You're listening to the Joe Gardner Show, the podcast all about gardening, where we cover

everything you need to know to grow like a pro, no experience required.

And now here's your guide, National Gardening Television Host, and the Joe Behind Joe Gardner,

Joe Lample.

Hi everybody, this is Joe Lample, the Joe Behind Joe Gardner, and welcome to the Joe Gardner

Show.

At the time of this recording, it's mid-June, and for many of you, your tomato plants

are in the ground and have hopefully taken off by now.

For me, that's the case.

My 45 plants are in various stages of growth, from way out growing their ultimate tomato

cages with lush, beautiful foliage and full-sized tomatoes that are now within about three weeks

of harvesting, and others look similar but are showing signs of typical tomato disease

that I see pretty much every year.

And a few others have struggled, especially a few that I'm growing in straw bales for

the first time, not the varieties, but the straw bales themselves.

That's new to me this year, but three plants in particular are giving me trouble.

So just this past weekend, I pulled out those three plants and replaced them with backup

plants I had created from suckers, basically clones of those very plants, which are so

easy to propagate as rooted cuttings.

And I highly recommend everyone does that for this very reason, because you never know

when you're going to need a backup plant.

And we'll talk more about that in today's podcast, including the type of disease I believe

...