Wanted: beautiful, orderly tomato patch...

[michigan_jen]

Hi!

My first post... I've been planting a few heirloom tomatoes each year for about a decade, but ramped it up since we bought our first house 3 years ago. (52 plants in 2006, still have salsa in the basement) I saved seeds for the first time last fall, but unfortunately started them late this spring (all my seeds have sprouted, but the first true leaves still haven't formed). So I bought about 25 plants (to plant this weekend), and may plant another dozen or so of my homegrown if they show a will to live...

We're slated to be on our town's garden tour this year (yikes), and so I'd like to make a better effort at keeping our tomato patch orderly and attractive. In the past, I've tried the green metal stakes and Florida weave, but everything topples by mid-season. The soil is a sandy loam and not conducive to keeping stakes vertical.

I ordered a few of the tomato ladders from Gardeners Supply Co. They're attractive and seem quite sturdy but are probably not tall enough. Any experience with these?

I like the design of the PVC tomato trellises from Mother Earth News, but would replace the PVC and conduit with bamboo or cedar for the verticals and dowels for the horizontals, so it looks more natural. Has anyone tried this? I'd prefer to do something using wood, bamboo, etc (I'm not a big fan of the metal cage/wire solutions). I wonder how expensive this would be. Would appreciate any thoughts...

Tomato ladders: http://www.gardeners.com/Green-Tomat...ult/34-140.prd

Mother Earth News PVC tomato cage:http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organ...mato-Cage.aspx

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by michigan_jen

Hi!
My first post... --------------------
We're slated to be on our town's garden tour this year (yikes), and so I'd like to make a better effort at keeping our tomato patch orderly and attractive. -----------------

Welcome to TV.

Take a look at: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=5160
I developed this idea because of many reasons. One of them is the fact that a forest of stakes and cages and PVC pipes just is not what I want.

I will be posting pictures this week end.

dcarch

[dice]

What about making something like ladders with
widely spaced rungs (out of bamboo, cedar,
whatever looks nice to you), leaning the
tops together, and fastening them to make
laddered A-frames? You can put a single dowel
through the tops of both to make a hinge,
fasten a single removable piece on each side
about three feet off the ground to secure the
bottoms of them a certain distance apart and
still allow folding them flat for storage at the
end of the season, and just stand them over
the tomato plants. (I saw something like this
in a Mother Earth News article, made out of
scrap wood, which gave it plenty of weight
for stability.)

If making them out of light materials like
bamboo, you might want to run something
along the sides between the bottoms at ground
level and set rocks on them to keep them from
tipping over sideways in the wind. The feet
should probably be farther apart than the tops,
too.

How much time do you have, how much do you
have to spend, and how much work are you
willing to do for appearance sake, those are
the real questions here. There are lots of ways
to keep tomatoes staked up, but having them look
like a page from a garden magazine is usually not
a priority.

A very simple support is bamboo tripods with plants
tied to the legs as they grow. This is not particularly
windproof, and side branches can get to be a problem
by mid-season, but it is very fast and easy to set up
if you have lots of bamboo poles and know how to tie
a tripod lashing.

[Earl]

concrete wire cages if you grow indeterminates, by the time tomatoes are ripe the cages can't be seen.

[PaulF]

I am with Earl on this one. Neat and utilitarian.

[michigan_jen]

Good ideas! I like the modified Florida weave trellis (nice design), but I hope to avoid the need for concrete footings, as I tend to move things around from year to year, and need to be able to get in with the rototiller to incorporate the abundant fall leaves we get at the end of the season. The wooden ladders are another attractive possibility -- I found a Mother Earth pic on the web.

I accidentally bought another 9 tomato plants at the farmer's market yesterday (oops), so I need to make sure my solution allows for relatively compact spacing. I'm going to go price materials, and try to narrow down the options... I guess I'd like to keep it below $10/plant (preferably around $5).

[michigan_jen]

Here's a nice link that discusses various tomato support options: http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks...o_staking.html

[feldon30]

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As you can see in the last one, I leave 1 foot of space open in the front and use wire to hold the cage ends together. This way I can reach in and tend to the plants.

The cucumber pot and frame in the middle are, of course, optional.

[michigan_jen]

That's a nice setup, feldon30. How tall are the plants in the last pic? -- they look enormous... Do you sucker them, or is that au naturel? Also, could you tell me the size of your bed and the diameter and spacing of your cages?

[michigan_jen]

Ah. Found the map -- 2 feet apart.

[Tomstrees]

I don't consider mine to be too orderly or too neat - but it works for me ...
This is from 3 weeks ago when I first set the plants in ~

Tom

[feldon30]

Note that 2 feet apart is quite close for many of these varieties. Most people are growing 3-4 feet apart. So far, the 2 foot spacing is working reasonably well for me, but I am definitely getting some foliage disease and it can be a challenge to resolve problems in the middle of the bed. I will probably reduce the 4' x 16' bed to 14 plants instead of the 16 I had this year.

Of course I'll probably add another bed, raising my total to 36 plants! Somebody stop me!

[barkeater]

For those who have grown tomatoes for more than a year, 2 to 2 1/2 feet are standard for indeterminates, 18" for determinates.

When you are talking commercial growers, it's 18" and 12". However, the rows are 5-6 feet apart, and indeterminates aren't staked. The Florida Weave is popular, but only for determinates.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Note that 2 feet apart is quite close for many of these varieties. Most people are growing 3-4 feet apart.

It depends on the climate. In cooler climates, that spacing might be just fine. I agree that 2 ft is close for our general area, because of all the rain and the potential for large Texas size plants , but I suspect many go ahead and use that spacing anyway.

Originally Posted by barkeater

For those who have grown tomatoes for more than a year, 2 to 2 1/2 feet are standard for indeterminates, 18" for determinates.

Plants get significantly larger here than they do in your zone, Bark. I do tend to sometimes space 2 - 2.5 ft apart -- because I'm weak and want to fit as many varieties in as I can! Ideally though (if I just had acres and acres of already perfect soil to put my plants in at whatever spacing I desired), spacing would be 3 - 4 ft.

I believe Deer Park spaces at 3 - 4 ft, but I could be wrong -- seems like I remember him saying that was his preference before.

[Warren]

don't use bamboo. mine is breaking apart.