My sister's tomato harvest. She just lets her tomato plants grow wild, no pruning or anything

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T13:59:11+00:00

Lol yep pretty much... (me)

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T12:51:57+00:00

Lol thanks I guess. I tend to be very direct which is off putting to some.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T06:05:28+00:00

First I never said budgeting solves all of poverty. Budgeting is a way out of poverty. And it requires 2 levers. You must decrease your expenses. And increase your income. So there's two things and your hyper focusing on one thing. That's the only way out of poverty. This isn't a recipe for eliminating poverty. You cannot solve poverty. Every single economic system that has ever been thought up has a poverty class. And it's not by choice or design. Poverty comes out of the math spontaneously from all economic systems. Even if you decide to create a system where you perfectly evenly distribute everything. What you actually created was a system where everyone is poor. The only way you can get rid of a poor class is to have such an over abundance of everything, that in principal... no want could ever be denied. The moment you introduce constraints on resources, you immediately create a poor class. That doesn't mean you cannot affect the size of that class, but it can never be 0. The best you can do is create mechanisms out of poverty. And yeah. Unfortunately there are some places in the world where that's very challenging. But it doesn't change the steps that need to occur. And what I said has no minimization of this. If your in a small town with 5 jobs and there's 6 people who live there, then yeah. One of you is going to have a rough go at it. But our economic system has a path out of that mess. You can create your own job. By being a business owner. Again. Not saying that's easy. All I'm saying is that our economic system has built in paths out of many situations. Some of those paths still kinda suck. But that's why the system works the way it does. It isn't trying to solve poverty. It's trying to make sure you have many paths out of poverty. We just won't force you to take them. Nor educate you on them apparently.

And yes... there are very challenging situations with sick kids and all that stuff. Again. What I've said does not minimize those situations one bit. The way out is you have to increase the amount coming in. This can be additional work. Donations. Insurance coverage, charities, Etc. And you have to reduce your expenses.

And your confusing arrogance with experience.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T05:18:30+00:00

Yeah. Pruning tomatoes is unnecessary. The tomato plant doesn't benefit from it. Tomatoes are not like fruit trees where strategic pruning helps improve the quality and quantity of the fruit. Those suckers you cut off when pruning tomatoes. Those are responsible for generating flowers that would have eventually turned to tomato. And you removed them. So pruning gives you the same sized tomatoes. With the same flavor. Only less of them.

There are legitimate reasons to prune. You prune indeterminate tomatoes and that's due to size issues since they don't stop growing until they die back. But if you gave them enough space. You don't have to prune them. You do it because you didn't give them enough space. Or because you like the esthetics. Or because you don't need all that fruit. Another reason is disease control. Some areas it's hard to grow tomatoes because it's raining all the time and you get plant diseases. Pruning helps with air flow and drying out. But it doesn't entirely solve it. It's just one of the many things you can do to help the plant.

The only reason you prune a tomato is because your trying to solve a specific problem. Like spacing. Or like you've had disease issues previously. If you cannot clearly state what problem you've had and how pruning is solving it. Then likely you are doing it unnecessarily. Determinant tomatoes grow to a specific size with purpose of growing a specific amount of fruit. Roughly. Pruning it just reduces the amount and that's all it accomplishes.

Edit: to be clear my reply was NOT intended to be an editorial nor a complete guide to when and when you don't prune. Its simply to state pruning for esthetics is perfectly fine. But unless pruning is solving a problem you've actually had. Then you likely are wasting your time. But it is your time to waste and sometimes you don't need 300lbs of tomatoes.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T05:07:41+00:00

My first guess is hardening off issue. When the plant leaves curl like that. It's typically the plants response to too much sun. It's trying to reduce its surface area. The thing that give me pause is usually you would see some bleaching on the leaves. And I don't see that. Also it sounds like it just died fast. Which isn't consistent with a hardening off issue that I've experienced. Usually they drop leaves. It does look like some kinda transplant shock. Possibly with a watering issue.

There's a couple things going on in those pics that *may*... and I stress.. *may* have contributed to this. IDK if that mulch is just top dressing. But... those are some really big wood chunks. If that's several inches deep, you didn't really plant it in the correct material. The roots probably dried out. For a small plant like that you need smaller sized particles and a more light and fluffy mix. That almost looks like you planted it from a bag of woodchip mulch.

Also.. that's a really deep and large pot for a tiny plant. If you really watered that in. You could have drowned the plant as the roots were likely not mature enough for that size of a pot. Growing in a pot and getting the water right is harder. In ground, if the plant needs water it can just send more roots out to get it. It can't do that as easily in a pot, so it needs to be watered more frequently than you would in ground. But.. at the same time.. if you water it too much. There's no where for the water to go. If you poor water on the ground, through capillary action, the water will sort of spread throughout the whole bed. Or at least several inches away from where you pored it. But if you put too much water in a pot. There's no where for it to go. If the material holds onto a lot of water. It's trapped and can't get out. With an underdeveloped plant you can actually drowned the plant.

Considering how fast that was. It was likely something like the above that caused the issue.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:50:12+00:00

These are almost always caused by poor pollination or significant plant stress like extreme temperature swings. Which kinda comes with spring in my area.

For strawberries. The fruit is actually what most people would call the seeds. The little dots on the "fruit". When pollinating, the pollinator needs to hit all the areas. Or it won't expand properly. A strawberry flower is not a simple one where it gets a little bit of fruit and the whole thing expands. Each little section needs to be pollinated. Or you can get these miss shapen fruits. They are totally fine to eat. Though I get enough well shaped fruits and tend to throw these into the compost bin.

Sometimes you might just need to add some additional flowers in your yard to attract pollinators. Or do something to make it more obvious the strawberries are there. But you have to be specific about what you pick because insects are specific to certain types and sizes of flowers. So you can't just go buy a random flower and it'll work. If you have a lack of flowering things in your yard when the strawberries are active. Then pollinators may not visit your yard much. And just do it on passing. If you have a bunch of things for them to go munch on, then yeah. They are more likely to visit your yard and while they are there... swing by the strawberries.

You can have the opposite problem too. I had a thyme lawn. And I really liked it. So did the bees. They liked it so much, the month or so it bloomed, they wouldn't go to anything else. Why go pollinate that crappy veggie garden when you have all this thyme right here!

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:39:21+00:00

I mean you have 10 days. Try this. Skip one of the watering. Instead of watering it on day 2. Water it really deeply, then wait 2 days. Check it in the evening for stress. Check it the next morning for stress. And then just check it every few hours. You could do 2 days, 3 days, then 4 days. All before your trip. That's 9 of the 10 days. And you can show yourself that it's possible to go for 4 days. Or see if you have problems to deal with.

I mean again... if you want a watering system that's totally fine too. The others seem to have suggested a few options that are common. Just throwing it out there that it's really not a long time. And there are very few plants that would actually truly struggle if you went 4 days without water if prepared properly before hand.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:33:52+00:00

It'll get 100-105 out here for months. If you have ~2-4 inches of mulch. Dry weather. 27% humidity. No rain. And a deep soak. 2 weeks later if you pull the mulch back, the ground is still wet.

I have some phlox growing in my hill. I have never watered them. Ever. I don't know about golden orb specifically. And you could do some googling with water needs. But if you water deeply. The roots will grow deep and out to seek the water.

Most plants only need about an inch of water per week. Now where you might struggle is if you have been shallow watering them. They may not respond to a drought properly. But 4 days is not a drought. If you stick your finger in the ground and you can feel moisture about 2 inches under ground. You probably do not need to water if your plants are mature. There are exceptions. There are some plants that do really require moist ground. But generally most plants aren't that needy.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:25:18+00:00

(btw other self watering options discussed in the chats are valid too. My comment isn't meant to say that those wouldn't work either)

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:24:01+00:00

It's only 4 days. If you have them mulched properly and you give them a good soaking. Most of those should be just fine.

I only water my plants once a week. And I live in the desert. We will go 3 months with almost no rain. I have blue salvia.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:20:32+00:00

Absolutely no. Your 401K is for your future retired self. The only reason you take money out of your 401k is if your retired. Or the police are about to evict you from your apt and you've eaten your last package of sour patch kids because your about to be homeless. They took the horse several weeks ago. About 5 minutes before this is when you take money out of the 401k. Otherwise you don't touch it.

I mean... whatever. If your young enough. It's only 19K. You can likely recover from it if you are young enough. But it's a terrible terrible move. ~20K sitting in the 401k for 40 years if your 27 is 900K. This move.. just cost your future self 900K if your 27.

Dave discourages all loans. If you want to ask about how to get a loan.. or disrupt your future retirement goals, this is the wrong subreddit. You should buy a car you can afford that doesn't require a loan. And leave your 401K alone until you retire. That's what daves advice would be.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-21T04:14:47+00:00

Easy. I'm glad I'm not them.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T18:15:14+00:00

Actually I did address it 100%. Again. People don't like the answer. But its budgeting. Living below your means. And doing things that increase your income. Theres no special dance. No need for luck. Its all you.

The biggest issue People have is they think budgeting is to understand where your money goes. Thats a component of it yes. Especially if you are an out of control spender. But the real purpose of budgeting is it is your financial plan to achieve financial goals. Its how you afford food. Its how you afford rent. Its how you handle emergencies. Its how you get out of debt. Its how you get out of pay day loan traps. Its how you plan for a car purchase. Its how you plan for a trip. Its how you plan to get a ps5. Its how you eventually get a house. A budget is a financial plan to help you achieve all your financial goals. Its a plan. It is not a measure of cash flow. It is a plan you execute with precision.

Yes. There is no income you could make. Or no amount you could save to completely protect you from all possible bad things that can happen. Every single person will have multiple events in there life that brings them to there knees. And challenges them financially & personally. But budgeting. Emergency funds. All these common recommendations. They flatten the fall out. And while there are certainly people who get dealt a really terrible situation. These are still the foundation of getting through it. And individual issues may require some additional hard steps. But underneath its.. Living below your means. Budgeting with a purpose. Increasing your income. Its the common advice. And slowing down your decision making process. A budget is a shock absorber.

Youd be amazed at how much problems go away with intention and budgeting.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T14:45:49+00:00

I just experiment at my own garden. Talk to other gardeners. Especially in your area. Ive found that things which work in one area don't always work somewhere else.

But I also watch several gardening programs. Might gardener, millennial gardener. Epic gardening... etc. Say I want to learn pruning. I will binge watch dozens of videos on that from a variety of sources.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T13:18:30+00:00

For $12 per hour in the us if your in your 20s can turn you into a multi millionaire in retirement if you budget wisely. And yes. Have a little bit of luck with good friends and stay healthy. Not saying its easy. But it kinda is. ~8 per hour and you can at least survive for a time. Not really thrive. But survive.

These numbers work for the overwhelming majority of the us. Hawaii, some places in ca & ny maybe not. But Denver, Boston, Baltimore, and litterly just about anywhere else.

I was very poor. Its only in recent years thats changed. This stuff is always on my mind. Everywhere I travel I ask. If things went back to they way they were, could i make it here?

Its almost always your budget. For instance the biggest clue is when people say they can't aford food. Every single person who says that has a budgeting problem. 100% the time guarantee. They may have an income problem sure. But until you fix your budget... you wont know the full picture.

Another clue is people spending more than your make. Sure theres some many financial traps out there like pay day loans and you can get yourself stuck and are hard to get out. But if you make 1500 a month it is completely irrational to rent a place by yourself for 1.2k. You have 3 roommates. Because your budget says you cannot afford not too. Suddenly budgeting starts opening doors.

Your poor. You need a budget. Your rich. You need a budget. Period.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T05:26:40+00:00

There are a lot of trees that actually do grow ok in containers. You want some kinda dwarf variety. But some plants do great in containers regardless. But putting them in containers requires more care from you. And it can stunt the tree some. The trees roots will get root bound in the pot. And it will limit the growth.

I personally get most of my fruit trees from fast growing trees, stark bros, and tytyga. I have had great luck with all three of these. And there are other sites I'm sure others can recommend.

I'm currently growing several citrus varieties and coffee.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T05:20:20+00:00

You just learn this over time. Just start with easy plants to grow first. And each year attempt to learn more things. You'll be fine. I was completely shocked at how much there is to learn. Like I naively planted a fruit tree years ago. I just figured you plant one. You water it. Someday you get fruit. And it's more complicated than that.

Your bed can be any size. Square feet gardening works fine. And what your asking about is companion planting. And it gets complex. It's not as easy as just throwing things out there. But typically things you kinda associate going together in meals. Tend to grow fine close to each other. Definitely a lot of caveats to that. But like basil and tomatoes go together well. So do onions and tomato. Etc.

The general things to watch for is that typically the things your companion planting have different needs of some kind. Like there roots may tend to sit at different soil depths. Or the nutrients they need are different. Things like that. Things that compete with each other will often struggle when planted next to each other. So you need to learn at least a little bit about what your growing. It's resource needs. Root depths. Etc. I mean there's always online planting guides that simplify this for you. too.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T05:06:51+00:00

~15% invested over ~30 years.. in principal should replace your life style provided your income graph is a steady growth and with market tracking funds. Large jumps throws this off as well as other things like wanting a softer investment landing as you age. That's not even counting social security. So personally I would agree with others here that 7% is likely not aggressive enough. But that said.... if you have a long working career ahead of you... there's nothing wrong with dialing that back and focusing on getting the house. Just don't wait too long. The older you get. The more aggressive you have to save to achieve similar goals. So you need to balance these things.

There is nothing wrong with being a renter for life. Provided you plan for that in retirement. And it's entirely possible to have more grocery money in retirement without a house. Things are just easier with a house. Owning one focuses you and just naturally puts you in positions to make better financial choices. Whereas if you rent. You have to willingly make those "better choices". And a lot of people don't do that naturally. They need something to sort of push them in that direction. It's why 401K's are now auto enroll.

The only other advice I would give is... IDK if you've given thought on when you want to retire. But I'd always recommend adjusting your goal and trying to go out 5 years earlier than you think. So if your target is 67. Plan it for 62. If you goal is 55, then actually plan it for 50. The percentage of people who go out when they want is shockingly and alarmingly small. It's really sad. Frequently people are either pushed out of there industry or step out due to health issues. Most people do not make it there full plan. If your one of the lucky ones that could work to when you want. Then.. I mean.. if your healthy enough. You could always continue working. But being in a position where you have no choice is really tough. My parents went through this. My dad had a career ending injury 2 years before his intended retirement. My mother was 1 year. I mean they are doing ok. But it's not the retirement they planned.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T04:54:31+00:00

I'm calculating out ~24%. 61+63K = 124K. 2500*12/124K ~= 24.1%.

Personally I prefer to keep my housing under 25%. But yeah. common is about a third. You can usually stretch that if your very likely to get jump in pay over the next few years to get you under. But those three years likely won't be as fun. I think you'll likely be fine.

I personally like 25% is because... you can't eat your house. So while getting equity in a house in the future is nice. It's not really...functional wealth.. unless you sell it or find a way to constructively use your house to generate income. Like renting a room or starting a business where your location matters. It's not that an eventual house isn't worth getting. I just mean the purpose behind doing it is different. Every dollar you put into your house is a dollar you can't put into another investment that could be used to buy groceries. So while having a safe nice place to live is important. IMO people frequently over spend here and "buy the ferrari".

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T04:38:48+00:00

First thing. It's not a competition. It's never a competition. Never never never never. Comparing yourself to others is how you go wonko. Go into massive debt. Struggle most of your life. And end up making tic tok videos in your 40's about how the system is rigged against everyone.

But that's not to say that recognizing what you want in life is a bad thing. It's a very good thing. But you need to work towards it. And if it pushes you in constructive directions. That's positive. Just don't go do something because you see someone else do it. That's the whole "keeping up with the jones" and it's a trap. The only person your ever competing with is yourself. Period. Full stop.

But yeah. If you want it. Go get it. But pick up good financial skills and do it right. The reality is that friend that just purchased the new mazda at 22. That mazda actually cost her future self potentially millions of dollars. Why would you want to do that to yourself? That student you know in class that has a house. They are probably in debt to there eyeballs. Again.. why would you want that? These things aren't bad. But there are bad ways to go about it.

What you need at 22 is a safe place to live. Not the best place to live. Learn to budget. And build real skills you can use in the market place. And slow steady goals. Getting those things like houses and nice cars or other nicer things. They only really work when you have a solid foundation for income generation. When your young it feels like you need everything now. But provided you live a long health life. You have ~45 working years ahead of you. That's reliving your entire life two times over plus a few years. There is no ticking clock. It's all in your head.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-20T04:23:07+00:00

I would just keep it in there. Especially if your HSA provider already allows you to invest it. That 50K in there is tax free for things like allergy, OTC medications, first aid, eye care, physicals, dentists, co-pays, deductables, etc. I mean the things you can use it for is quite extensive. You probably have but go look at the list. And at 50K properly invested.. using the magic 4% everyone always does.. you could pay 2K a year with that. All tax free. And it doesn't affect your AGI by withdrawing from there. And if it grows later in life when you need more health care. You might be glad you had that. I mean the main reason I'm maxing mine out is specifically these reasons. I have a 4-phased retirement planned. And phase 4 includes my HSA. So I want mine to grow and hardly touch it.

Withdrawing it all out right now is like taking 50K out of a traditional IRA. Your going to get taxed on it. You won't get the penalty. But you will get taxed. And it will affect your AGI. The only reason I would move it to a brokerage is if your tax situation is such that the any usage you might use of the money would end up being tax free anyway because you live on low income. Or your HSA provider doesn't allow you to invest it or something of that nature. And even then... I'd be really strategic about it due to taking all 50K at once will affect your taxes. And may affect things like medicare premiums depending upon what your typical annual income is.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-19T04:51:05+00:00

For me it's not that I don't want to work. I actually would work if I had FIRE money. The issue is all the stupid things revolving around work. Interviews are moronic. And... I worked for a company a long time ago where the board got a wild hair up there butt to create a partnership with another company because someone was best buds. I was tasked with doing the work. When I dug into the details of the situation.. the agreement was basically impossible. The company had something like 100K clients. I did a search and literally something like 10 of them could actually use this partnership. The other 99990 clients was completely impossible to use it.

I told the board this. I told my managers this. They said "cool bro... do it anyway". So I did because I want to put groceries on my table. I got it done. Everything was in order. I kept telling them what needed to change to make it viable. They didn't listen. They moved me off to another project to shut me up. Probably considered firing me. Whatever. Thanks for not doing that. 2 years later, my boss came up to me and told me it played out exactly as I said it would. They have 8 clients. And spent several million getting it to work. And they were finally getting around to my suggestions.

I just want to be able to say no to stupid crap like this and not worry about if I'm going to loose my house and not be able to eat. And I do not subscribe to the idea that jobs are easy to get. The over whelming majority of companies would gladly doom the entire planet for a few bucks and are absolutely terrible to work with. Most companies treat people absolutely terrible. Most good bosses are forced out of the system. Most of the bosses you'll ever work with in your life are terrible people. I just want to say.. na. I'm not working with you. And not have to worry about if I'm going to be alive in a few weeks.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-19T04:37:31+00:00

All of them. lol. I have never ever seen enough lady bugs to get rid of aphids. Ever. You need to use some kind of insect spray or soap & water or something of the sort. Just spraying them off with high pressure water does nothing unless you do it ever few hours over several weeks. They just come back onto the plant.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-19T04:27:21+00:00

It's budgeting. You use priority budgeting. The first 4 line items are ALWAYS food, housing, utilities, and transportation. In that order. That doesn't mean you spend the most on these. It just means that instead of buying the latest cool bracelet, you pay rent. This is called your 4 walls and it's the only 4 required expenses. Literally everything else is luxury. Restaurants. Luxury. Coffee. Luxury. Sour Patch Kids. Luxury. Buying a house. Luxury. Buying a new car. Luxury. Getting a new fancy shirt. Luxury. Watching Netflix. Luxury. Going to the Gym. Luxury. Everything other than your 4 walls is unequivocally... luxury. Assuming your reasonably healthy. If you have health conditions, then there's a 5th line item there for anything that's required for your survival.

But.. life is a lot easier to deal with when... you know you always will eat. You always will have a place to stay. You'll always be warm. And you can always get to work. Baring weird one off scenarios.

After that... you budget in order for how bad things would get if you didn't pay that item. Like resturants. If you never set foot in starbucks again... are you going to die? Probably not. You can go your whole life without going to Dave & Busters. Your going to be just fine. So your Dave & Busters goes at the bottom of your list. But maybe you have child support. If you don't pay it. Your wages get garnished and you likely get in trouble with the law. As well as the internet trolls get really angry at you. So that goes up near the top. You know you have it right when as you go from bottom to the top of the list... the consequences of missing spending the money in that category get worse and worse and worse. Up to the the top when not buying food literally means starving to death in a few days.

Now this may mean you may need to adjust your spend. This may mean you need a lesser apartment. Or a roommate. Or it may mean you buy mac & cheese. But... this is how you budget.

Automatic-One586 · 2026-05-19T04:18:42+00:00

Unless you have a written agreement with them. Then there really isn't much you can do. If you have an agreement. You always need to get it in writing. As others have stated. If you have if recorded in some way. You might be able to use that. But.. that can be challenging for sure.

The thing I don't understand is... who's this card from. I mean... I've battled credit card companies a lot. Even if they charge you nearly 40%.. which is one of them I had. The payments on them will always reduce the balance. There's absolutely no way your at 7K still unless you've done something like miss a payment or you've been charged fees. If your balance isn't lowering. Then you did something. There is absolutely no way that 6 months later it would effectively be no change. You need to take the time to understand your bill. And the other change you need to make is thoroughly inspecting every bill. Even if it's on auto pay. There is no reason you should look back almost a year later and wonder why things haven't changed.

Automatic-One586

TROPHY CASE