Support

[PhilaGardener]

I am slowly converting over to T posts. Wood posts are nice but they get shorter every year as the bottoms rot in my clay soil. After many years, I think it is well worth the up front investment.

[henry]

Anyone use the 8 foot T posts for tomato support?

[PhilaGardener]

Mine are 6ft.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by henry

Anyone use the 8 foot T posts for tomato support?

My husband had one that he used to rescue s couple of plants that were starting to fall over a couple of years ago. It worked great, but he drove it right through one of our lawn irrigation lines and I had a mini flood in that bed the next morning when the system ran 😜😜😜

[pondgardener]

Originally Posted by henry

Anyone use the 8 foot T posts for tomato support?

I use 8 foot t-posts and drive them about 18-24" into the ground and they do hold very well. But when I rotate beds from year to year, removing them can be a struggle. I am tempted to just leave them in and grow around them.

[christian1971]

Finally got my t posts at Home Depot. Store workers had no idea what t posts were. WOW!

[timbucktwo]

Originally Posted by pondgardener

I use 8 foot t-posts and drive them about 18-24" into the ground and they do hold very well. But when I rotate beds from year to year, removing them can be a struggle. I am tempted to just leave them in and grow around them.

I used to use an old-style ratchet type car jack with a chain, but a sheep herder-type jack from HF (TS carries them, too) bought on sale cheap with a chain wrapped around the post works like a charm, no worries about pulling up T-posts even in my heavy clay soil.

[Scooty]

I've seen in several blogs people use the 7ft steel ts in combination with the 4x8 remesh sheets you can get from the hardware store (normally used for reinforcing concrete).

[NuttyPistons]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

After several years of broken stakes and toppled plants, I gave up and bought a bundle of 25 one inch by eight foot bamboo poles from Home Depot. For the first time I didn't have a single plant fall over last year!

I also bought these 1 inch by 8 ft bamboo stakes from the orange store's website. They will ship to store for free. Used them for the first time last year and also had no toppled plants. Stuck them in by hand about 1ft and they worked like a charm. The nice thing is, they all survived to be reused this year. You will get a bit of splitting no doubt, but that doesn't really hurt the sturdiness.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by NuttyPistons

I also bought these 1 inch by 8 ft bamboo stakes from the orange store's website. They will ship to store for free. Used them for the first time last year and also had no toppled plants. Stuck them in by hand about 1ft and they worked like a charm. The nice thing is, they all survived to be reused this year. You will get a bit of splitting no doubt, but that doesn't really hurt the sturdiness.

I had to take a dead blow hammer to them to get them deep enough to be sturdy--through a foot of loose raised bed soil and into the more solid ground below. I just need to give them a good cleaning and they will be good to go.

[Gardeneer]

To drive my Cedar stakes down. I first drive a rebar of 3/4" diameter and then pull it out. Then drive the stake into the hole. The tip of stake are shaved like a pencil. This way the wooden stakes are deep and firm
Cedar stakes won't rot as fast as other wood. Even thou Oak is one of the hardest wood, the rot just as easily as pine.
Gardeneer

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

To drive my Cedar stakes down. I first drive a rebar of 3/4" diameter and then pull it out. Then drive the stake into the hole. The tip of stake are shaved like a pencil. This way the wooden stakes are deep and firm
Cedar stakes won't rot as fast as other wood. Even thou Oak is one of the hardest wood, the rot just as easily as pine.
Gardeneer

Depends on what variety of oak it is they aren't all the same.
The oak people are used to seeing most is red oak it rots fast.
The wood from the white oak family has a closed grain and is very rot resistant.
With red oak you can take a dowel and blow smoke through it.

I have seen the oak stakes and they are a mixture of both red and white oak.
The Post oak is a straight grained tree that is in the whit oak family.
The wood is easily split and commonly used for fence posts and they dont rot out.
If you can learn how to tell the difference between the two and select only the white oak you are good to go.
It has been used for hundreds of years in barrels truck beds wagon wheels and wooden boats.

As for making stuff to go outside like tomato cages and so on if you want to split 2x4's get the Douglas fir not the cheaper white wood.
And then at the very least paint them.
Another very good wood to make stakes from is the shoots from Crape Myrtle

Here in Texas you can go to a place that sells wood fence post and get the Ash Juniper or what we call cedar.
Not the same as the western cedar.
In some soils it will way out last the metal T Posts.
Another ting to consider with eh metal T post is the environment you are putting it in.
Moist soil with possibly fertilizers with salts and sulfur.
This will rot one out in no time.
Then there is the fact that cheap Chinese steel is of a low quality.

Worth

[oakley]

I like the look and feel of bamboo. I have only ordered twice in 20 yrs. Very strong on my 'windy-top'...When a few split and too short, i make some other lashed together structure i dream up.

I'm on year three using 1" square i think is mahogany recycled. Ripped down from boards. It was free so the bamboo is being used in another bed. Some is in the shed. It is from GardenersSupply, the thicker one i think is #6. 7ft may not be tall enough for some with a long growing season.

Climate could be a factor maybe. Many choices and methods work. I have a bunch of t's that i might use this year if i start another tom run.

[Captain Neon]

American white oak is one of the reasons the British invested so much effort in colonizing the New World. It's hard to be the world's largest navy in the 17th Century and have to rely on wood from countries that may be your enemies soon.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Captain Neon

American white oak is one of the reasons the British invested so much effort in colonizing the New World. It's hard to be the world's largest navy in the 17th Century and have to rely on wood from countries that may be your enemies soon.

It is hard to pictuer these days with instant gratification how they would plant trees to be used 100 years later but that is what they did.
It was the age of the battle ship and Crossing The T.
There was an arms race going on and wood was the main ingredient for ships.
Old Iron Sides has I think a hull of 24 inch live oak which is another type of white oak.
She still floats.
Worth