Discuss your tips, tricks and experiences growing and selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, plants and herbs.
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
February 17, 2012 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 327
|
One more question from the rookie
Thanks for the tips on what to grow in the blast furnace down here.
So anyway, I'm in at a farmers market down the road and there is a place to sell out of the back of the truck at a busy but somewhat rural intersection close by. I'm a golf professional by trade, and a guy I teach has a nice restraunt, so I have that deal if my stuff is good. Cool. I planted seeds and have all these midget plants running over the extra room in the house, I'll end up with a few hundred. Will till soon, plant, and then......... hold it! So now I gotta stake or cage these things. I'm thinking staking except for the Romas, and I'm thinking about hooking up a good drip watering system. Any tips on staking that many plants would be much appreciated. I have acess to a lot more growing land if it works, so again, thanks in advance. |
February 17, 2012 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: NW Wisconsin
Posts: 910
|
I like to stake my tomatoes and am not a fan of cages, but if I was doing "a few hundred" plants, I don't think I would do either. Doesn't seem like it would be very cost effective and there are many people who just let them ramble with great results.
__________________
Mike |
February 17, 2012 | #3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: North Charleston,South Carolina, USA
Posts: 1,803
|
Florida weave is easy you must have a short season anyway Brad uses it at his farm wildboarfars. Just make sure you use wooden sticks dipped in something that will slow down rot I buy them they are dark brow dipped in something. I use wood because as the string get wet it stretches with weight i use a staple gun to staple the lose string weekly. Works great if you have big fruit just lift the branch up and tie to the strongest closest string Funny if i keep the branches off the bottom and tie branches on top string left and right side they look like church crosses. But this way all fruit is off ground and get sun I just go out to the garden once a day with staple gun and the bag of that green velco around lettuce when you buy it. If you save it all year you will have a huge bag holds tight also.
|
February 17, 2012 | #4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
|
There are endless discussions of the best way to support tomatoes.
My favorite, Tomatohenge: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=19126 A good explanation of Florida Weave: http://www.foogod.com/~torquill/barefoot/weave.html A picture of the Florida Weave staking system in action: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qgn8W7Khkw...to+trellis.JPG People in windy areas sometimes put down several inches of straw for mulch and let the tomatoes sprawl on it to keep them out of the wind (not recommended in slug country). Other methods: building an overhead support for strings that plants are attached to as they grow; bamboo A-frames with a bamboo pole for each plant; building a vertical woven trellis that plants are tucked into as they grow; concrete-reinforcing wire cages; staking each plant individually; and so on.
__________________
-- alias |
February 18, 2012 | #5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 327
|
Thanks for the help guys, this place has been really great. I appreciate it all.
|
February 18, 2012 | #6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: North Charleston,South Carolina, USA
Posts: 1,803
|
I use a shorten Florida weave i like only 1 stem for the 24-36" tall plants for the first 30 days . i get fruit on the bottom, more when the plants has 2-3 stems, and more on the tops. But the 1 stem in on the 7' for 50 day or more
Last edited by FILMNET; February 19, 2012 at 11:37 AM. |
February 19, 2012 | #7 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
|
There was a convenient looking system that I saw a picture of one
time that I no longer have a URL for. It used "goat fence" (searching for that occasionally has never turned up quite the same thing) that was set into the ground at about a 15-20 degree angle from the vertical. Tomatoes were planted on the side away from the lean, and they just spread out over it as they grew. Occasionally a stem was tucked into the fence mesh to keep them from flopping over sideways along the direction of the row, but the fence supported the weight of plants and tomatoes, and mostly gravity kept them in place. I presume that one could walk on either side to harvest.
__________________
-- alias |
February 19, 2012 | #8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: southeastern PA
Posts: 760
|
Dice, Sometimes I see "cattle panels" in catalogs (farm) as goat fencing.
Do you have Tractor Supply stores near you-I know they carry it in different heights. If I wouldn't have gotten more CRW to make cages, I would have gotten the cattle panels (I think they were 10' long), secured them to t-stakes and used them as a trellis system. I've seen panels put on a slant for tomatoes but especially for cucumbers. |
February 19, 2012 | #9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 327
|
I lived in the hill country in Texas years ago and actually raised goats. This stock panel will work great, but it is pricey.
|
February 19, 2012 | #10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
|
Ive seen thousands of tomatoes staked on a tomato ranch.
They used strippings from the sawmill and tied with bailing twine. They cut back to about 1 or 2 main stems and let them grow. Worth |
February 22, 2012 | #11 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
|
The goat fence that I mentioned looked like it would cost as much
as cattle panels. The poles looked like galvanized steel, like chain link fence posts with a different shape. It had a heavy duty cantilevered base that probably has the part below ground vertical and the part above ground at an angle.
__________________
-- alias |
|
|