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Old March 20, 2011   #16
kath
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Quote:
Originally Posted by casino View Post
When I need to grow more tomatoes than I have space for I use this method. I buy a roll of garden fence wire, 5 feet tall X 50 feet long. Stretch this out and use heave duty stakes to support the fence. Buy some electrical conduit pipe and zip tie it along the top of the fence line and this pipe keeps the fence as straight as an arrow and nice and tight. Plant the tomatoes 1-2 feet apart, trim to one or 2 stems and use an old bed sheet cut in strips and tie the plant onto the fence as it grows up. When I find my keepers I save the seeds and grow them in the big garden next year with lots of space to fully develop.

Sometimes I can get up to 40 tomatoe plants growing along this fence line for "taste" evaluation. For fall clean up there is very little material to be put away into storage and everything is re-usable again next year. In the long haul it becomes cost effective.
Great idea, Casino! Thanks for sharing - may be able to do this with some of the free wire fencing we have around. It's not as heavy as CRW but the conduit would take care of that problem.

I cut up worn out t-shirts, old socks, etc. and have bags of soft ties before the season begins, too.
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Old March 20, 2011   #17
b54red
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Kath if you see the disease in the center of determinates where you are just imagine what it is like down here. My shaded backyard thermometer read 87 yesterday and it is already over 80 today but the real misery hasn't gotten here yet. When the humidity hovers near 100% for weeks on end with a temperature to match then it gets really uncomfortable. Right now the humidity is running between 50 and 70% and it feels like California. I just wish it would last for more than a week or two.

Casino, I have done the same thing with 5 ft fence wire and conduit. I still use it for my cucumber fencing in short rows. It is very easy to relocate each year so my cucumbers can have a different spot each season. I did find it rather messy trying to get the old tomato vines out of it at the end of each growing season and so went to a trellis of just conduit with 3 horizontal bars to tie to. It takes longer to construct but it is much taller at 7 feet and with my long growing season I need a really tall and sturdy support system.
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Old July 14, 2011   #18
b54red
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Well I tried the close spacing and was able to grow a lot more plants in the space I had but I will never do that again. The disease problems were multiplied and much harder to control due to poor air flow. Next year large vine varieties will be at least 4 feet apart and if I have room even more. I had the worst case of gray mold and it was very difficult to stop due to the close proximity of the plants and it spread very rapidly. Spraying the plants was a real pain because once they got big it was like trying to spray a really dense hedge and it was really hard to get good coverage.

Oh well I accomplished what I wanted and have found some more good varieties for my garden for next year. I will only try a few new ones next year and cut out most of the under performers so that I can focus on the varieties better suited for down here. It was a lot of fun trying all the different varieties and watching them develop but it is way too much work for me to do again.
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