I must admit it sounded much sexier in the head line, still not sure what you are talking about.

PHJ - Sexy tomatoes with no visable means of support reclining on a bed of straw and ready for you to pluck their delicious fruits. Anymore questions?

Dana,
Will be interested how they do for you. And how their results compare to any caged plants you have. Here I almost always get better production from the sprawlers. I usually space mine 4' a part in all directions. I plant caged plants around 40" a part. In a normal year I've had a solid row of tomatoes 60' long and if 2 rows a good 10' a cross. On the smaller areas where I have 4 30' rows it can be hard to find a way to the middle to pick. At that point I sometimes have to guess which variety is which. But the last 3 years I haven't had as much trouble. My sprawlers are starting to pass my caged plants now. 100 degree plus days with high winds hold caged plants back. The sprawlers will also have less sunscald due to the leaf coverage.

PHJ I'm not sure they are very sexy. But I just plant them and let them sprawl any direction they desire.

Hope Tom from the high plains chimes in. He has a climate a lot like mine. The market growers I know from Amarillo north all say they get better production from their sprawlers. You need to mulch well which conserves moisture and also makes a nice bed for the fruit if it starts raining. Something I will have to see to believe it. With a good bed of mulch and a good canopy from the plant in 100 degree weather I only water every 4-6 days. Jay

Seedmama, Maybe the sprawlers will be your best producers this year in this wicked, hot, windy weather. It wouldn't surprise me!

I let one row of plants sprawl because by the time I planted them (there were the leftover backup plants I planted the week after the Spring Fling), it was too hot and too windy. Some of them are pig farm varieties too. They're the healthiest plants I have right now. From past experience, I know the sprawlers will produce well in a hot, dry summer. In a wet summer, too many of the fruit on my sprawlers rot.

PunkinHeadJones, The tomatoes we laughingly refer to as pig farm tomatoes are from seed that originated from Brad Gates' Wild Boar Farms in California. I'll link his website so you can see what some of them look like. A lot of them, though certainly not all, have a piggy type name: Pork Chop, Black and Brown Boar, Red Barred Boar, Pink Boar, Sweet Carneros, etc. Others have non-piggy names like Freckled Child, Berkeley Tie Dye,Haley's Purple Comet, Brad's Black Heart, Beauty King and Michael Pollan.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Boar Farms

Seedmama,

Where do you live and where did you live before with that much sand? Have you had trouble with nematodes?

Jay,

I let a lot of mine sprawl the last two years, now that I think of it, I may have had a lot more tomatoes on the "sprawlers" but it seemed to me the more difficult for them to ripen because most were buried too far under the foilage. Plus last year a skunk showed up taking bites out nearly ripe tomatoes that were near the ground.

Sheri,
I'm in Eastern Oklahoma County, in a really weird spot. Several years ago I took my soil to the County Extension Agent. He identified the square mile where I live by my beach sandy soil. Sand is difficult because it drains so much,doesn't hold nutrients and in this kind of heat it just burns up the organic material. It was great for building our home because it allowed us to have a really sturdy foundation and non-leaking basement. For gardening though, eh, not so great. When I refer to my new space, I'm talking about the acre across the creek that was pretty much cleared out by the March 11 wildfires. The sand on top is largely the same, but it has sticky clay running underneath it, the kind that bricks are made of.

I haven't had a problem with nematodes. I don't know if it is luck, skill, or it just hasn't been my time yet. I do grow thousands of volunteer marigolds. I read it isn't the flowers or the scent that repels nematodes, but rather a chemical in the foliage. So I wait until they are just about ready to bloom, then cut the plant down and leave it in place for mulch. There is so much misinformation out there about nematodes and marigolds, that this may not be accurate either. I can tell you I read it on another states' Ag Extension website, but I can't remember which one. Of all the stuff I read, it seemed the most credible, but of course I don't know for sure.

Jay, I wish I had known I was going to have sprawlers. I would have planted them horizontally. Instead, I was quite proud of how thick the upright, sturdy stems were. This year was my best ever for starting and growing tomato seedlings. My pepper sprouts were largely neglected as I started my new job in the same time frame you started yours, but of the ones that got potted up, they have been the best plants I have ever grown as well. If this sprawl thing works out, I may do it on purpose next year, which should pretty much guarantee a cool wet summer.

My first large tomato was Boar's hoof, and my prettiest tomato so far is the Big Cheef Brandywine cross you sent.

Seedmama,

Well I didn't know if there was anything you could do to prevent nematodes. Glad you've had enough luck to avoid them. I'm just not very knowedgeable about, well about A LOT of things, but i was going to say soil. I think there are a lot more sandy area's in OK than what I thought. I hate winter, and would love to move anywhere farther south of here, but I am just always wondering about the sandy areas and how difficult it would be to try to garden in an area like that.

Sheri,
A lot of it is what type of soil you are used to gardening in. My Mother through the years grew her gardens in everything from deep sandy loam type soils with fast drainage to clay type soils that were shallow with poor drainage. I've always grown my gardens in good deep sand. Sand around here is anywhere from 7-25 feet deep. My soil drains fast so I don't have to worry about overwatering. My Mother always preferred sand. I know many gardeners say not to mix sand with the silty clay loams found around here. The clay loams around here are a dark almost black when wet. We call it black gumbo. My mother as a young girl in the 30's was in charge of the family garden. Along with her Dad they would take the wagon a mile south of their place to the south side of the river which was sandy and load it and haul it back home and spade it in the garden. They had one of the best garden areas in the country. When she moved to Liberal and had the same type soil she would drive their pu on weekends over to my BIL's and haul back a load of blow sand every week. Till she had applied 8 inches or so to her garden area. Again her garden was featured in the local paper every year. Several neighbors told her she would have nothing but cement. But her soil drained better and took less water to raise a good garden. Personally I would hate to garden in anything but sand. My sand is different from that Dana has. Very fine. And if you look at what is natural and my main garden area where I've added mulch, leaves and manure to for 15 years you would hardly believe it once looked the same. It still drains very well. The other thing I like is the soil doesn't pack down like a clay loam does. If I want to I can dig a deep hole in it with my hands. I've only found one case of nematodes here. It was last year. I still believe I brought them in on a bought plant. I usually get cold enough here they shouldn't survive.

Dana hope you like the flavor of the Big Cheef. It produces well. Is a vigorous plants and seems to be resistant to everything but the TSWV. Jay

Jay,

Did the nematodes infest all of your garden soil and kill your tomato plants? My neighbor has a pile of blow sand that I could till in next year, if it would help, but I know last summer we had bindweed covering the pile and he sprayed it heavily with roundup. I don't know how our clay would be classified, other than hard as a rock. I'm going to the soil test next week, maybe they can tell me from that.

Sheri,
I only found nematodes in one hole last summer. It was a plant I had purchased and why I said I wouldn't buy any plants again but did after the hail. I didn't plant tomatoes back in that area this year.

Yes a soil test should tell you what you have. You should also be able to find soil information on Harper county that will tell you fairly close. I wouldn't be too concerned about the Round up spray as is has little residual affect. I would be more worried about if they is any bindweed or bindweed seed left. I know there is a lot of the red clay in your area. If the bindweed hadn't been in that pile I would say it would help. But then I've never gardened in the red clay if that is what you have. I know blow sand mixed in with the black gumbo works well. Jay

Do you have any problems with pill bugs eating your sprawled tomatoes? I've lost quite a few of mine to them.

Tracy,
No I haven't really ever had any trouble with any bugs and my sprawlers. I have more trouble with the birds on the caged plants. They can set on the wires and peck away. Most fruit on a sprawler is hid and most birds don't like to wade the foliage to eat one. So usually I have less trouble with pests on the sprawlers. Jay