Mark Wyborny

You probably did everything right but the WEATHER didnt.  

I peel them still firm but ripe and slice discs in zip lock bags of coconut flakes shake and freeze them. Keeping them frozen i take out what I want for a bowl of cereal. My dehydrator doesn't make the good kind of banana chips at the stores so I have the same question. How besides freezing can bananas be stored? I put in fridge whole and the peelings became dark, that doesn't help.

What usda cold hardness zone are you in? When do you start your seeds? When do you transplant your seedlings outdoors? Are you organic? What kind of tomato variety? What kind of fertilizer have you been using? Maybe your solution is simple. For one thing you are doing excellent keeping them big and healthy, now let's make them mature earlier. You've already got them flowering and fruiting too. They are just late to the party. Why is the question.

I plant tobacco direct sown on wild hog rooted spots just by breaking open last years seed capsules stored in the jars in the freezer. I just scatter the microscopic seed dust on the surface after the last frost in spring. The only thing they need is picking off the green camouflage hornworms that will devour the leaves overnight. The hard part i STILL haven't figured out is how to cure the leaves so they are as desired by tobacco users as store-bought.  Mine just taste like dried leaves no matter what I try. My neighbors dont ask for anymore free tobacco once they try it because the youtube videos arent helping me perfect the craft at all. What's the secret?

I bought the galvanized metal garbage cans based on someones advice nearly 30 years ago. The lids leak and they must be kept under shelter or they'll rust away fast. Ellen up there suggested an old freezer. YES! My old freezer stopped being affordablly fixable so I put my feed sacks in there. Perfect even outdoors and animal proof unless you have a smart mammal or something like that. Mine holds a huge amount of feed bags and its easy to rotate bags and scoop out daily needs from each kind of feed sack. I vote for recycling an old freezer. People want them hauled off, they look ok and they weigh very little. Get one for FREE!

In my experience trust the natural flora of your region if you dont need that part of your garden. Organically fertilize it well and harvest the weeds that volunteer there. If you're wanting suggestions on food crops that add biomass you need to research what grows best in your garden there and accept a lot less biomass. Nothing beats the natural weeds in a temporary garden location. They are the best cover crops but they will be more labor to harvest and keep from volunteering again.  Weeds are adapted to thrive in your location on total neglect.  How can anything beat that?

Since you said you needed monthly meeting speakers, the  one that comes to mind that I find very good is Michael Bush. He does do speaking in bee meetings but he lives in Nebraska.  In my experience he is the only speaker worth his salt. However I have no idea how much "salt" he would require to go all the way to New York. He teaches natural beekeeping and he has a massive knowledge of beekeeping.  He has written a couple of books and I certainly practice his methods.  I've been at the hobby since a kid in the 1970s and what he speaks of i agree with. He is quite easy to contact. If you get him please put his lecture on YouTube. He has several there you can watch too.

I have many dozens of barrels and tubs for water plants and to help nurture and propagate rare tree frog tadpoles. I use a dip net to make certain the tadpoles are spread evenly across the little ponds. I have zero mosquitoes as the tadpoles consume every single mosquito egg . There are never any mosquito larvae in any of them. The definitely do eat mosquito larvae and I never have to feed tadpoles because that is their natural food in the wild tree crotches they used before habitat destruction.  There are numerous nature video documentaries showing the mosquito eggs and larvae are tadpoles major food source. The mosquito lays eggs once in her life and my tadpoles tubs are death traps to them.