height on the following

[piegirl]

Since I am running low on cages, what are the height of the following:

pink ruffled
purple calabash
martino's roma - package says require support
dansk export
thesaloniki
purple russian - package says require support

I have some much shorter twisted wire fencing I can make into rings - they would be about 2 1/2 feet high. Thought that might work for the romas?

Thanks - piegirl

[carolyn137]

I have no idea what the height is for most varieties b'c most of my plants were grown by sprawling.

But I do know Martino's Roma and it's a very sturdy det plant and I've never felt the need to support it. When it loads up with all those red fruits it looks like a wee Xmas tree and may lean a bit b/c of the fruit load, but I sure wouldn't waste a cage to grow it.

[tomatoguy]

I have not grown any of the varieties you mentioned but I do have a system for cages. I build my own from what is called cattle or stock fence. I use a single cage for starters if I don't know how big the plant will get. I cut at 10 vertical wires which gives me a diameter of 19". I add another cage atop the original one, if necessary. When pushed into the ground, the single cage is 39" high and the double one is 77". The singles are about right for determinates and dwarves. The doubles are okay for most varieties but Granny Cantrell's German Red, Ashleigh and other superhuge varieties grow out the top of the 77" cages. I stake the cages with either treated 2x2's or some 10' signposts I have acquired.










mater

[rnewste]

mater,

That is one really nice circular raised bed design! Oh, and the cages look great too.

Ray

[tomatoguy]

Thanks, Ray. I got really lucky when we purchased this house in November of '05. The previous owners left us with these blocks which were up the hill about 100' near the back property line. I don't know what they were originally used for but it didn't take me long to figure out that they were crying out to be a raised bed. I hauled a few down the hill at a time every day after work. I laid the first rank, 35 blocks. Arthritis told me it was time to stop. Now. So, my friend Willy finished it up for me. I did fork out around 400 bucks for 18 CY of topsoil/compost/coarse sand but since I didn't have to pay for the blocks, I have been very happy with my investment.

mater

[piegirl]

Mater - wow, great looking patch. What is the tall cherry looking plant?

Forgot to add to my list:

Togorific

[tomatoguy]

That would be Sweet Quartz (hybrid). It is the only hybrid I grew that year ('06). I grew it at my wife's request.

mater