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Post by mountaindweller on Apr 2, 2012 3:49:15 GMT -5
After a cool rainy summer without much sun, the autumn is getting better and really some tomatos start to ripen. I had to replant seedlings and after initially having 3 beds with one variety each, everything is mixed now, but I still want to save seeds from them because the summer was just so crappy.
The second mess is how the tomatos grow, and I always had this problem. I found that they don't like it to be tied on stakes and love to ramble one the ground, but that way you loose half the harvest and all the paths between the beds are overgrown.
I wacked some stakes into the ground and made some sort of fence around each bed with some leftover chicken wire, the other simply with some string but it just tipped over.
What gorgeous tomato system do you have?
I might try to add a photo tomorrow.
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Post by traab on Apr 2, 2012 7:25:20 GMT -5
mountaindweller congratulations your persistance in replanting is giving tomatoes for you to enjoy.
If you save seeds from each plant variety seperately for your use why not? Varieties can mix so the seed may have a few crossed. Planting the seed is the way to know if the plants crossed For your use enjoy them. Expect most seeds to have not crossed but a few may have- for me it would be fun to see a different one.
I have many many varieties and do not choose to send them to others as I am not keeping them pure. I keep some wild species and know they can cross more frequently. I enjoy them and keep them for my use.
You might find an off-type tomato that has great characteristics. Others here will be able to tell you much more!
A nice tomato cage can be 4 stakes with wood or other material attached parallel to the ground every 25cm (10") up to the stakes tops. My grandmother nailed her own together they worked for flowers too.
A fancy way is to make 50cm (20") cylinders with wire fencing where the hands can reach through to pick fruit. A strong stake in the ground holds it up. They can be head high.
A strong wire fence with wide holes and strong stakes can support a row if vines are guided in and out of the fence as they grow.
If you are producing commercial crops there are other supports.
Enjoy your harvest.
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Post by templeton on Apr 2, 2012 7:31:09 GMT -5
Mountain,
In my backyard garden I've tried stake and tie, wire trainers, florida weave, and this year 100mm X 100 mm weldmesh.
My limiting factor is space. Every tomato is valuable. But a colleague of mine has a huge bed, and less passion about his tomatoes, so he lets them sprawl everywhere, and still get more tomatoes than he needs.
I'm really happy with the weldmesh, ziptied to 32mm steel poles hammered 2 metres apart in the beds. Just train the small plants up to the weldmesh, then every week or so weave the plants through the squares in the mesh. The holes are big enough to put your hand through to pick toms. Lots of air circulation keeps the diseases down too. Easy to net for birds.
If I was growing half a hectare, no doubt my solutions would be different.
T
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Post by richardw on Apr 2, 2012 13:22:55 GMT -5
Sounds like you do your outside tomatoes a bit like how i do mine templeton,so is the weldmesh horizontal with the ground like i do?? i use fence netting between six waratahs,two on each side at the end of a 6 meter bed and two either side in the middle,i then use heaps of bamboo poked down through the gaps in the netting.
mountaindweller - your summer was some what like ours,most of NZ had the cloudiest summer in over 100 years but the North Island had one of the wettest while the South Island had it dry and cloudy.
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Post by johninfla on Apr 2, 2012 13:31:38 GMT -5
I have some old field fence that I cut into about 5 to 6 foot lengths to make into circles. If you cut off the bottom horizontal wire, you can poke it right into the ground.
John
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Post by templeton on Apr 2, 2012 18:24:36 GMT -5
Sounds like you do your outside tomatoes a bit like how i do mine templeton,so is the weldmesh horizontal with the ground like i do?? i use fence netting between six waratahs,two on each side at the end of a 6 meter bed and two either side in the middle,i then use heaps of bamboo poked down through the gaps in the netting. Richard, I do mine vertically like a fence. I've had all sorts of mildew problems over the last few years, and my toms need all the air and light i can give them. so they are widely spaced - maybe 800mm, and woven in a single layer through the mesh. After much frustration searching for a relatively benign fungicide, this trellising method sems to have solved the problem. [/quote]mountaindweller - your summer was some what like ours,most of NZ had the cloudiest summer in over 100 years but the North Island had one of the wettest while the South Island had it dry and cloudy.[/quote] Yep, its been a big la nina year all right. very patchy season here. Waratahs - now that'll get the NHers thinking....  T |
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Post by steev on Apr 2, 2012 21:52:00 GMT -5
I trellis mine on weldwire fencing zip-tied to T-posts; I like that if I need to, I can just clip the zip-ties and roll up the fencing, even pulling the posts is no big thing, although driving them is a bitch if the ground is dry.
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Post by mountaindweller on Apr 3, 2012 2:06:14 GMT -5
Some good ideas! I like the weldmesh idea especially the horizontal one, a star post at each corner, maybe in the middle too. Weldmesh could be used in an inversed v-shape too. Not the cheapest method though.
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Post by Drahkk on Apr 9, 2012 15:24:46 GMT -5
I built a 6' tall trellis frame around my beds using 1/2" EMT conduit. I slid the frame over some cheap electric fence posts (plastic coated rebar with a fin at the bottom), which were sunk in deep enough for the top inch of the fin to stay above ground. That stabilizes the frame and keeps the conduit off the ground so it doesn't rust. I string the frame with twine, then weave the vines between the twine as they grow. I plant them deep about a foot away from the trellis, let the first 4-5 suckers grow so there are several leads and plenty of leaf cover, and keep laying them down until I get the tips under the first line of twine, then start training them up. The part laid on the ground makes extra roots, which does help.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 13, 2012 10:55:09 GMT -5
One of the best things we've ever done was one year when we put posts down then put welded wire fencing attached to the posts. Has to be sturdy enough to hold the weight and I strongly suggest that you get it with the "holes" big enough to put your hand through (like 6" x 6"?). Cages made of the sort of wire mesh you put down for laying concrete work fair decent as well but again, you want to be able to put your hand through and probably a tomato in the hand as well.
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