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Post by wargarden2017 on Jan 7, 2021 22:25:03 GMT -5
i will be posting a series of garden plans from various gardening eras. mainly from 1910-1980 boston globe 1944  |
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Post by gardendmpls on Jan 7, 2021 23:28:34 GMT -5
From the arrangement of the rows, It seems the only things they grew up (on trellises) were the pole beans. Assuming the rows were East-West, the beans were on the North side and to avoid plants shading each other, the corn, which is tall was next. They do have short plants between the tomatoes and cucumbers, so I can presume they let these plants sprawl. CSI Boston Garden 1944- Plant Forensics.
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Post by wargarden2017 on Jan 8, 2021 6:00:01 GMT -5
congrats you likely failed csi boston garden 1944 but so did the boston globe  |
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Post by davidjp on Jan 8, 2021 11:12:04 GMT -5
I still routinely use single stakes for tomatoes and prune to a single leader as is one of the suggestions for trellising tomatoes. I don’t see that recommended in too many books. Interestingly it’s still the usual way they do it in the UK.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Jan 8, 2021 11:45:24 GMT -5
I still routinely use single stakes for tomatoes and prune to a single leader I used to stake but have now gone to cages, which also need staking. Indeterminate tomatoes outrun my stakes. Tropical storms are a main problem for me -- eight last year. I need to find a way to get the tomato plants lower to the ground. The formula here for pruning indeterminate tomatoes was remove everything up to the third fruiting spur. |
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Post by desertwoman on Jan 8, 2021 11:50:44 GMT -5
I need to find a way to get the tomato plants lower to the ground. let them sprawl? Don't know how much space you have or how many plants you put in but if necessary, could you create more of your tire beds for individual tomato plants and let them sprawl from there?
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Post by tom 🕊 on Jan 8, 2021 12:11:34 GMT -5
let them sprawl? Don't know how much space you have or how many plants you put in but if necessary, could you create more of your tire beds for individual tomato plants and let them sprawl from there? Space isn't an issue. I live on a farm, but I don't want to plant more than I can use or take care of. If a tomato touches the ground here, it rots. I have considered growing tomatoes on fencing laid flat and 6" off the ground. |
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Post by wargarden2017 on Jan 8, 2021 12:14:20 GMT -5
davidjp , the reason the british prune is they usually grow their tomatoes in greenhouses also pruning comes with a cost lower production.
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Post by davidjp on Jan 8, 2021 12:50:01 GMT -5
the reason the british prune is they usually grow their tomatoes in greenhouses also pruning comes with a cost lower production. True but plenty of people grow outside as well with that method but outside is a bit hit or miss due to damp summers and blight. Indoor tomatoes never get blight. I think the main reason to do it that way is to get quick maturity in a less than hot summer growing season by limiting the number of trusses to 4 or 5. The standard advice is to pinch out the top after 4 or 5 trusses because any subsequent will be unlikely to ripen in an unheated greenhouse and never outside. I've grown them that way in the northwest and done well and I think for the same reason for although the climate is very similar you get a very dry summer here for a few months, in fact its classed as a Mediterranean climate for that reason. Also the other reason I like growing that way is I can get them in close together (18 inches apart) and get a lot of varieties in a small area. The downside is the amount of effort to maintain that. Getting these guys to ripen in a less than hot summer is the problem  |
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Post by gardendmpls on Jan 8, 2021 14:41:41 GMT -5
congrats you likely failed csi boston garden 1944 Most likely. Failed to notice the shorter crops were planted in April and were probably gone by the time the tomatoes and cukes, planted in May, were putting on height. Used to teach forensics, but now that I am retired I seem to have lost my carefulness examining all of the evidence. I have seen places where tomatoes are left to sprawl. Tried it once, but they were either stepped on or eaten by slugs, sometimes both. Same with cucumbers, but not as bad. |
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Post by breezygardener on Jan 8, 2021 15:00:46 GMT -5
I once allowed a small number of tomatoes to sprawl. I ended up with more plants than I had cage or stake room for, so just planted the few extras around the garden perimeter & let them do their thing. They didn't do as well as the caged & staked plants, but they did fairly well for extras. What I did do was make sure the sprawling plants were sprawling atop a deep bed of straw, which kept them off the ground & thus helped keep them from rotting, as well as a lot of pest predation.
I wouldn't do it for a main crop, but for the few extra plants I had, it was an interesting experiment.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Jan 8, 2021 15:46:10 GMT -5
Sprawling tomatoes happened here decades ago. There was a self-sowing volunteer cherry tomato, about 1 inch in diameter, that used to come up in my mother's flowers. It made a few late fall tomatoes when other tomatoes had finished. I regret we lost it.
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Post by emmsmommy on Jan 9, 2021 12:01:25 GMT -5
I usually stake the individual plants and usually let a second leader develop from one of the lower suckers too. My mom tried a technique in their big garden at a suggestion of a neighbor in which the stake was placed between two plants so that the number of stakes needed was reduced. It seemed to work well. At her small garden at home, mom used tomato cages which she also had to stake because the plants outgrew them and they would continually topple. I tried a new technique with the Roma tomatoes last year in which I placed stakes at the end of four foot rows, planted three tomatoes in between them and ran jute twine between the plants in a figure-eight fashion. I believe I ended up with three intervals of twine at about every six inches and occasionally had to undo and retighten the twine as the season progressed. It worked fairly well and kept the tomatoes off the ground. I don't know how well this technique would work with indeterminate tomatoes but plan to experiment with it this year.
As for letting them sprawl, I unintentionally did that the first year I had a raised bed. It was a wet summer and I was working long hours and tomatoes were out of hand before I even thought about staking them. I did mulch with old hay and didn't lose as many to rot as I figured but still didn't have near the harvest I would have if they had been staked. Unfortunately the sprawling tomatoes smothered my pepper plants.
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Post by davidjp on Jan 9, 2021 14:20:32 GMT -5
Indeterminate tomatoes outrun my stakes. Tropical storms are a main problem for me -- eight last year. I need to find a way to get the tomato plants lower to the ground. Might want to try some of the dwarf tomato project varieties. My understanding is they are indeterminates that have been selectively bred to be smaller is size and more manageable but retain the advantages of indeterminates of longer harvesting periods. www.victoryseeds.com/dwarf-tomato-project.html |
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Post by wargarden2017 on Jan 9, 2021 15:02:48 GMT -5
if they over run stakes then you need taller stakes and you might try
tomato cage.
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