A couple questions and notes:
Under good conditions, how tall do Mortgage Lifter tomato plants get? 8 feet? Ten? Mine are finally really taking off, and it looks like I need to build taller supports, as they are harder to “loop back down and around” than, say, the Cherry Falls tomato plants, as the stems (vines) seem “stiffer” at a given diameter.
Are Lemon Boy tomato plants sort of a “one round of fruits and then done” variety? The Lemon Boy of mine that fruited first did so seemingly early (considering development of the plant overall, but, it “seemed healthy”. But, after one round of fruits it suddenly died for no reason I can ascertain. Other plants around it seem ok. All are in similar pots w/ similar soil, have had the same watering, etc.
Notes:
1) I’m pretty convinced now that Roundup works better with rainwater than our (pretty hard) well water. I don’t notice much difference (rainwater vs. well water) with 2-4D, but, I’ve only tried the 2-4D once with rain water.
2) Mortgage Lifter tomato plants are unusual in that, kept in a small “starter” pot, but otherwise well cared for, they usually don’t try to outgrow the pot. So far, most I didn’t transfer to a “larger environment) have just stayed “dwarf” Mortgage Lifters under 8” tall (most didn’t even get to 6”), with no flowering (but even the ones outdoors in the ground have not flowered yet). They don’t even grow a dense root ball / don’t look root bound. THEN put them in the ground or in a 5 gallon pot — after a bit they’ll they grow slowly, and then a few weeks later, will begin to take off.
Most tomato plants will grow faster and exhaust a small pot (and then often die or look very bad).
The ML’s I transferred early to medium size pots, and then again fairly quickly to 5 gallon pots or (one) into the ground*, grew slowly but steadily until about 4-5 feet tall, and now they are taking off, it seems.
*I gave the 1st ML in the ground a spot on the slightly higher side of the garden area, so, it didn’t drown!
3) At least some “organic” fertilizers / plant foods will attract critters that dig. Ditto for chicken guano that has gotten a broken egg(s) into it. :-(
4) Lemon Boy tomatoes not allowed to FULLY ripen are pretty darn tart. But, once fully ripe, then you have to use them quickly.
Footnote to my question about Mortgage lifter Tomato plants:
It turns out there are multiple cultivars of Mortgage Lifter tomato plants. All I know about mine is that the ones I bought at Menards are the generic Menards 6-pack plants. The ones from seed are from Livingston.