Lean and lower

b54red · June 20, 2018

I was out doing some pruning and leaning and lowering of my tomato vines this morning and realized that some of the plants don't get lowered much at all. Some varieties get really tall or long while still having good fruit on the lowest clusters. Since slugs, earwigs and other creatures like to feast on tomatoes resting on the mulch I try my best to keep them off the mulch until I have no other choice. The way I do this is I just pull the plant at an angle so that it keeps those fruit just above the ground. This sometimes makes for some crossing and overlapping of plants that don't grow as fast or as tall and I sometimes worry about the plant growing at such an angle but it usually works out. It is usually not a problem the first time that I lean and lower but by the second and third time when the plants are over 10 ft in length it becomes necessary to do the extreme leaning without lowering to keep the fruit up.

I used to just lay all the stems down and keep the upper part vertical but that put a lot of fruit on the ground. I realized that I was losing too many beautiful tomatoes to insects and so I adapted with this extreme lean and it seems to work most of the time. With the good heavy mulch I had down below the plants I didn't lose a huge amount of the fruits on the ground but I felt I was losing too many. Has anyone else doing this kind of support run into this?

I tried placing little pieces of board or plywood under each fruit but this was time consuming and I ran out of small things to place under the fruits. I would like to hear of any solutions that others have come up with for this problem. Thanks.

Bill

Rajun Gardener · June 20, 2018

I'm doing the L&L method too and just put leaves down to lay the plant on and so far I haven't had major bug issues but I do spray with liquid seven. If the bugs get bad I'm gonna tie the plant about 2" from the base and tie it up on the cable so it will always hold it off the ground. Depending on how long the plant grows I might have to tie it up again.

I only tried this on the cherry plants and so far it seems to work. I'm not sure how full sized tomatoes will work but I'll use this method for a fall crop too. These plants are about 15' long.

b54red · June 22, 2018

Mine are about that long now also; but they have far more foliage on them. I try to do the Missouri pruning on a lot of them to allow for more shade for my fruits. Too many of the varieties that I grow get sun scald if they are in the open like that. I'll try to take a few photos of the way they look now. I just finished leaning and lowering mine yesterday and will be fertilizing them in a few minutes.

Bill

Dewayne mater · June 25, 2018

Rajun - are you heavily trimming the foilage? I've been doing the L&L method for 3 years now and doing quite a bit of pruning - more than ever, but still have a lot more than yours have. Is that on purpose? How is it working? Also, are they single stem trimmed? I let mine have 2 or 3, depending on how they develop in the early days.

Bill - I have a few in that category you describe, though mostly the growth seems to be about keeping up with the fruit ripening level staying just off the ground. I have heavy wood mulch on my raised bed and if I get a few on the ground, I sprinkle Sluggo Plus (iron phosphate and spinosad) around them and that keeps them bug free so far. Now, some night dwelling mammal is starting to eat them while green and I have not good solution for that in the city.

Dewayne

b54red · June 26, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Rajun - are you heavily trimming the foilage? I've been doing the L&L method for 3 years now and doing quite a bit of pruning - more than ever, but still have a lot more than yours have. Is that on purpose? How is it working? Also, are they single stem trimmed? I let mine have 2 or 3, depending on how they develop in the early days.

Bill - I have a few in that category you describe, though mostly the growth seems to be about keeping up with the fruit ripening level staying just off the ground. I have heavy wood mulch on my raised bed and if I get a few on the ground, I sprinkle Sluggo Plus (iron phosphate and spinosad) around them and that keeps them bug free so far. Now, some night dwelling mammal is starting to eat them while green and I have not good solution for that in the city.

Dewayne

Probably rats or mice. I use a bait station with rat poison in it whenever that starts happening. I set the bait station in the bed where the fruit are being eaten and in a day or two see a few dead mice or rats and that usually solves the problem. If it is squirrels then I try to shoot them with a pellet rifle if I can because they won't go for the bait like a rat will and they will keep returning unless you stop them.

Bill

Johnniemar · June 26, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by b54red

Probably rats or mice. I use a bait station with rat poison in it whenever that starts happening. I set the bait station in the bed where the fruit are being eaten and in a day or two see a few dead mice or rats and that usually solves the problem. If it is squirrels then I try to shoot them with a pellet rifle if I can because they won't go for the bait like a rat will and they will keep returning unless you stop them.

Bill

We usually lose 50 or so tomatoes to squirrels every year. This year we have had a pair of owls move into the woods behind our house and the squirrel population has been decimated. We have not lost a single tomato as far as i can tell.

Rajun Gardener · June 26, 2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Rajun - are you heavily trimming the foilage? I've been doing the L&L method for 3 years now and doing quite a bit of pruning - more than ever, but still have a lot more than yours have. Is that on purpose? How is it working? Also, are they single stem trimmed? I let mine have 2 or 3, depending on how they develop in the early days.
Dewayne

I've been pruning more due to blight but I wouldn't normally prune so heavy. These are all single stem to keep it easier to lower.

Nan_PA_6b · June 26, 2018

I put out a rat trap for the critter eating my low-hanging green tomatoes. Turned out to be a juvenile rabbit that found a hole in my fence. The rabbit survived and ran off when released; it never came back.
an

jtjmartin · June 26, 2018

Bill:

I do L&L that I learned from . . . you. Thank you!

Last year, I propped tomatoes on neighboring vines to keep them off the ground but eventually moved to using plastic containers to lift the tomatoes off the ground. The slugs didn't seem to like the material - or maybe that they were so exposed.

I turned the shallow container (ie: Chinese carry out containers) upside down and punched holes in them if they held any water. Worked great and saved them to use again this year.

Jeff

BigVanVader · June 26, 2018

I use cardboard. I also have the cluster tomatohooks and sometimes use those.

June 20, 2018	#1
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Lean and lower I was out doing some pruning and leaning and lowering of my tomato vines this morning and realized that some of the plants don't get lowered much at all. Some varieties get really tall or long while still having good fruit on the lowest clusters. Since slugs, earwigs and other creatures like to feast on tomatoes resting on the mulch I try my best to keep them off the mulch until I have no other choice. The way I do this is I just pull the plant at an angle so that it keeps those fruit just above the ground. This sometimes makes for some crossing and overlapping of plants that don't grow as fast or as tall and I sometimes worry about the plant growing at such an angle but it usually works out. It is usually not a problem the first time that I lean and lower but by the second and third time when the plants are over 10 ft in length it becomes necessary to do the extreme leaning without lowering to keep the fruit up. I used to just lay all the stems down and keep the upper part vertical but that put a lot of fruit on the ground. I realized that I was losing too many beautiful tomatoes to insects and so I adapted with this extreme lean and it seems to work most of the time. With the good heavy mulch I had down below the plants I didn't lose a huge amount of the fruits on the ground but I felt I was losing too many. Has anyone else doing this kind of support run into this? I tried placing little pieces of board or plywood under each fruit but this was time consuming and I ran out of small things to place under the fruits. I would like to hear of any solutions that others have come up with for this problem. Thanks. Bill

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June 22, 2018	#3
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Mine are about that long now also; but they have far more foliage on them. I try to do the Missouri pruning on a lot of them to allow for more shade for my fruits. Too many of the varieties that I grow get sun scald if they are in the open like that. I'll try to take a few photos of the way they look now. I just finished leaning and lowering mine yesterday and will be fertilizing them in a few minutes. Bill

June 25, 2018	#4
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Rajun - are you heavily trimming the foilage? I've been doing the L&L method for 3 years now and doing quite a bit of pruning - more than ever, but still have a lot more than yours have. Is that on purpose? How is it working? Also, are they single stem trimmed? I let mine have 2 or 3, depending on how they develop in the early days. Bill - I have a few in that category you describe, though mostly the growth seems to be about keeping up with the fruit ripening level staying just off the ground. I have heavy wood mulch on my raised bed and if I get a few on the ground, I sprinkle Sluggo Plus (iron phosphate and spinosad) around them and that keeps them bug free so far. Now, some night dwelling mammal is starting to eat them while green and I have not good solution for that in the city. Dewayne

June 26, 2018	#8
Nan_PA_6b Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 3,194	I put out a rat trap for the critter eating my low-hanging green tomatoes. Turned out to be a juvenile rabbit that found a hole in my fence. The rabbit survived and ran off when released; it never came back. an

June 26, 2018	#9
jtjmartin Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2016 Location: Williamsburg VA Zone 7b Posts: 1,110	Bill: I do L&L that I learned from . . . you. Thank you! Last year, I propped tomatoes on neighboring vines to keep them off the ground but eventually moved to using plastic containers to lift the tomatoes off the ground. The slugs didn't seem to like the material - or maybe that they were so exposed. I turned the shallow container (ie: Chinese carry out containers) upside down and punched holes in them if they held any water. Worked great and saved them to use again this year. Jeff

June 26, 2018	#10
BigVanVader Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Greenville, South Carolina Posts: 3,099	I use cardboard. I also have the cluster tomatohooks and sometimes use those.