Dixie Chicks

[Alaskan]

I usually use:

- store bought tomato cages = actually work well for me, but you need to put it in early on

- a stake in the middle to hold the main stem = you need to do other stuff in addition is the plant gets really tall or is holding lots of heavy tomatoes

- I have garden stakes that are one long stick with two long bendable arms at the top = very helpful and great to hold up way long and/or heavy tomato branches

- temporary fence posts, a line of them, with baling twine between them= works as a good fence to hold up tomato branches and keep them out of my way

-a nail in the roof of the greenhouse, with a long rope hanging from it = good to hold up the top of very heavy and tall tomato plants

My grandmother (a fantastic gardener) would make a big round wire tube, I think 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and plant the tomatoes around the outside of the wire roll, and toss easily compostables into the middle of the tube. She would toss the coffee grounds in there, and maybe some moldy leaves... I can't remember what else. Chicken poop filled hay was used on the garden paths, not put into that tube.

 

[Beer can]

I don't how your ground is vehve, but ours is rocky. When I did use cages I used a piece of rebar to pound into the ground and pulled it out to get the cage in the ground. Alaskan is right, cages would probably be ok for shorter varieties.

 

[vehve]

Well, maybe I won't decide yet then, I'll see what I can cook up when it's time to support them.

We went out to take another peek at the hatchlings. We seem to have four chicks in there at the moment, one was still looking a bit wet.

I also tried to get a shot of Hilma's digging project.


Then the chicks:







There might be an auto sexing feature playing in this batch, the hen the eggs are from came from a batch where the girls had black beaks and the boys had light beaks. It will be interesting to see if that holds true for these too, but the Sussex blood might be messing with that. If it is holding true, we're looking at a 50-50 batch.

 

[vehve]

Beer, not that rocky that getting them in would be an issue. Except where we have bedrock.

Deb, my options right now are probably rebar cage, rebar as a fence to climb on, tripods and twine, or a vineyard kind of setup. I like the composting idea too though, that would be a nice way to fertilize.

 

[Beer can]

Huh? Looks like I put cages in my buckets last year. Tied the cages together for more support and tied the branches back to the cages when they hung out and got heavy.

 

[bamadude]

I dont stake every plant. The stakes hold up yarn. I weave the plants onto the yarn. I get 8 foot stakes.

 

[bamadude]

I get dark green yarn too. It blends in

 

[perchie.girl]

Deb, do you have any experience with either method? I'd like to hear what issues and benefits people have had with the different ways of supporting them.

Only what I have seen. There is NO right way to do it though. just what works for you and what you want to spend.

In Las Vegas the soil was incredibly fertile... but to grow tomatoes there you got best results in the shade.

Mom planted hers along a solid wood fence which made shade for the tomatoes about half the day. They were the big beefsteak tomatoes. Supposed to die back in the winter.

By the middle of winter those plants were six feet tall and stuck into the yard about four feet... Unsupported. All mom did was water them. and thin out the tomatoes when they make thick groups. No support. so lots of tomatoes were resting on the ground.

But we had tomatoes out the Wazoo year round...

deb

 

[vehve]

I like to use jute twine. It has a nice organic, brown look, blends in too.

 

[bamadude]

I like to use jute twine. It has a nice organic, brown look, blends in too.

I tried fishing line. It cut my plants up. Havnt tried twine yet.