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  • From: "frank ventura" <frank.dragonflyfarms AT gmail.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] determinate Tomato >> trellising
  • Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:16:29 -0500

Deb,

 

 That is a question I would like to ask also. 

 

We typically trellis outside about 800 bed feet of tomatoes and will be increasing to about 2000’ this year.  We have tried a few systems but I keep coming back to my original which is a wooden 2x3 with a point on it pounded into the ground every 10-12 feet and using 12-16’ long pieces of wooden strapping boards screwed across the top and mid point of the stake.   I get 2-3 years out of the wood.

 

We tried a system of stakes(2x3 or 2x4’s) with a wire across the top but that year I didn’t support it enough mid post and it sagged quite a bit.  I think this solution has merit if enough center stakes are used but the end posts need to be secured with a guide wire and ground stake to keep the whole thing from sagging in the middle.  Not sure if it saves labor as the post count is probably the same and the cost difference on the wire versus wooded strapping might be a wash.

 

I tried making A frames across the bed with cross supports down the length of the bed connecting each A frame, after seeing it used small scale at Arrows Restaurant/Gardens in Maine, but a long 200’ row was unstable unless the A frames where staked so the labor savings was lost.

 

Elliot Coleman shows a solution of 2x3 or 2x4 stakes with electrical conduit across the top, but I can never get the stakes pounded in to mount the electrical conduit level year after year. (lots of rocks)

 

I have just not been good at just staking and using the florida weave, but think I am going to have to get better at it this year.

 

-Frank

 

From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Deb Taft
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 12:02 PM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] determinate Tomato >> trellising

 

 


Do those of you growing tomatoes on a large scale do any sort of trellising for indeterminates?  

 

The most I've grown was about 300 plants.  I used cattle panels or an overhead trellising system for the indeterminates and stakes or cages for the determinates.  This year I plan to grow a LOT more and most of the varieties I like are indeterminate.   I can't imagine providing trellising for vast numbers of plants but on the one occasion when I didn't get my s**t together for a row and just let them meander on the ground, I was very sorry. 

 

I'd love to hear how y'all are handling this!

 

Best,

Deb

Sleepy Hollow NY, 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: cjmaness AT juno.com <cjmaness AT juno.com>
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wed, Jan 27, 2010 8:00 am
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Looking for determinate Tomato reccomendations

For determinate tomatoes we like Celebrity, Paragon(the best) and Florida 47. 
Florida 47 makes the largest tomato, but the flavor is not as good as Paragon. 
Red Sun was a really good one, but I can't get the seed for it anymore.
Over the years, we keep going more and more towards indeterminates. The flavor 
is so much better, and we harvest over a much longer period.
We trial new (to us) tomatoes every year looking for that perfect combination of 
great taste and high yields.
Carla
Perkins, OK bracing for another blizzard 
 
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