lag of weeks to month from application to become available to the plant. The fix is synthetic fertilizers plants can absorb immediately, not next week, or next month like organic, but the day you apply it.

and this is where it gets complicated, finding an all-in-one fertilizer that has all the nutrients in it your plant MUST have now is nearly impossible . They just don't make one with everything a plant needs because of chemical incompatibility, meaning how certain elements react, lock up, or fall out when mixed together. So at least two different fertilizers must be used.

Part 3 - finding good fertilizers.

there isn't one for tomatoes, and why I mix my own from many sources. The few that do exist are questionable, cheating Peter to pay Paul and trying to push the boundaries of chemistry that aren't formulated for Tomatoes.

Part 4 - Crossing industry lines.

One solution is turning to products catering to Cannabis growers in pots for ease. Tomatoes and cannabis are nearly identical in their heavy-feeding habits, and If you can master the exact nutritional needs of a tomato plant, you can grow cannabis flawlessly, and vice versa. Honestly the market for premium cannabis fertilizers is much better than tomato fertilizers and why these fertilizers exist on the market and not good tomato fertilizers.

If you'd like to expands on any of these parts let me know, I'd be happy to explain in more detail, or direct you to the products you would actually need to grow tomatoes in pots like a pro.

Thanks for the detailed info. I don't think I'll try container vegetable gardening (I know peppers and tomatoes ate botanically fruits) next year. I spend more, have more problems and get less in return than just buying at the grocery. It was a horticultural experiment to start, anyway. My peppers did well until a squirrel or chipmunk helped themselves.