So yeah. I am pretty much winging it when it comes to growing tomatoes. They got tangled and crazy so I thinned them out. I got 10 foot wood stakes in the lumber section (way cheaper then going in the garden section). Each plant has three stakes to support branches and as tall as the stakes are they will grow taller then them as you can see.
[img]https://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/FroggieStyle/7footmaters.jpg[/img]
I'm sure I'm breaking some tomato growing rule by doing it this way, but I am getting plenty of tomatoes, and honestly I am trying to see how tall I can get them by the first frost.
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mattie g
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 583
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- Location: Northern VA, USA -- Zone 7a
Sounds similar to what I'm doing, except I started off with one ~3' stake for each plant. Those were promptly outgrown within about a month, and since I'm new at all of this, I didn't prune very much (except for suckers), so each of the big plants has more than a few main stems. But, like you, I'm getting good maters out of them - BK, Brandywine, German Queen, and Roma - despite the fact that I'm pretty much just winging it. I just keep adding new stakes, and with a few of the plants now coming in at around 8', I'm quickly running out of options for adding newer, larger stakes than the 8-10' ones they're currently climbing up!Signal30 wrote:So yeah. I am pretty much winging it when it comes to growing tomatoes. They got tangled and crazy so I thinned them out. I got 10 foot wood stakes in the lumber section (way cheaper then going in the garden section). Each plant has three stakes to support branches and as tall as the stakes are they will grow taller then them as you can see.
I'm sure I'm breaking some tomato growing rule by doing it this way, but I am getting plenty of tomatoes, and honestly I am trying to see how tall I can get them by the first frost.
I guess my only problem now is that the heat has been doing a number on the tons of flowers I've had on each plant. No new tomatoes are coming in now, but if that heat hadn't been so brutal, I think I'd be looking at at least another 10-20 tomatoes per plant right now.
Another tomato (or any vegetable, for that matter) staking idea is bamboo. Not a unique idea, but my methods for getting the bamboo may be unique! I cruised my neighborhood looking for folks with bamboo in their yard. I found two. 
If the bamboo is tall enough to be useful, you can see it from the street, even if it is in their backyard. I'm in more of an urban setting with lots less than an acre, so this is ideal for me.
One was not home, but the others were. They thought I was crazy as a loon, but they let me go into their backyard and said I could take a few. I cut down 3 or 4 bamboo stalks. I got two that were 20' tall making nice 10' stakes (depending on how deep you put them into the ground). Fortunately, my raised beds have somewhat soft soil in them and have about 10" of soil. I was able to just push the stalks into the soil and they were substantially firm. I think I was able to push them into the underlying soil a bit as well.
Lessons learned: If you are cutting them down with a saw or a machete, wait until you ask them before pulling it out of your car and walking up to their front door!
Also, a machete will slice through green bamboo like butter making your bamboo harvest a 30 second ordeal - not counting dragging them to your car or down the street to your house, if you are lucky enough to find someone close by. Cutting the branches of is very simple if you are using a machete. Start from the bottom and work your way to the top. If you cut from the top down, you'll get a lot of slices into the trunk of the stalk and the bamboo trunk will peel down to the next node, making it slightly more difficult.
Most people loathe the bamboo in their yard because it's difficult to control and are happy for you to make even the slightest dent in the mess.
Lastly, thus far, it's only taken about 7 days for the green bamboo to harden and turn brown - just like the bamboo they sell at the box stores!
If the bamboo is tall enough to be useful, you can see it from the street, even if it is in their backyard. I'm in more of an urban setting with lots less than an acre, so this is ideal for me.One was not home, but the others were. They thought I was crazy as a loon, but they let me go into their backyard and said I could take a few. I cut down 3 or 4 bamboo stalks. I got two that were 20' tall making nice 10' stakes (depending on how deep you put them into the ground). Fortunately, my raised beds have somewhat soft soil in them and have about 10" of soil. I was able to just push the stalks into the soil and they were substantially firm. I think I was able to push them into the underlying soil a bit as well.
Lessons learned: If you are cutting them down with a saw or a machete, wait until you ask them before pulling it out of your car and walking up to their front door!
Also, a machete will slice through green bamboo like butter making your bamboo harvest a 30 second ordeal - not counting dragging them to your car or down the street to your house, if you are lucky enough to find someone close by. Cutting the branches of is very simple if you are using a machete. Start from the bottom and work your way to the top. If you cut from the top down, you'll get a lot of slices into the trunk of the stalk and the bamboo trunk will peel down to the next node, making it slightly more difficult.
Most people loathe the bamboo in their yard because it's difficult to control and are happy for you to make even the slightest dent in the mess.
Lastly, thus far, it's only taken about 7 days for the green bamboo to harden and turn brown - just like the bamboo they sell at the box stores!