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Growing Tomatoes

wooden pallets

13 years ago

I have used cages, cattle panels and this year the Florida weave for my tomatoes. Has anyone tried cutting a hole in the middle of a wooden pallet to grow them on? This just came to me last week since the business next door throw several pallets a week away. Space is not an issue to me but what are your thoughts on this?

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Comments (6)

Fred_in_Maine
13 years ago
Interesting idea. This would be good for keeping the leafs and fruit off the soil. Also good for keeping the soil from splashing up onto the plant when watering.

I suppose the down-side might be that the pallet could serve as something of a coat-of-armor for weeds and prevent one from getting weeds out by their roots?

I always love hearing new ideas. Thanks, Fred in Maine
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mike2001
Original Author
13 years ago
Paper or plastic could solve that but after I posted this the word Snakes did come to mind. lol. Two creeks and a channel run through my property.
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mulio
13 years ago
This method goes back to at least the 70's.

Mike is right. Snakes. The snakes are there because of the mice that like the nice cool shaded area between the top and bottom of the pallets and abundance of food. So to keep the mice from eating fruit the snakes are a (questionably) good thing.
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trudi_d
13 years ago
Snakes I don't have on LI, but we did have them upstate and not always the benevolent types. Snakes just LOVE lumber and logs ;-(

My first thought was pill-bugs which are numerous here and also love lumber and logs. Can you drive some rebar into the soil and tie the cages to the rebar and weave the stems into the upright pallets? Depending upon the pallet type, you might have to remove some of the slats, but you could indeed use them as supports if they are vertical instead of horizontal.
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susan2010
13 years ago
Those pallets are heavy. If you have them upright, what happens if they fall over? They'll take everything with them and crush everything else. Plus there's the shadow they will cast to consider. Personally, I find the pallets useful for keeping bagged supplies off the ground, and I've even occasionally put a couple together for an impromptu "deck," but I'm not sure I'd use them in the garden itself.
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mike2001
Original Author
13 years ago
Standing them up would definitely be to much trouble. After the thought of snakes that ended my thoughts on this. The Florida weave has worked well for me this year and compared to the other choices I will stick with it. Cattle panels work well but are expensive though they would last for years. They still have to be moved and stored.
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