Hi, Bigpinks! I have a huge Mortgage Lifter Estler thanks to your advice. I only have seven tomatoes, one each of different heirlooms, and it is the first to have a brace of big flowers. My others are Omar's Lebanese, Kosovo, Earl's Faux, Cherokee Purple, Goose Creek and Rostova. Oddly Omar's Lebanese is the smallest, but it has the most leaves.

I use water from my small village water system, which is very hard and chlorinated. I don't see any problems with it once the plants are outside. But I have nothing to compare it to.

Thanks. You will love your EML. I have always used some city water on tomatoes and many places that sell veggie plants do also. I hate to use it in the garden for half runner beans tho as it will only keep them going for a short while. Good luck with your tomato plants.

Half a lifetime ago, I grew tomatoes for 8 years in the Chicago suburbs. Municipal water. No problems.

Bigpinks, where did you get your EML from? Was it - oh shucks, I forget the nursery's name - the one in Huntington that's been carrying them forever? If so, the reason yours might not be doing as well this year, Aunt Mary Lou Estler told me that after she took the little seedlings to them they didn't pot them up into the bigger containers for several weeks. She is VERY upset with them.

Oh, but, get this: she told me she was poking aroung the basement a few weeks ago and ran across some Mortgage Lifter seeds marked 1964. She thought, "Oh what the heck" and tossed a bunch of them in seed starter. Guess what? 2 of them came up!!!! We can't wait to see how the tomatoes from those plants compare to the tomatoes off the others.

Happy gardening!
Edie