Lean & Lower: how to keep tomatoes off the ground

[jtjmartin]

Hey all you lean & lower fans! I love the system and many of my tomato vines are now well over 8 feet long.

Some of the bottom trusses of tomatoes are now on the ground. What do you all use to keep the tomatoes off the ground?

I tried stringing them to a higher part of the plant but a couple of the unripe tomatoes popped off the stem

I cut the bottoms off some milk jugs to support heavy trusses. When turned upside down, they have a built in groove so water doesn't puddle on them.

What do you use?

Jeff

[b54red]

I use a heavy layer of cypress mulch. I do lose a few to insects but not that many. The mulch keeps the fruit dry and most of the insects away. It is also just so much easier than trying to figure out how to keep the fruit off the ground.

One trick you can do if your supports are sturdy enough is to pull the stings at a much lower angle so that it is a much longer string from ground to top support. I do this from the very first when I first put up my strings. This means it is usually a couple of weeks longer before they need lowering than if I run the strings straight up to start with. It took me several years to realize this very obvious solution but it sure has saved me a lot of time and effort. Another advantage of having the strings at such a low angle is the plant is already acclimated to growing in that direction and when you do have to lower it is so easy.

Bill

[jtjmartin]

Originally Posted by b54red

I use a heavy layer of cypress mulch. I do lose a few to insects but not that many. The mulch keeps the fruit dry and most of the insects away. It is also just so much easier than trying to figure out how to keep the fruit off the ground.

One trick you can do if your supports are sturdy enough is to pull the stings at a much lower angle so that it is a much longer string from ground to top support. I do this from the very first when I first put up my strings. This means it is usually a couple of weeks longer before they need lowering than if I run the strings straight up to start with. It took me several years to realize this very obvious solution but it sure has saved me a lot of time and effort. Another advantage of having the strings at such a low angle is the plant is already acclimated to growing in that direction and when you do have to lower it is so easy.

Bill

Bill:

Thanks to your posts, I did start stringing my plants at a pretty good angle. They have had no problem with additional leaning and lowering.

I'm currently using leaf mulch so I'm a little more concerned about disease/insects but probably overly so!

As a side note, I started grafting this year "in case" soil-borne disease became a problem - it is. One of the wilts has taken out 4 non-grafted, non-disease resistant tomato plants this year. Oddly enough, only caged tomatoes have been affected so far - not the lean and lowered.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Bill:

Thanks to your posts, I did start stringing my plants at a pretty good angle. They have had no problem with additional leaning and lowering.

I'm currently using leaf mulch so I'm a little more concerned about disease/insects but probably overly so!

As a side note, I started grafting this year "in case" soil-borne disease became a problem - it is. One of the wilts has taken out 4 non-grafted, non-disease resistant tomato plants this year. Oddly enough, only caged tomatoes have been affected so far - not the lean and lowered.

You will probably have far more insect problems with leaf mulch than with cypress mulch but there is only one way to find out. Buy a couple of bags and mulch a stretch of your bed with it and see how it compares with the leaf mulch.

Generally my disease problems have been better with the lean and lower single stem method. I think the main reason is that the plants get more light and air flow and have less dense areas where some diseases and pests get going good. Another advantage is that single stem plants are so much easier to spray with fungicide so that all the leaves are sprayed.

Bill

[rhoder551]

I had some discarded rolls of fencing laying around my tomatoes and one particularly vigorous grower laid itself down on one of the rolls. Works great... you can pick up the roll of wire and move that section of plant without harm, if it gets in the way of your gardening chores.