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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Tomato Cages, Varieties
  • Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 06:22:48 -0500


On May 2, 2008, at 10:19 PM, Robert Walton wrote:

OK, Gene brought up tomato rotations, how about staking or caging?

I say try every method you can find and you will learn which one you like the best.

As each garden condition is unique, so each gardener is unique. Some prize neatness. Some care less. Some are content to tie, tie, tie. Some push sticks (I cut saw-kerf notches in the sticks, to keep them stable). Reinforcement-wire cages are probably most popular.

I've tried every method of supporting tomatoes. I have other things to do this year. So I am trying something new. I am growing tomatoes in the Christina Garden, the garden about twenty feet behind the house; the kitchen looks out upon it. It has the stone wall, the soil goes back a couple feet level, then slopes upward. I keep a very heavy mulch of grass clippings and mower-chopped leaves on it at all times. I have the tomatoes planted about a foot back from the wall, spaced at three feet. I will plant basil between. As for staking or caging, I will do nothing except push the vines back toward the hill. My plan is that they will grow backward and upward. The only challenge I foresee is harvesting. With my thighs against the wall I can reach back three or more feet. For the fruits farther back I am thinking perhaps one of those fruit-picking devices. Might have to build or modify one. I will report on the experiment.





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