I have a pack of burpee big boy hybrid

This is really a great thread! I just wanted to chime in a bit. I just finished planting 140 trees on about 1 acre, and it went pretty well. I planted: 25 Common Lilac 15 Manchurian Crab 25 White Pine 32 White Spruce 10 Bur Oak 5 Paper Birch 5 Silver Maple 5 Black Cherry 5 Red Oak 5 Rugosa Rose 2 Red Maple 5 Red Pine 4 Hybrid Poplar In addition, this summer, I planted 4 larger trees... a bur oak, an Autumn Blaze Maple, a Siouxland Cottonwood, and a Red Splendor Crab It will be interesting to see how fast everything grows. The clone of Hybrid Poplar I planted can grow anywhere from 5-10 feet per year.. while the bur oak will grow at a glacial 6-18" per year over its entire life. In 1996, about 60 red pines, 10 white pines, and 10 black hills and blue spruce were planted on our land. In 2007, the tallest Red Pine is about 15 feet tall, the tallest White pine is about 12 feet tall, and the tallest spruce is 7 feet tall. Of course, these were all started from seedlings with no weed control for the first 3 years, and only mowing after that (when we moved in). We no longer mow the eastern portion of the property, where red pines are growing. There are a few clearings among the trees, and some shrubs are starting to become established. Among them are Rugosa Rose, low bush blueberry, chokecherry, and American Hazelnut. To date, not one hardwood tree has seeded. Under our deck, however, about 6 Boxelder seeds germinated, and one vigorous and desperate sapling is about 4 feet tall in its second year. I will transplant it to the edge of our property when the leaves drop... Otherwise, the land we own on a lake is already forested... and it's more of a question of management than anything. I desperately want to clear some of the underbrush (it's nearly impossible to walk through the woods here... so thick with underbrush). Between the Beaked Hazel, tree saplings, fallen logs, grass clumps, and various other shrubs, if yo'ure not tripping and trying to regain balance, you have several small branches trying to enter your head through your eye sockets. You basically have to close your eyes and bore your way through the woods with your hands in front of you, shielding your face.

I've grown the Big Mama as my main large paste for the last several years. Last year I had 40 plants in cement wire cages and they had excellent production. They are grown for family use and for local fresh food banks. Both family and food banks love them. They are large meaty and have few seeds. Since the food banks prefer paste variety tomatoes the bulk of what I grow are pastes, including romas, polish linquisa, and several others. The Big Mamas are most everyone's favorite.

Should I expect the smaller nurseries to carry them, or a bigger chain like Home Depot? Well Home depot carries the rolls of CRW (concrete reinforcing wire) but no, they aren't sold pre-made. You have to make the cages yourself or have someone make them for you unless you can find a gardener with extras who will sell them to you. There are many discussions here about how to make them and I'll dig up some and link them below. Online you can order Texas Tomato Cages (http://www.tomatocage.com/intro.html) already made but they aren't cheap so most of us make our own. They last 10-15 years and all you need is the roll of wire, a tape measure, pair of pliers and a pair of wire cutters. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: CRW Tomato cage discussions...