I ordered some heirloom tomato plants from you and had some problems, could you help me out? I planted some of them in the garden and some in pots. I used a fertilizer from the nursery, not sure what is was. All of the plants grew to around 4’ high. When it got hot, they did not bloom and I hardly had any ripe tomatoes. I have a question about green tomatoes; I heard they were poisonous if they were not cooked?

My tomato plant grew to over 5 feet high, and produced many flowers, not one single flower turned into ANY type of tomato. I was extremely disappointed as this is the one vegetable I love to eat fresh.

They did not lack water as I made sure they were always maintained. I also gave them Miracle Grow tomatoe fertilizer and bought a special dirt to plant them in when I recieved them. As I mentioned, this is the one thing I look forward to every year. I look forward to your response to learn why I never got any tomatoe. As soon as the flower would fall off, normally this is when the tomato begins growing, nothing came. I appreciate your time and help.

Thanks, Darlene

I have been growing a couple of tomato plants.  Now that it is getting cold outside, and my tomatoes are still blooming. What can I do? I was told to pull them out of the ground or pot and hang them up side down. To save them…Is that what I’m supposed to do?

I was wondering if you could take a root from a Lantana bush and transplant it somewhere else. My daughter wanted a start from mine and I was not sure how to do it. Also can you transplant in the fall if at all possible or should we wait until spring to transplant. I hope you can help me in my quest to give my daughter a start from m beautiful Lantana bush. I live in TN and was not sure if it would survive the transplant in the fall. 

My husband and I started using Jungle Flora this year according to directions which meant fertilizing with the product every 2 weeks for 6 weeks and then fertilizing monthly until Fall.  We stopped fertilizing mid-August (we live in the Portland, Oregan area) and about 2 weeks later we noticed small holes in the soil and that the plants seem to be ’standing still’.  After doing some research it appears that we have voles.  Since we have lived at this home for 7 years and have never noticed these holes or vole activity before, we’re wondering why this product seems to have drawn voles as they have only appeared where JF was used and not where it hasn’t been used.  I can understand that by using JF, root formation has increased in response to the fertilizer, so maybe because the root systems are larger it drew voles to these new, abundant roots.  But I would also think that by using a product that has predator fecal  material in it, it would chase small critters away.  We also cannot find any poison for voles and amazingly we are told by the garden centers in our area that “we” don’t usually have vole problems (yet, according to various web-sites on voles, this area has both above-ground and below-ground voles and as plentiful as moles).  Do you have any answers as to JP usage and vole activity? 

We appreciate your time and hopefully you can tell us if JP actually kept the voles away while we were using it due to predator odors or what could have possibly have now drawn voles to these areas.

Thanks again!
Deatra
 

Dear Master Gardener: I have two questions. My first questions deals with this funny looking mold (I think) that is appearing on my landscape mulch. Could you give me some more information about this mold? Here is a photo.

My second question deals with my Veronica plant. As the plant grew this spring, it started to have the bottom leaves turn brown and die. I did not treat it any differently than the year before so I am a bit confused as what approach I should use for my plant. I have also added a photo of this plant.

Thanks for your help!

Just wanted to ask a quick question. All my pumpkin plants are doing great and I have a large number of pumpkins. But the cotton candy pumpkin, has a large number of male flowers but no female flowers yet?? Is there a problem? I do notice some white powder on some of the leaves on this plant which I am planning on treating this evening. Does it normally produce female flowers late ? Thanks, John

Dear Karen, Can I use sawdust as my primary garden mulch if it is kiln dried, without changing my pH levels?

Hi Karen:

I’d like to plant potatoes, perhaps about 4 different varieties, here in Kentucky this fall. Can you recommend some particular varieties to me, as well as point me in the right direction for timing and technique?

Thanks, Sheila
(my first year growing vegatables)