It's time to enjoy some fresh tomatoes. It's the best time of the year. Your plants look so very nice and healthy. It's great that you give them so much space for air flow.

I prepared a basket of tomatoes for a friend, I cannot think of a better gift
This is my Purple Bumblebee going crazy on the backyard.. Which got me thinking, I don't mind that much the cherries going wild, but I don't feel the same way about beefsteaks indeterminates when you usually have to put a large stake, prune, tie up.. With the Dwarf tomatoes now it feels like a hustle.. Don't take me wrong, I have some like Cherokee Purple (now) and Black Beauty (next year) but they should be really special to care that much..

Another thought, I don't wanna strees out in the summer.. I admire you so much @Wildcat82 , but this fall/winter growing was so easy that I do not want to fight extreme heat and pests that much anymore hahahaha I got lazy! Maybe I will try one or two tomatoes, who knows.. I just bought my Luffa seeds and that's one on the list for spring/summer.. growing sponges for the kids, im sure the will love it

I look at it this way: If I still lived in Nebraska, I could post pictures of perfect looking corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, rhubarb, strawberries, potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, raspberries, pears, roses, etc, etc, etc. But I doubt I would be posting on Tomato Junction since there wouldn't be anything other than pictures of nice produce I could show.

South Central Texas is way harder to garden but I enjoy a challenge. I am forced to use my brain and experiment to figure out what works.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2023 8:24 pm 3% Hydrogen Peroxide mixed 1:1 with water works to control mites. Spray foliage top and bottom about once a week.
https://www.seedsandsustenance.com/home ... is,alcohol)%20and%20kills%20every%20egg.
Another concoction to wipe out spider mites, although I haven’t tried this one.

I have not tried the Peroxide mix, Several years ago I tried a somewhat similar version of your link, but found it much too complicated.
Now the only insecticide I use is a version like MissS uses.

An old gardener friend showed me what he was using. I think he was using pink Palmolive originally, I switched to Dawn when it became available. A half oz. of Dawn, garlic juice, black pepper and a healthy dose of hot sauce in a gallon pump sprayer. It's pretty deadly even on stink bugs, sometimes I have to spray them a second time.

This year I planted my first 2 self-wicking containers. Left is Tasmanian Chocolate and right is Ace 55. I just made a hole on the bottom and put a nylon rope "connecting" the soil and the water.. The soil in the container still dries out sometimes, so on those occasions I water again from up.. Maybe I need more rope to allow better wicking.. The plants grew really well on this system.

This is one of my solutions to try to grow food in the heat without a irrigation system (maybe it will be cheaper and easier at this point installing the drip irrigation, oh well)..

The cool season was the "test phase", the real challenge will come in some months.. Have a beautiful day

I'm glad that you are having such nice results trying out something new to you. I don't grow in SIP's so I'm not much help to you on the wicking issue.

Heat is always a challenge. I wish you luck and at least you have a bit of shade.