[Starlight]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

In addition to all the variables that have been discussed, perhaps the reason that variety height is not mentioned is b/c the seed vendor has no idea of how customers are growing their tomatoes, so doesn't want to be held to any specifics.

That makes alot of sense. People don't seem to have a lot of patience now a days and so I could see where they might blame a smaller sized plant on the vendor and not their gardening practices.

Historically when tomatoes were grown here in the US they were grown by sprawling and it wasn't until Italian immigrants started growing them with supports, as they did in Italy, similar to how grapes were and are grown in Italy.

More history. Awesome! Ya know Carolyn when I think back on the times of some of the early settlers and the hardships they had to face, I wonder how they even managed to grow tomatoes. Gotta give those folks alot of credit ot only for being able to grow in those conditions, but to save seed so we have the heirlooms for today to experience.

It's also a matter of what kind of space a person has to grow tomatoes, those who still sprawl them usually have lots of space to do so while caging, trellising, etc., allows for growing more plants than if sprawled.

Commercial growers also sprawled them for many decades but now they use determinate varieties whch makes it easier to harvest by machine.

I had lots of room so I'd say that perhaps close to 90% of my several thousands of tomatoes grown were done so by sprawling, but when I moved here after retirement in 1999 for the first two years I grew my tomatoes elsewhere and yes, still grown by sprawling,

But when I started growing tomatoes here where I lived I used containers with those simple 3 ring supports and that worked out OK, but not as good IMO as growing inground.

I wish growing in the ground was an option for me, maybe someday, but no way for now. Did you let any sprawl in the containers? How did that work out if you did?


Just trying to share a different perspective that for some growers that the possible height of a variety makes no difference whatsoever as to variety selection and suggested possible height.

Appreciate it!

Carolyn

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Going with what Carolyn posted, one of my many experiments this year is to see how tomato plants grow sprawling vs caged. Both varieties are IND cherry tomatoes growing in separate raised beds 3' apart. The beds were amended the same way with oak leaves and 10-10-10 fertilizer. Same storms, hail, amount of rain, etc. Both were planted on the same day.

In picture 1, the plant is 4' wide x 3' deep x 2' tall. It has never had support by cage/s. The loose wires are there to protect it from high winds from thunderstorms.

Picture 2 has had a simple cage around it all along. It is 3' wide x 3' deep x 5'-2" tall.

Your plants are looking good. Great idea for an experiment. That some difference already. You'll have to report back on progress and which one you seemed to like better.

Originally Posted by feldon30

Still a fun photo to post. I'm 6'9" and I'm picking a Sungold at Suze's in 2007. I cannot reach the top branches and we later had to get a ladder.


Click for Larger Size

That looks more like a forest than a tomato patch. Unreal! Never seen anything like that before. So glad you shared the photo. Just too cool! I bet your plants were the talk of the neighborhood.

Everytime I look at mine, I'll be thinking about your pic and giving my guys a pep talk.