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A couple of months ago we bought one of those upside-down tomato planters you might have seen advertised on TV.  I like it.  It hangs right outside my window, so I get to watch it grow every day.

And it’s done well.  At least, we thought it was doing well until the first tomatoes ripened and we took a look at them.  The top halves are all fine, but the bottoms all look like the ones in the picture: convered with a gray, pulpy mass and basically ruined.  I’m not sure what causes this kind of thing.  Is it a bug?  A parasite?  Overwatering?  An alien nanobot infestation?  Something else?

I desperately need advice.  Are there any expert tomato farmers out there who can tell me what’s going on?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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