distance between tomatoes
oldokie
8 years ago
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chickencoupe
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Interesting tomato growth pattern: why is it happening?
Comments (2)I agree with calliope. My friend had a similar result when we had a day that reached 31 degrees. It killed most of the leaves but the plants stayed alive and are now thriving. If you do live in the PNW, like I used to, keep a close eye on the weather or put your new tomatoes under hotcaps, or wall o waters to get the best of both worlds (planting early for established root system and keep them alive in the midst of an unexpected chill). I wrote a blog post on this and included a picture of my tomatoes under hot caps if you are interested Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog post...See Morecontainer tomatoes distance picture
Comments (5)Sammy, Usually I try to put 3' between my large tomato containers because even at that distance, the foliage grows out of the cages and comes together in one my mass. Probably 4' would be better, but in the area where I usually line up my large containers, if I used 4' I'd run out of space and have to move some of them elsewhere, which would mean running irrigation to yet another spot, so I hate to do it. I have tomato cages in all heights--2', 3', 4' and 6'. So, when a tomato reaches the top of its cage, I just use zip ties to attach another tomato cage to the top of the existing cage. The size I attach depends on what month it is and on how much more growth I expect the tomato plant to make. The highest cage I'll go with is 8' because at 8' I have to stand on a ladder and harvest, and I'm not a big fan of climbing a ladder to pick tomatoes because most of my garden is sloping ground where it is hard to use a ladder. When a tomato reaches the top of a cage, you can top it by cutting the plant off straight across the top. Generally, once you do that a plant will put out more growth sidewides but not upward. Or, you can stack cages like I do. Or, you can let the tomato continue growing upward. Eventually, the weight of the plant and fruit will pull the uncaged growth downward and the new growth will cascade back down to the ground like the growth of a weeping willow. The main drawback to letting the growth cascade downward is that heavy winds in a strong thunderstorm can snap off those weepng branches, but that doesn't necessarily happen often where I live because we don't have a lot of thunderstorms in late summer and early fall once tomato plants are that size since we're more often prone to drought here during those months. In a more humid area, such thick and abundant foliage may lead to leaf foliage disease issues due to reduced air flow but since we tend to be droughty here in summer, our humidity tends to be pretty low by the time the plants are big monsters so that tends not to be an issue here except in the absolute wettest of summers. In all the years I've grown tomatoes, I've only had one tomato variety that grows so vigorously that it will reach the top of an 8' cage and then cascade all the way back down to the ground again, and that was Tess's Land Race Currant. Once the plants' cascading limbs reached all the way back down to the ground, I cut them off about 8" above the ground and added a new layer of mulch to keep soil splash from carrying disease up onto the limbs that were so close to the ground. Once they start cascading back down to the ground, most plants seem to get about halfway back down to the ground and then stop growing as vigorously. You can prune tomatoes or top them at any height you choose to keep them manageable. I like to let mine grow all that they reasonably can because the heavier foliage helps protect the heavy fruit load from sunscald which can be a problem here in July and August. Because tall cages full of heavy plant foliage can be very topheavy, all my tomatoes start out with two or three stakes holding the cages in the ground. In the case of the container-grown plants, the stakes also help prevent the container plants from being overturned by strong winds. The larger and fuller a plant gets, the more stakes I add. My favorite stakes are 8' tall green metal fence posts and I've amassed a pretty good collection of them over the years. The year the Tess's plant got so large, which was 2 or 3 years ago, it had 4 8' fence posts and 4 6' 4 fence posts holding it up because it was such a monster. For most of the biggest plants, two sturdy stakes usually suffice. Dawn...See MoreFlorida Weave: Distance between plants
Comments (21)If you want everything picture perfect, go for two plants per pair of stakes, and the average spacing described above. I've gone as far as 9 feet between stakes, and 4 large indeterminate tomatoes between those stakes. This in North Dakota, where 30mph wind is normal, 40-50mph blows weekly, and up to 75-80mph gusts occur once or twice during the Summer. Use baling twine, and be sure to tie the twine taut, so the plants can't move much, if at all. Baling twine is UV resistant, mildew resistant and barely stretches. Plus, it has a much higher tensile strength, than your garden variety jute twine or synthetic cordage. A spool of baling twine can be spendy, but if you price it by the foot, chances are its your most economical choice. I'm cheap with T-posts, because they are needed for livestock. I usually take the ones that a bull or tractor has bent into a pretzel shape, and bend them straight-ish for use in the garden. Should have well over 300 tomatoes and peppers on the windy prairie this year. Knock wood....See MoreDistance between Refrigerator and Island
Comments (8)The distance between our island top edge and the fridge door handle is 46". I have the same type of fridge and made sure I had plenty of step-back room (I think that's how someone referred to it) when opening the freeze door/drawer all the way. Possibly a more important meaurement you need to consider is the clearance required to remove the current fridge and slide a new one in, when (not if) that comes to pass. Envision pulling the fridge forward from its space, then turning/pivoting a quarter turn to move it out. We measured our fridge's diagonal dimension and even did a dry run before we finalized our island. ETA: Though, if your fridge isn't slotted into a confined space like mine is, then never mind. (Sorry!)...See MoreOkiedawn OK Zone 7
8 years agogmatx zone 6
8 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
8 years agop_mac
8 years agooldokie
8 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
8 years agoLynn Dollar
8 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
8 years ago
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