Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 1 Entries. Thursday, May 24 View Page I hope to add to this diary a little more than I have been. So far my season has been great and lousy. Great in that one plant appears to be the best I've ever had. Lousy in that two of my four plants aren't going anywhere. The 1338 McConkie (received pollen from the plant that grew the 1600 McConkie) is the best plant I've ever had. Bar none. The main is approaching 4 feet, and for me that's very good at this time of year. I'm also growing the 1600 McConkie, and it's a very good plant. Each of these is in a 8'x 8' raised bed, constructed from 8-inch wide lumber, and backfilled with various composts. This appears to be the way to go for me. I have two other plants in a raised bed of compost, but only one type of compost. These are not built from lumber, but just mounded soil. Well, I got a huge pile of compost from a friend last fall, and everything that I'm trying to grow in THIS compost is just not doing well. I can't explain it. I've got two tomato plants in it and they are sick. Meanwhile I have two dozen other tomatoes in my native soil and they are fine. So, my "sick" giants are a 1426 Wolf, and in the other site I have a 1183 Israelsen. Actually, I also have a 1418 Synder next to the Israelsen, but it's the sicker of the two and will likely be culled. Putting it another way, generally I have compost that I made myself last year and compost that I got from a friend. The compost I made was growing volunteer pumpkins last year, so I know it's good. The two plants that are doing well have a mix of 50% "my compost" and 50% "gift compost", while the sick ones are 100% gift compost. Also, the plastic I got for hoophouses has been defective. It tears easily, and the best I can get is about three weeks out of it. I rebuilt until I ran out... and now I'm done for hoophouses for this year. Sigh. I guess trying to grow these on a budget just doesn't work. But the 1338 McConkie is a monster...