Glad to know you got something after blight hit, hmm, how big were those suckers you had in July? Am also wondering when such thing happens regarding DTM all bets are off?

The suckers were 10-12" long and I kept them in potting soil in large size styrofoam cups very wet for a week before setting in the 5-1-1. What is DTM? Days to maturity? Seems they produced in approx 80 days in the containers(Jujy 1 to Sep 20)

Hey, BP, glad to hear the Estlers are still going strong for you. Do you ever save seeds? Those might really be at a premium next year. My crop failed - not only did we get EB/Septoria, we got wiped out by gray mold. So did my Aunt's garden. Neither of us were able to save any seeds. So no more MLs directly from William's descendants :( . Not sure if anyone else will have them, they were not easy to find this year.
Anyway, glad you don't have to resort to cardboard from the grocery store just yet!
Edie

hey girl.....I do have some seed but I purchased a dozen plants in May from Joyces Greenhouse. I figure they have looked ahead seeing as Bob had been failing for awhile. But I will keep putting a few back and let you have some if you cant find any. I have taken my 90 yr old parents about 3 in the last week about a pound ea and pink as pink gets. We really like those MLs.

Very good. Happy you won over all those diseases.

ML is on my list for the next season. And this is a very good review on it.
BTW: what is the difference between Estlers ML and regular ML in terms of fruit, etc. ?

BP... thanks! I will check in a couple of months as folks start listing what they will have for sale for next year and if I can't find any I will surely let you know. I hope for goodness sake that Joyce's have a back-up plan!!!

Seysonn - I've never grown any of the other varieties so I can't compare them for you. All I can vouch for is that Estler's is the original and all the others are copies! (You can do a search and it will bring up several previous discussions about it.)

Edie

Actually I thought someone at Joyces told me that Mrs Estler had been in and that she would be cutting back rather than stopping production. Is Mrs Estler still going strong? Or maybe some other relative? The plants were about a buck fifty in 4" sq pots....very nice. They in turn sell plants to a couple of other vendors, Southern States being one.