Market Farming

[mckemie AT inetport.com]

Sometime ago here, we had a short discussion on tomato staking material 
and I asked about using PVC pipe.  Here is the result of some 
experience:

1/2" light weight PVC appears to be a little to flimsy.  I did one row 
with PVC only and, though I haven't had a failure, I don't think it 
would hold up big plants.  I did get a pallet of 1" "Honduran pine" 48" 
stakes.  They are quite a bit cheaper than PVC; they were $.13 or $.14 
each plus about the same amount for shipping from Florida to Texas.  

I did use all of my PVC by alternating with the pine and that appears 
to be sturdy enough for determinate varieties.  The pine does appear to 
be treated.

The gripping of the PVC by the twine does not appear to be the problem 
that I expected; I started notching where I wanted to twine to catch, 
but quit when I saw that it seemed to be un-necessary.

We are in the middle of our tomato season and there have been no 
problems yet with stakes falling over or with twine breaking or 
slipping.

-- 
Onward!  Through the Fog!
Willie
http://austinfarm.org/homegrown