April 20, 2009 | #16 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Indiana
Posts: 76
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Ted -
The 'maters that came into our lowe's north of Indy were sick too... |
April 20, 2009 | #17 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
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Bonnie has 3 dozen or so growing facilities, but their website says that not all varieties are grown at every site. They share plants and ship things around to accomodate orders by the big box stores.
With the economy is shambles, I suspect that what we're getting is lower quality. That will reduce their overhead and, of course, that means they have to charge more to make you not look at the quality - thus the price increases. If I were to purchase any plants this year, I would be looking at sources like Fusion Power and Sandhill. I don't even want any of Bonnie's flowers for fear of bringing home something I didn't intend to buy. Ted
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Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch |
May 1, 2009 | #18 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
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Was back at Lowes yesterday and Bonnie was delivering again. I asked one of the workers where the plants he was delivering came from and he said Union City. I then asked him if he knew anything about tomato diseases and he said yes. Then he volunteered that he had been seeing BACTERIAL SPECK on some mature plants. He told me to be careful choosing my plants.
I went inside to the area where the sick plants had been and noticed that another brand was there. There were mature plants without the Bonnie tag. Most of them were compact or dwarf sized plants and almost all had several toms ready to change colors. AND..... most of them had the obvious signs of Bacterial Speck. That means to me that the infection is swiftly passing throughout their stock, no matter the source. I am at the point where before I go to MY garden I am even changing clothes after a visit to Bonnie plants anywhere. Ted
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Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch |
May 1, 2009 | #19 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Z8b, Texas
Posts: 657
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Ted,
Union City, where? ~* Robin
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It's not how many seeds you sow. Nor how many plants you transplant. It's about how many of them can survive your treatment of them. |
May 1, 2009 | #20 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
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Robin, although I didn't ask him which state, we have a Union City, GA that fits the Bonnie map. It is here in the Atlanta area.
Ted
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Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch |
May 1, 2009 | #21 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Z8b, Texas
Posts: 657
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OH. Ok, thanks Ted.
~* Robin
__________________
It's not how many seeds you sow. Nor how many plants you transplant. It's about how many of them can survive your treatment of them. |
May 3, 2009 | #22 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Stryker, Ohio
Posts: 995
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The Walmart in Jonesville Michigan got their plants from Bonnie. Other than some week looking pansies nothing looked wrong with tomatoes ,peppers or eggplant. The plants look great but they where 3.50 for each plant and 5 for the big ones.Outrageous! Glad I have seeds to grow my plants.
Kevin |
May 4, 2009 | #23 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Mounds, Oklahoma
Posts: 257
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In my opinion, most, if not all of the big growers also use growth regulators on their tomato plants which is illegal, but the Ag Dept seems to not inforce.......This fall, when I get time, I am going to try to find out why the dept of Ag does't take a serious look at this problem and inforce the law! Maybe growth regulated plants are more suseptable to disease????? I have never had a problem with diseases and I grow thousands of Tomato Trasplants every year and I DO NOT use growth reuglators!
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May 25, 2009 | #24 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: zone 6
Posts: 1
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Hello!
I am an avid tomato grower in eastern kentucky, and also was asked to work for a local garden center in a nearby county a few days a week to help out. we get Bonnie trucks in once or twice a week, and thus far the tomato varieties have been w/o that telltale spotting, thank goodness. |
May 29, 2009 | #25 |
Tomatovillian™ Honoree
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Lincoln, NE
Posts: 791
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same here - working at a small plant place and our Bonnie plants have been quite nice. They did build two new greenhouses here in north central Nebraska so the plants are somewhat 'local' - fairly pricey though. The Bonnie boys live here for six months and then head back to Alabama. so far no diseases but the plants fly off the shelves. piegirl
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July 17, 2009 | #26 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 42
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My mother in law bought Bonnie plants and her garden is looking awful. 3/4 of her tomato planted are wilted and barely hanging on due to the virus. I grew from seed this year and plan to from now on.
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July 29, 2009 | #27 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2,591
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Here is an on-line magazine article about Bonnie plants. It's something i subscribe to so I hope you can get to the link.
http://www.greenhousegrower.com/news/?storyid=2468 Basically Bonnie is saying "it wasn't us, not our plants". Trying to "CYA" from the looks of it to me. Carol |
January 31, 2010 | #28 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Pottsboro Texas 7B-8A TRANSITION ZONE
Posts: 77
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Read other gardening Forums-Bonnie's is getting a really bad reputation--I have never seen such horrible Aphid infestations as I see on their plants. Personal experience from Alabama to Texas
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February 2, 2010 | #29 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: east texas
Posts: 686
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welcome to TV Vortreker, it looks like Bonnie has ruined their reputation. A lot of people depend on companies like Bonnie's for their plants, I'm glad that I have a choice and can plant my seed.
Neva |
February 2, 2010 | #30 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: WI, USA Zone4
Posts: 1,887
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Big Box garden centers usually have a lot of inexperienced help, since the job is often seasonal. It doesn't take much overhead watering to send tomato transplants to diseased tomato Valhalla. You should have showed them your "Container Police" badge and then they would have given you the respect you deserve;-)Your effort to educate is to be commended.This incident just illustrates why "home grown" is best.
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