7/30/2017 ~ Yes, I mean staking tomatoes, but I can’t ignore this Bumble Bee that’s been visiting my tomato flowers with the zeal of a suitor. Honey bees haven’t been at all interested in the tomato flowers.
7/16/2017 ~ I’m glad I didn’t put tomato cages around my young tomatoes because these Happy Harvest Supports I ordered from Gardener’s Supply are more adaptable and vastly prettier than my old grey, wire cages.
I was about to order additional tomato cages to accommodate my large number of tomato plants this year, but I was worried about getting my already large plants into cages. While worrying, I kept looking, and that’s when I found these “sticks-and-sidebars”. I was delighted. They can be arranged to match the growth habit of different plants. They snap together easily, so if you want to change the arrangement it’s super easy.
I bought eggplant supports, the purple you see to the left in the top picture. They are 47″ tall before you sink them into the soil. The green supports to the right are 35″ tall and meant for peppers, but work great for my bushy tomatoes.
There are 59″ tall red supports especially for tomatoes. I didn’t order the tall, tomato supports because I’m growing my tomatoes in containers and with that in mind I ordered tomato varieties that don’t get as tall.
The tomato above is happy with the supports arranged as a trellis on one side of the tomato. If I have to add another side to the support it will be easy to do.
My Sun Gold tomato ~ above in the somewhat color cued TubTrug ~ was all over the place. Last year I had this variety growing in a cage which it escaped early on. With these supports, I was able to add uprights for branches that were shooting off to the side. Overall, the arrangement of supports reminds me of a Chinese Junk, those ships with sails sticking out all over, or, that rhyme about a crooked man who built a crooked house.
I ran out of TubTrugs when the lady next door didn’t want the tomatoes I’d planted thinking she’d enjoy growing some tomatoes. So, this Cherry Falls, got a 5 gal. bucket. I think the Cherry Falls was intent on cascading as per its name. The thing is, although a 5 gal. bucket is taller than a 7 gal. TubTrug, it’s still relatively short, so in another month the tomato would have been trailing on the deck where I likely would have kept stepping on it by accident.
The Cherry Falls seems pretty happy to be growing up instead of falling over the edge. It’s got lots and lots of flowers.
I have another six or seven pots of tomatoes, but you get the general idea.
