, I once read a Cowbee post

Did you bookmark the link, by any chance?

A trick I use when deciding between closely balanced possibilities is to flip a coin. If you immediately think to yourself I wanted the other side, switch. Job done.

This is brilliant! Did you come up with this idea?

So your decision for an activity over the next decade or so depends on whether some strangers would label it as a hobby or part of cooking?

It is my (admittedly terrible) attempt at due diligence and kicking the tires on a new hobby before investing time & money. I bought a violin last year and only practiced twice last year and twice this year. But I bought my niece the same violin last month and have offered to teach her. She loves violin and this gambit seems successful so far at forcing me to learn enough to show her easy songs on violin (Twinkle Twinkle litter star, etc…) which I can barely play myself but she doesn’t know any better, lol.

Amazing response, thank you!!! I’m watching the video now and will follow all these suggestions.

So I’m not in Florida, but I am in the tropics. But we do have similar challenges, and I’ll use Florida growers if I’m looking for something.

This video would be a good review, but I’m sure you’ve already done this level of research.

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=vpMtjNVGfJQ

A few things I can start you with, some are going to be specific to tomatoes, some are going to be just general growing tips.

First, we want to separate out few things.

Starting plants and getting healthy starts is a skill all unto itself. Its why I don’t recommend people starting with seeds if they are just getting started. There is no shame in just going to a garden center and buying a few starts, or even some established tomatoes. If you’ve struggled with a plant type before, this is a good starting point. Simplify the problem by making it smaller, and cutting out a very challenging step like starting and establishing the plants perfectly acceptable.

The best prevention of disease among any plants is health. A healthy plant can usually shrug off most things if its a strong and healthy plant to start with, which is another reason to buy a good quality start from a reputable grower. Not starting with healthy plants is not setting yourself up for success. It sounds like you’ve even keyed in on a few varieties. That’s great. The video I put up top also mentioned some other good varieties that do well in high heat and humidity.

We’re still really talking about health, but tomatoes are heavy, heavy feeders. And fertilization is key. Lots of nitrogen, tomatoes just eat it right up. To the point you can struggle to get fruit if you feed to heavily (at least too much N) but N is critical to getting them established and health.

Tomatoes need AIR and lots of it. Aggressive pruning of suckers and leaves to provide more airspace so that the area around the plants local leaf environment is less humid. This helps especially with fungal diseases. Also, avoid getting any soil on, or have any leaves touch the soil if soil borne diseases are an issue. The key to any commercial operation is sanitation. Commercial nurseries will scold you if you dont disinfect your tools between any interaction with plant tissue to the point that wiping them down becomes second nature. Fusarium wilt and vertiulum wilt are both soil borne diseases. Now maybe its in your soil, but if you live in an area with lots of ag, it could be soil getting blown onto where your tomatoes are planted. Here in Hawaii, its not fusarium, but a type of tropical fruit fly thats our biggest issue, and it attacks young growing fruits by laying its egg in them. Because of this we use mesh on our tomatoes and often bag the whole plant in a fine mesh. But this mesh can also prevent diseases that come from blow soil landing on their leaves.

After reading your case and responses, my suspicion, and I might be wrong, is that you are trying to do a lot, and would benefit from breaking the process down into smaller parts, and then just trying to do one part well (growing the tomatoes part). Don’t worry about starting the plants or hydroponics until you get some small successes overcoming these disease and health issues. Hydroponics won’t help if the actual issue is that your neighbor has some plant harboring the disease nearby, and just spores or dust is being blown in. I don’t want to be patronizing because I see and acknowledge you’ve already put a lot of effort into seeking success here.

What I would recommend is simplifying the problem down to the most basic possible case, and when that is working, then build up from that. 4 five gallon pots, and pick 4 varieties that are known to work in your environment. Buy fresh, bagged garden soil, not yard soil for this. Get established plants from a reputable grower. Cut out all the possible places it could go wrong.

I’ve only had success with cherry tomatoes. I can never grow full-sized tomatoes due to fusarium wilt and vertiulum wilt, even after spending dozens of hours watching youtube videos and reading forum posts and extension office newsletters on how to fix it. But I live in a rural area and there’s at least 5 massive tomato fields within 30 miles of where I live in Florida (by commercial growers) so it’s absolutely possible but I just don’t know their secret. 😣

I met another local gardener through an online board game but he was unable to offer advice on wilt disease prevention. Do you have any actionable advice on how to prevent fusarium wilt and/or verticulum wilt? I’m inexperienced with Lemmy so if you can’t view this screenshot easily, I’ve transcribed it below:

I had a gardening question if you grow tomatoes

I have tried about 12 different tomato cultivars (medium to large sized, for sandwich slicing) and they all die halfway into their life cycle due to the 2 common wilt diseases in Florida’s hot humid weather

My best attempt was with better boy hybrid but I only got about 8-10 tomatoes and they were not big & healthy but undersized due to the struggling plant

I can do fine with cherry tomatoes (supersweet 100s and Everglades tomatoes) but I’ve never been a successful tomato gardener and have tried all the tips such as well draining soil, mixing in compost, watering at the base so the leaves don’t get wet, etc…

I have not bothered with hydroponic soil-free substrate but I bought 2 giant boxes of it a few years ago and still have it (coco coir and perlite) but it seems too much ongoing effort even if I got 50 tomatoes or more per plant

I also bought 200 rockwool cubes and might consider starting them in soil-free substrate and then transplant them when they are a foot tall, so they have a head-start at dealing with wilt funguses

Those are rock wool cubes (for hydroponic gardening hobby) mentioned in the last paragraph with a nascent tomato plant growing in the lower left corner of the image. Whenever I feel motivated enough to start hydroponic gardening, I just shrug my shoulders and plant my tomato seeds or rosemary seeds conventionally in a flower pot. (I always manage to find an excuse at the last minute on the day I finally roll up my sleeves to start hydroponic gardening 🤦‍♂️)

If you or anyone has questions about first-time gardening, ask away!

I’m just trying to force myself to either start the beef jerky hobby this weekend or the hydroponic gardening. My excuse for not starting the beef jerky all year is not knowing whether it “counts” as a valid hobby, so this post will help me force myself to “shit or get off the pot” and pick one since inaction is the same as choosing “neither”.

I also own a virtually unused violin that I’ve only played 3-4 times this year which was my hobby I intended to begin last year. 🤦‍♂️

On the topic, whats important to you about a hobby versus a skill or technique?

I spent the first 30 years of my life in front of my computer. All my hobbies were computer or video game related. I also was immobile about 5 years ago (bedridden, over 400 pounds). It feels wasteful to not utilize my newfound mobility and do stuff outdoors. I can go back to all my old childhood hobbies when I’m old & senile.

Ngl, and I don’t think you are a bot, but this feels like one of those astroturfed askreddit questions that come from bots.

I have terrible social skills in real life, I guess that bled into my online persona too. 🤦‍♂️

That’s largely due to lack of mobility training. I would highly suggest making that one of your hobbies.

Already on it 💪

Why do you need other people to decide that for you? It is both culinary skill and hobby. Life does not fit in categories described by single words.

Mainly FOMO (fear of missing out on a more “valid” hobby) but also to get others perspectives, including those I might disagree with because I’m often wrong in my initial judgment about stuff. I don’t want to look back 20 years from now and realize I deluded myself into counting something as a hobby that isn’t one, when the opportunity cost might be a better hobby that I’ve also been putting off getting started for the past 5-10 years (hydroponic gardening, wall/rock climbing, telescope star-watching, learning violin, etc.)

I have been slowly learning 2 knots and practicing them every weekend for the past 6 weeks. I wanted to ask how useful is the “tarp corner knot” in climbing and/or general outdoor activities? My local climbing gym 1 hour away includes a free 2-week membership if you pay $65 for their 90 minute beginner group lesson (capped at 6 climbing noobs) for people who have never climbed before, so I thought it might be useful for that maybe? Here is the link to a 10-second video showing the knot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Fjq4xt68I

The worst type of troll or bad actor is the one I have put in bold:

Trolls often provoke others into displaying emotional responses,[3] or manipulating others’ perceptions, thus acting as a bully or a provocateur. I quit my niche youtube channel of 500 subscribers and 70 videos because of one extremely motivated troll.

I thought you’re just not supposed to talk to them if they reach out first (i.e. if you’re a suspect) but it’s fine to reach out to them as long as you’re not a possible suspect to any unsolved crime in the last 90 days?

Then leg lifts while lying down—one at a time at first, then both at the same time.

Were you lying on your back? Or lying on your stomach?

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkUNt4QBtA0

Specifically at 5:11 with the broomstick in between your legs

The only thing which finally helped my back was physical therapy. It was the list of 7 exercises she told me to do. I searched each on youtube and one of the videos included 2-3 extra beyond the one I was searching, and 1 of those extra exercises finally worked like a miracle! 😁 I still have the video bookmarked if you want me to search for it and link it.