The time has come for me to make a decision: do I fertilize my tomato plants or not? I've always gone by the advice that you stop fertilizing once they set fruit. All but a couple of my plants have fruit on them now, but the plants aren't overly developed. I did experiment with pinching off the first sets of blossoms on some to let the plant get stronger, but I'm done with that now that we're into July. But as far as the fertilizing, I wasn't tempted to do it until I saw my neighbors' tomato plants. Whoa! They used one of those purchased soil mixes with time-release fertilizer. I have to say that's not my style (maybe I should have posted this under Organic Gardening), but the results I see across the street definitely tempt me. I'll continue to add compost from my bin, but I really would like the opinions of other food gardeners on this forum as to whether I should feed these tomato plants with their developing fruit. Thanks.
Johan
Brussels sprouts
Help! My friends have a greenhouse and the husband always goes overboard planting seeds. They sent me home from a recent visit with a few Brussels sprout plants, and I have never grown these before. I gather they grow similarly to broccoli (the plants look alike). Are they also a cool-weather plant? Do they have any specific quirks I should know about?
Thanks!