Quote:
Originally Posted by tedln
Kath,
How did your garden perform last year? I've seen the photos you posted in past years and I really do like your setup. I'm just curious if last years drought hurt you much.
Ted
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Well, Ted, since your post was about not being able to pare your list down to the number you'd like, I'll start by saying that last year I grew way more plants than I wanted to- so I pruned them and planted them closely which helped control the number of tomatoes they produced. Then if some started to look too contagious or no one liked the taste, I pulled plants out altogether starting as early as July. By the end of the season I had about 40 plants left standing and I decided that should be my upper limit because it was really easy to care for that many. So I'm up to 81...
But it's better than 181, which I've also done.
Anyway, to answer your question, I think the drought added to the more than usual BER I experienced but I put down a mulch layer of newspaper covered with grass clippings and shredded leaves and was able to get away without watering more than 3 times during the whole season. Never have seen a tomato plant actually wilt except once when I tried growing in 5 gal. containers- it's not for me. I actually like staking and pruning for ease of spraying and monitoring for pests. Cattle panel is my second favorite, but I like it the best for cherries because I don't prune my Sungolds as much and I can sort of espalier the plant.
kath