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u/Late-Difficulty-5928

▲ 3 r/tomatoes

To Pinch or Not to Pinch

Up potted all my micros today. A while back, when they were starting to fruit, I asked if that was normal and what I should do about it. There was a bit of an argument, so I just let them do what they were going to do and observed. I am here to report my findings for conversational purposes.

Across nine varieties, all but one set fruit while in four inch pots. The one that set the most fruit, Micro Tom, is still among the smallest of the plants with the weakest root structure. To be honest, all the Toms look pretty pathetic.

Groovy Tunes has the most robust leaf and root structure and it hasn't flowered yet. The stems are also really thick.

With one exception, the structure of the plants are directly related to how much fruit they have on them. Jewel Beetle had three small tomatoes and a very nice root structure. The stems are a little skinny, though.

This all makes sense for most fruiting plants, and flowering early usually means the plant has some sort of stress. All of them were grown under the same conditions, with the exception of some with poor soil. I didn't count them in my observations.

I don't like pinching flowers, because that's fruit. I am curious to see what the yield will be for the non-fruiting plants. I grow enough to where the next round I am doing to do some additional experiments.

u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 8 days ago
▲ 7 r/tomatoes

Hydrophobic Soil

The bags of soil were so dry this year, from the box stores. The last photo is plants in the hydrophobic soil. The rest were planted from amended soil from last year's containers. They will perk back up and will be transplanted tomorrow, but sheesh.

u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 11 days ago
▲ 4 r/tomatoes

How are your germination rates this year?

I usually get near 100% germination rates for tomatoes every year. Last year only one didn't sprout. The only thing I have done different this year was put them on a heating pad. Most plants I have gotten 3-5 out of 8 seeds. My most recent effort was 3/10. I don't soak them or anything, just plop them in some seedling mix and keep moist.

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u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 13 days ago
▲ 23 r/AutoDetailing

2020 VW Tiguan. Prior mouse infestation.

This is my daughter's car. It's mental health related. Car doesn't run and nobody will touch it until it is detailed. Can't say I blame them. I haven't opened the doors yet, myself. This is a video taken while it was still up North.

We were told it would cost about $500 for a detail but I am pretty sure it's going to cost more than that. We are thinking about doing the ozone machine before cleaning all the garbage out. Not sure if that is going to kill the pathogens associated with a mouse infestation. Also not sure what type of mice they were. It was hauled in from New York.

I am not even sure where the questions start. I would never take a car to be detailed without disclosing mouse findings, but I guess I am wondering what we can do to maybe shave a few dollars off. I am not trying to be cheap. We just spent about $2500 getting it off a tow lot and getting it here, which was $500 more than we had without engaging credit cards that we spent a decade paying off to get out of debt. We are just broke folk, for the time being.

u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 14 days ago
▲ 1 r/AutoTransport

I posted about my frustrations with transport on my FB feed and a friend told me he used Nexus last year and had a positive experience, so we got in touch with them.

We got in touch Friday. Got a message that said it was going to be picked up within the hour Monday morning. For whatever reason, that didn't happen and we received another message saying it would be by the end of the day. That also didn't happen. Tuesday, we contacted VW to tell them we were still working to get it off the lot. They said the vehicle had already been picked up. We were told previously that it would be a two day trip.

Today, (Wednesday) I am just randomly gazing out the window at about 7:30am and I see a flatbed with a SUV on it. I am still not out of my night clothes. So I rush to get dressed and run outside. Yep. It's them.

My neighbor is a car guy, with several cars on an empty lot across the street. I guess the guy saw it and figured that's where it went. I waved him down, he pulls in. Stuck. My neighbor, being the car guy, brings his 4x4 over, hooks up and gets the trailer where it needs to be.

There wasn't a whole lot of communication, but it was $1245 to get it from New York to North Carolina. We paid what was quoted and the car is here.

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u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 15 days ago
▲ 18 r/vegetablegardening

My squash are usually in the ground by now, but we've had a weird Spring. This is a Costatas Romanesco, which is a new variety to me. I've never seen a plant this small with so many blooms/pods. I have a Tromboncino, which looks like it's actually trying to make a squash already.

Never had this issue before in two decades of growing squash, so I am not entirely sure what the protocol is here. Any guidance would be appreciated.

The original plan was to put them in the ground. I do have 15 trade gallon nursery pots and two 15 liquid gallon containers. I have plenty of pots that are maybe half gallon pots for another up pot.

u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 20 days ago
▲ 7 r/tomatoes

I just started growing these last year, so I let them cook. This guy has six tomatoes, so far and more flowers. It goes without saying that the micros that aren't even flowering yet are the most robust looking plants, so far and are in overall better health.

u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 20 days ago
▲ 0 r/AutoTransport

The original story is in my post history. Basically, it's a 5.5 year old (2020) Volkswagen Tiguan that doesn't run and previously had a mouse infestation. We only had 2K to spend on storage fees and transport (a little over 800 miles from Watertown NY to Shelby, NC). It's coming here to be parked until it is paid off in September, for legal reasons. It's in horrible shape and isn't worth much more that 4K.

Shipwit quoted us $730. We made them aware of the condition of the inside of the car and they upped the price to $850. We have never had this done before so we don't know what going rates are. We took the guy at his word and we had set aside $800, based on the initial quote, in case it was more. We set aside $85 for diagnostics, but because VW wouldn't touch it, that was $85 more we could spend on transport.

Driver shows up, has the keys, and tells us he wants $1200 COD on top of the $250 we already gave ShipWit. We decline and contact ShipWit to discuss contract details. They tell us they have a driver that will do it for that price and will pick it up end of day. End of day comes, the driver cancels.

Another broker contacts us and says they will get us scheduled. He gets us scheduled and now it's $1400 on top of the $250 we have given them.

I am not beyond paying a fair price for a service, but we had options prior to dealing with these people. I also understand a quote is just that, a quote. If you quote a job and it ends up nearly twice the price of the original quote, that's either a scam or you are horrible at your job. If I had know it was going to be that much, I would have just paid the $2000 owed on the car and let the tow lot have it. Now we have contacted several different transport services and are getting a range of prices.

Nexus: $1235 Montway: $1450 Amerifrieght: $1026 DEKT: $1445 Graham Family: $1795

Nexus came back with an updated quote of $1030. Meanwhile we have tried to cancel with ShipWit but they are still trying to send someone to pick the car up, now saying it will be $1250. No mention of the $250 deposit. At this point, I just don't want to give them any of my money. I feel bad for the driver who showed up and had to leave the car there.

I guess my question is, what seems more realistic? Any of these places have a reputation of quoting a price and being way off when I came time to transport or drop off? I am just so exasperated at this point. I am ready to send it back to the tow lot and let them have it so I don't have to deal with it anymore.

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u/Late-Difficulty-5928 — 21 days ago