Tomato Plant & Coper Wire Experiment
vgkg Z-7 Va
22 years ago
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nandina
22 years agoRelated Discussions
Who's planted out tomatoes and peppers?
Comments (40)I tend not to bury the tomato stems deep. First of all, deep soil preparation is found in my old established gardens where cultivation is done with a spading fork. In the newer, larger veggie garden (with zillions of rocks), soil prep is a rototiller job. I'm lucky to have 6 inches of loose soil to set any plant in. The 2nd problem with setting them deep is that the soil is cold in May. I hope that what amounts to a "stone mulch" will benefit the surface with heat-gathering but know that soil temps fall quickly into the 40's at any depth. I've used a soil thermometer but haven't tested this idea using "double blind" experimenting and all that, however. The 3rd problem is that if I lay the plant at an angle, which is suppose to overcome problem #2 by keeping it close to the surface, it will continue to grow at an angle all season. It is already difficult to deal with the "tomato jungle" but this would add to the jungle jumble. I do "butterfly" out the roots when transplanting to encourage roots to spread and bury the tomato seed leaves. Now, do I have problems with the wind - you bet!! There are 3 plants laying down in the patch. One was actually broken . . . . ? I think I'll blame that on the rabbit. I carefully gathered soil (sifting out the big rocks) and buried the stems. Those plants have already begun to grow roots from their stems. They will be fine and should produce nice crops. digitS'...See Moreideas for tomato plant supports?
Comments (7)Marj, I finally worked my way down to the sprawl. This year, I started back towards support with about 1/3rd of the tomatoes. Yes, I had the same experience with the wire tomato rings. So, I'd drive a post into the ground to support them. Finally, I was driving 3 posts into the ground around them. That seemed kind of silly so I stopped using the tomato rings and just used 3 posts with baling twine in place of the wire rings. That seemed a bit much for so many plants so I just drove a post beside each plant and tied them to the post as they grew. Next step was the sprawl. Now, I'm back to the 1 post and baling twine ties. It really works quite well even if the posts aren't very tall and the plants soon begin to over-hang and work their way back towards the ground. The fruit is usually off the ground, at least. You can use cable ties instead of twine. Tying the twine first to the post and then around the plant works better but the cable ties are really, really quick. Steve...See MoreRabbit eaten tomato plants
Comments (18)You'll need more than a fence. A determined rabbit will tunnel underneath a concrete barrier to get to yummy pepper plants. I assume they will do the same for tomatoes, but my experience was with peppers. Years ago, I let my daughter's rabbit have the run of our backyard. No matter what I did, I couldn't keep it out of my pepper patch. I finally just gave up and waited until the rabbit died, which, fortunately for me, wasn't much long after. A neighbor's dog got into the yard and made short work of it. Oh, there was much bawling over that. But we had Big Jim peppers the next year! As for Granny Clampett and her roadkill cuisine, I have always been interested in making her special tonic. Which got me interested in this: Sasher says that by filling 15 percent of your car's gas tank with ethanol -- the corn-based alternative fuel -- and the rest with gasoline, you can bring down the price-per-gallon from $3 to about $2.40. You can make about five gallons of ethanol every hour from his stills, and it's not very difficult, he says. Yeast, sugar, corn and water are mashed together and left to ferment for two days or more. The mash is then brought to a boil, with the mash vapors rising into the still tower, where they are cooled and condensed into ethanol. Of course, if you don't add the ingredient that makes ethanol unfit for human consumption, you would find yourself with something else: 190 proof moonshine. "You can make moonshine with it," Sasher concedes, before adding with a grin, "It's against the law, though." Granny would be proud....See MorePlant Tone vs Tomato Tone
Comments (6)If you follow the link below, it takes you to the tomato tone contents anaylsis. It shows TT to be a 4 7 10. This is quite a different ratio of Nitrogen in particular from the PT. I've never used Plant Tone, but my guess is with more nitrogen in PT, you will promote more leaf development and growth as opposed to promoting flowering. (This is a guess based on what others have said to similar posts in the past.) FYI, you can order TT on line from Espoma and probably other vendors. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: tomato tone...See Morealfie_md6
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