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xwagner

Five out of six Porterhouses underperforming?

xwagner
12 years ago

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I started eight Burpee Porterhouse seeds in sterilized soil and empty pony-pack containers I'd rinsed in a mild bleach solution. They germinated and grew under a couple of pilfered shop lights from the garage, then I moved them outdoors during the day and stuck them under a 400 watt plant light to make up for the short daylight hours. So far, so good.

I planted them out in April (we're in San Diego). The BIG one, #0498, went in the dirt first, early enough so that it's main stem was snapped by one of our spring rains. The soil all six plants are planted in was empty for the past six months.

So what I'm looking at are five rather disappointing chest-high plants, but the SIXTH plant is performing incredibly well, it's topped out it's cage and is sprawling to the four compass points. It's loaded with heavy, gigantic tomatoes.

What happened?? I amended all the planting sites equally, all the plants have received the same amount of water -- I'm baffled that ONE out of six plants would explode while the other five plants are just kind of barely there. They have fruit, but not MASSIVE tomatoes (which the Burpee catalog touted). Anyone have any ideas???

I finally harvested the first couple of tomatoes, which were ok, but not what I expected. I wish I'd hedged my bets with some tomatoes I had grown in the past. Hindsight being 20/20, you know.

TIA (thanks in advance!)

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