First of all...my plants look better than they have in YEARS!
Please don't tell me we have hail on the way or I'll cry.

Anyway...a few weeks ago, just before we were to have 60-70 mph winds, I wrapped each of my square tomato cages with opaque plastic sheeting. It comes up about 3 ft on each cage (sides only, top open) and did serve to keep those plants from being blown over. Most of my 8 plants have grown up and above it now and they're very healthy and setting tomatoes.
Should I remove this sheeting? Is there any reason why I cannot leave it there, short-term? I'm not seeing any evidence of disease at this point (fungal diseases have been my nemesis over the last couple of years, but I totally switched beds this year). I know that I will probably want to remove it once I have tomatoes to harvest, but...it would keep the birds out until then as well, so I might just try to open a hole here or there...thoughts?

The second question is that while I was tucking some growing Sungold branches inside the cage, I snapped off a good-sized one. It's over a foot long. I took off the bloom cluster on it and stuck it pretty quickly into a glass of water with a little liquid fertilizer added to it. That was 2 weeks ago and it's still turgid and happy. The glass is not clear, so I can't really see if tiny root hairs are starting to form. Should I continue to keep it in that glass - for how long? Or...should I go ahead and pot it up in potting soil now? I'm hopeful this will make a good fall tomato plant.

That's it - aren't you glad I'm not whining about some mysterious disease killing off all of my plants while I watch??

:-D Sharon