THE JAPANESE TOMATO RING
Cindi Sullivan's article, The "Japanese" Tomato Ring, has a long and interesting story. It was first created by a Charleston, SC postman about 40 years ago. It seems a Miami newspaper reporter, Eddie Jones, interviewed Mr. Callahan (the postman) about the Tomato. As Mr. Callahan and Mr. Jones inspected the tomato ring, they talked about tomatoes and Mr. Callahan�s tours in North Africa, Europe and Japan when he was in the Air Force. Somehow or another, Mr. Jones got his facts confused and ended up thinking that the idea for the tomato ring originated in Japan, when in fact, Mr. Callahan just started implementing the idea on his farm in South Carolina.
(Just as an aside, it was Mr. Jones who coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" for the area where ships and planes sometimes spookily disappeared east of Florida.)
The story about the Japanese Tomato Ring ran year after year in the Miami Herald, and was picked up by other newspapers across the country. It came to Louisville, when Mr. and Mrs. Bob Rogers were traveling south for a vacation, saw the story in a Macon, Georgia newspaper, brought it home and tried out the idea. Mr. Rogers was so impressed with the tomato production using this method that he called Fred Wiche to do a story about it.
When I first started this job, I had a bunch of requests for "Fred�s Japanese Tomato Ring", but I didn�t have Fred�s files with the instructions. Then finally, one day, just in passing, Paul Rogers---the 84WHAS Sportscaster Extraordinaire---told me that it was his dad who gave Fred the instructions. Small world isn�t it? Here�s how it goes:
You�ll need about 80 quarts of good topsoil. Mr. Rogers buys two bags of topsoil for each ring. If you have an excess of good garden soil, use that; it will take about two wheelbarrows full.
You�ll also need two bags of mulch. Mr. Rogers uses cypress mulch, but you could use any other shredded bark mulch or good quality finished compost.
The only other ingredient is a 10-pound bag of 10-10-10.
Take 15 feet of five foot high farm fence (or concrete construction) wire and roll it into a circle five feet in diameter, placing the cylinder in a sunny spot protected from the north and northwest winds if possible. Clear a seven-foot wide circle and break the topsoil a few inches deep. Place the wire ring in the circle, leaving a foot of cleared soil a foot outside the ring.
Place the mulch or compost six inches deep in the ring and top it with a layer of soil and half the fertilizer. Add another layer of mulch or compost, another layer of soil and 2/3 of the remaining fertilizer on top of that. Save the rest of the fertilizer to sprinkle around the plants.
Pat the topmost layer down in the middle to create a depression to hold water.
Plant four, and only four tomatoes, spacing them evenly around the ring outside the wire. They will look small, but in time they will grow roots under and up into the pile.
Lightly fertilize the new plants. We mean lightly, because too much will wither them.
If things start to look dry, water the plants outside the ring when they are small and inside the ring as they grow. Support the vines by tying them to the wire with soft cloth.
Once tomato production starts pumping, top off the compost with another five pounds of fertilizer. Mr. Rogers harvests about 600 tomatoes per plant per year with this method.
http://jpdurbin.net/recipes/japanese_tomato_ring.htm
Daniel E. Mullins, Extension Horticultural Agent Santa Rosa County
Japanese Tomato Ring
Ever wonder why your best tomato plant is the one that came up in the compost pile, instead of among the ones being nurtured in the garden? There are several reasons why this occurs, and you can recreate this same growing condition by installing a Japanese tomato ring.
Start by purchasing a ten foot long piece of concrete reinforcing wire that will be used to make a large cage. The wire should be 5 feet wide, with a 6 inch mesh size. Join the ends together and tie securely. This will form a cage that is slightly over 3 feet in diameter.
Select a sunny location for installing the tomato ring. You will need a circular area that is about 6 feet in diameter. Spade and turn the soil in this area to a depth of 8 inches. Smooth the surface by raking and place a 6 inch deep layer of compost on the soil surface.
Stand the wire cylinder upright on top of the first layer of compost and secure the base with short stakes. Sprinkle one-fourth cupful of dolomite lime and the same amount of a balanced garden fertilizer over the surface of the compost. Add a 6 inch deep layer of leaves, followed by another layer of compost, plus lime and fertilizer.
Continue alternating layers of leaves and compost until the material on the inside of the wire reaches a minimum height of two and one-half feet. The top layer should consist of leaves. Shape the top layer so that it is concave, with the center being about 2 inches lower than the outside edge.
Place a cupful of fertilizer on the surface of the top layer of leaves, in the center of the pile. Water from the top in order to thoroughly soak the pile.
Set tomato plants in the ground on the outside, and within 2 inches of the base of the wire. A 3 foot wide cage will allow room for 4 plants to be evenly spaced around the outside edge.
Mulch the plants with a 3 inch layer of leaves. Also, mulch a 2 foot wide band around the base of the cage. Keep plants watered until they are well established and the roots begin to grow into the material inside the cage.
Subsequent irrigation is done by applying water to the top, in the center of the pile. This allows for complete watering and movement of the fertilizer without wetting the foliage and stems.
This system has several other advantages. The alternating layers of compost and leaves provide a highly organic medium and plenty of air for the roots. And, no separate staking is required. As plants grow, simply tie them to the wire.
This is a space saving technique with the potential for producing heavy yields of tomatoes. If other tomato growing methods have been unsuccessful for you, give this one a try.
http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/extensio...omatoring.html