beginner questions

[FILMNET]

This is my first year growing Heirlooms, i put a 6ft stick in each plant and use Florida tie also. Only 4 on 1 side, 3 on a another side and 1 on the others. My garden is 20ft by 15ft, all plants are great with 5-20 fruits on the bottoms, very heavy though , i have tied the plants up on the stick if i can reach the stem .
After i tied up them to 3-4 ft, the plants went to 2 stems then i tie then to Florida way.
So my plants have big fruit on the bottom, but still green and now other fruits are coming out at the top so my heavy plants are moving around with the wind now. I do not want then to fall to the ground, What should i do, cut the tops off at 6ft? my Berkeley tie dye plants have 1-3 huge maybe 2 lbs fruits on the bottom. but now more at 5ft. The plants are balanced now with the weight at the bottoms, but any more at the top might be to much, i which my bottoms one would hurry up.







Here is the huge one, more coming on the same plant

Has anyone herd of this fertilizer a friend gave it to me

[Tormato]

h, the horrors of having overloaded plants. Welcome to the club, FILMNET.

It's probably easiest to treat this "problem" on a plant by plant basis. I simply add another stake to a plant that gets top-heavy. Place the stake and tie up the plant where you think it is most likely to keel over.

Tormato

[Timmah!]

You could go to your local Lowes or Home Depot or whatever & buy 10' long sections of EMT for $2.00 & cut them to length for stakes or make a sturdy trellis with zip ties.

http://www.tomatoville.com/attachmen...7&d=1275252048

[kath]

Tormato's suggestion is probably the best way to go. Everything else would involve more work, time and maybe cost, and might not be any more effective.
Are just the tops of the plants waving in the breeze, or are the stakes wobbly, too? Depending, you could extend the length of the posts by pounding in taller, stronger stakes next to the existing ones or by adding something of additional length to the tops of your 6' stakes. If you're worried about row collapse, you could attach the posts on the one end to your fence and sink larger, stronger posts outside the existing garden for the stakes on the other end. You could sacrifice later tomatoes by pruning tops, but it's early in the season to be doing that. You could let the vines keep growing, bend over and grow back to the ground, but it sounds like the weight will be too much and that seems to be your big concern. It seems with letting the vines split into 2 and also having several plants between those posts, the FL weave may not be enough because those tops may quickly become just as heavy as the bottoms are now. Though you may damage some roots, you could add additional stakes in between each plant so that you have one close enough to tie each plant to a stake, rather than place them as close as you would if you had put them in at the beginning; in any case it would probably damage the plant less than a quick collapse would.
Good luck and remember that many would envy your situation in that you have "too many" maters!
Wow! Timmah's idea is a really good one!

[FILMNET]

Thanks all, i was looking for Magic help i guess, i didn't want to use more sticks this year , all my cherries are trained to 1 stem and a few are over 6 ft, i trained the other plants also, thank god i did, for 60 days, now have let them spread out with 2-3 stems. each stem has flowers that's what has me worried,. These stems are 4 ft above ground if they have a ton of fruit i am in trouble, the Florida string is holding some wide stems now. that' s actually my problem i see now 1 stem tied up to the string drops the string, New fruit on this stem might break it. So small 6 ft bamboo pole are ready every morning i guess. My small garden will look like solid green with thin bamboo pole sticking out of the top. Nice place for animals to live in soon, as humans soo may not be able to enter.

[kath]

Wishful thinking that by season's end you will see even the tops of those poles!
The cherries, of course will be a lot easier to hold up than the others, but tend to grow really long vines, too. Not sure how thin bamboo will support so much weight.
As long as you have a few feet between rows, you should be able to navigate. You seem to have a nice mulch layer on the ground in case any of them decide they need to sprawl after all.

[FILMNET]

That wonderful saltmash hay we have here , it grows by the ocean here , no disease, or bugs/seeds are in it, $12 a 2/3 square, luckily we get this here by the coast. wonderful for large pots also, drys very quickly.
My bamboo is very small 1/4 inch 6ft 6 for $3 home depot , know the tricks to using it, i put it in the center, and bend it to the stem which needs it, this pulls that branch towards center and as it grow it will grow up towards the sun, thats my problem t much sun, But i have looked at 7 other gardens mine wins so far!!!!!!!!! i win, my prize is more Bamboo!

[FILMNET]

i know a pro gardener who grows Sungold on 1 pole, he cuts branches to under 12 in" from the start of growing, and ties it around the pole.fruit stays on the outside i am chicken to do this.

[Timmah!]

"Wow! Timmah's idea is a really good one!"

Thanks, I thought it was too. =D B54RED posted this idea, though. =)

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...sturdy+trellis

[TomatoDon]

Filmnet, welcome to the world of tomatoes! Sounds like you have a bumper crop going there! They've listed several good ideas here for you. I'm in the country, so we normally use rougher, stouter materials and with less attention to appearance. What you need is just more and taller support strength. If all else fails, get the heavy artillery -- 6 or 7 foot long metal fence posts. You can paint them if aesthetics are a big factor. I haven't seen a cage or stake that tomatoes won't outgrow, as some get 8-10 feet and taller. The world record was something like 25 feet tall and the guy just kept adding cages on top of cages and used scaffolding to do it! (World Record Tomatoes by Charles Wilber.) Here's an interesting link you might enjoy.

Just remember....never underestimate a tomato plants ability to grow and grow and grow...allow more room between plants than you think you need, and use big-stout-tall supports.

http://home.comcast.net/~pobrien48/T...rld_Record.htm

DS

[FILMNET]

Funny I had a friend make 8 ft strong wooden 1/1.5 inch sticks very strong cut from 4/4s. i used them at the ends with the Florida string only, i don't dare take the string off now. but did use 2 1 on each plant at the ends of my garden no string is used on 2 sides so i can move around in there, i wlll shot a shot of what the center looks like soon 10 pepper plants on 1 side in the ground, and herbs pots ther, its very cool in there herbs are doing great in there, sage, Lavender, Basel, Rosemary.