Summer, the week of a holiday, and our attendance was low and slow in arriving! But it is the lazy days of summer! PRESIDENT RON selected STAN PRATT to lead us in singing and decided that Stan was more to his key and will remember that for the future. STEVE SOELBERG prayed for us and PAT DANIELSON (me) was the greeter and the scribe.

GUESTS were: Lin McKay, daugher of BERT REDWING; Evelyn Kohler, special guest of DON KOHLER; and an interclub from Kamiakin: Ken Johnson, Lloyd Jensen and Marilyn Jensen.

Having no announcements the meeting moved right along to Sgt. WENDY AGUILAR who got half of the room with questions on produce in the area.

MIKE WILSON was the winner/loser in the over $400 50/50 raffle. More for the rest of us next time! Just a side note if BOB BROWN had bought his usual 3 tickets he would have again been the winner and more than likely the loser!

JO MCLAIN then introduced a person she knows very well as our speaker for the day. Jim McLain is her father and well known expert on gardening. He is a Master Gardener with the WSU extension program and writes the gardening column in the Herald-Republic. Jim picked a timely topic of "Whats wrong with my tomatato plants???".

The most popular answers to the questions are:

1. You bought the wrong tomato plants. Dont get tall and lanky; get short stout and dark green with no blooms. You need a good root system first. Pick off the blooms for a couple of weeks. And don't buy root bound plants.

2. You planted them too early! Tomatoes are a perrenial but it is too cold here for them to grow year round. If you want to put your tomatoes out early use Walls of Water. They warm up the water surrounding the plants to keep them warm at night. They offer protection to 23 degrees. Or you can put black or red plastic down between the rows. Or start your plants inside with lots of light.

3. Blossum End Rot. If your soil is cold , plant can't take in enough cacium and your plants develop Blossum End Rot. Most of our problems are coldness of the soil as opposed to water problems.

4. Heat Stress: Our high temps 90 -95 and our low temps below the 50's can be problems. For too much sun the tomato can develop whitish, yellowis color and they need some shade. Nothing is wrong with the tomato, just cut off the bad spots and eat away. Cat Facing is another result of temp stress. And they there is tomato splitting from uneven watering. OK still if no mold is growing in the tomato.

5. Insect pests: Tomato Horn Worm is good for squishing or drowning in soapy water...good for those that like that kind of thing like torture and icky stuff. They can defoliate the plant so take them off and kill them.

Aphids: can be a problem; leaves will roll up. You can spray with water, or water with inseticidal soap (not dish washing soap), or just cut off the stem and throw it away.

Stink Bugs: Not common but can cause hard swollen areas in a tomato. Just cut out the area.

6. Plant Diseases: Dig the plant up and get rid of the plant. Curly top was more common here when there were sugar beets in the area. Wilt is also a problem.

Interesting info: tomatoes can be determinant or indeterminant. Determinant is the type that only grows so tall (bush) and will put on fruit and then be done usually within 6 weeks. Indeterminant tomatoes keep on growing and take up a lot of room and keep producing tomatoes. Hybird tomatoes are the same shape and most resistant to disease. Heirlooms or old varieties can have odd shapes and be ugly but they have the best flavor. Tomatoes are self polinating. The wind will do it or you can do it.

For extra help on tomatoes or other plants, take your plant in a bag to the Master Gardener Diagnosic Clinic at 104 North 1st St. Suite 204. They hours are M.W.F. 9 to noon and 1 to 4 except holidays. or you can call 574-1600.






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