Dixie Chicks

[hennible]

Really tall ones just flop over usually, but this year Im going to try a cage and string/fishing line suspended from the greenhouse frame down to the cage, and I'll use this plant tape I have to hold the tomatoes on the string.... Last year (accidentally) I had some tomatoes supported by a tall unknown seed crop with stems like sunflower or corn.... Worked well...

 

[Outpost JWB]

Good morning all! I have a lot to read to catch up. Hubby is home sick. Little girl is on spring break. And lucky me, I'm off work today.

I've got a lot to do. Pics of all the plants look good

 

[Beer can]

Yeah, that 50' row, 24 plants, were way to many tomatoes for us. I used baleing twine to tie the big branches back to the fence as they grew, just made a loose knot on the branch. I used locust fence posts this time. The first time I used that fence with peas and had it supported with those cheap green metal fence post stakes. Must of been like a sail on a boat had a strong wind blow the whole thing over bending the metal posts. Ripped half their roots out of the ground, luckily they were mostly podded out and some did survive.

 

[bamadude]

Vehve: there is a local vocational rehab center for people with mental disabilities that sells them. Its just something we have always bought to help support a good cause. I think the cages are ugly too.

 

[vehve]

Bama, that's a pretty good reason.

Beer, yeah, the wind can do interesting things. This just fell on our terrace.

 

[vehve]

I tried to get a look at the chicks, but Wilma wasn't very cooperative. This little guy peeked out from under though.

 

[hennible]

Cute

 

[perchie.girl]

Well, I shall just continue my monologue. We're probably going to start the tomatoes tonight. If they will grow as fast as the chilis, I don't think the fact that we're a bit late will be an issue. I also started planning how to set up the tomatoes this year, so I thought I'd ask you guys for advice too. I will probably set up the smaller varieties on shelves close to the house like last year, but I've got some tall varieties too this year, and I'm going to have to think of a way to support them. So, cage or trellis? What do you guys think. If I build the cages out of rebar, I was thinking of taking about 3-4 by 6 foot pieces of rebar net, and making a circle out of them, 6 feet high, and placing the tomato plant in a pot in the middle. I think it would look pretty cool, but it might be a bit more costly. A benefit with this is that I could wrap the towers in clear plastic in the beginning so that they keep heat better. The other idea would be setting the tomatoes up like vines in a vineyard. That would also be pretty cool, and maybe I could just put plastic over that like a tent too. But what are your thoughts?

For salads and herbs, I'm going to plant them in old tomato sauce cans. I'm going to set up a gutter low on the bunny hutch, plug both ends and place a net on top, and then make little holes in the bottom of the cans with some string coming out, and grow all of them in a wicking system there. I'd like to set up the tomatoes with a wicking system too, but making it affordable might be an issue. I need to find some decent looking cheap buckets or something to contain the water in.

you can simply do a fence of wire and as the tomatoes grow weave the branches in to support themselves...

or you could buy a tomato cage... they are pretty inexpensive here.

Many Tomato Cages both home build and store bought

deb

 

[vehve]

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.

 

[Razadia]

Quote:

Those "green leaves with a bunch of pretty white flower bells" I remembered what they were called cause the wife about killed me when I trashed a big patch of them, Lilly of the valley, they were in the way of where I was digging with the backhoe. I didn't know she would have transplanted them.

Kinda sounded like silver or snow bells to me. We have both around here and I can't tell them apart. One has green dots on the flowers and the other one doesn't.

The blue flowers look a bit like lupins to me.

Al, fish have fins, Finland has Finns! Pretty cool version, but the accent bothers me too. You can usually tell if a band is Finnish immediately, and in my opinion, the Finnish accent just doesn't work that well for music. I don't know what it is, a Spanish accent doesn't bother me the same way. But the arrangement of that song is good enough for the accent not to bother me. I don't think I've heard their stuff before.

The fiddle rap song was interesting, sort of has a similar feel as some of Everlast's stuff.

Karin saw two chicks in the nest this morning. Both were reportedly black with a yellow stripe on the head. I didn't want to bother the broodies that much so I didn't get a look. One egg is probably not going to hatch, our neighbor found it in the run on Friday and said it was pretty cold already, I think Wilma had it under her wing when they had taken her out of the nest to eat. But two more eggs left that will hopefully still hatch.

I named a duck Whitey Ford once. I'm just a little strange. I still listen to Everlast.

Well, I shall just continue my monologue. We're probably going to start the tomatoes tonight. If they will grow as fast as the chilis, I don't think the fact that we're a bit late will be an issue. I also started planning how to set up the tomatoes this year, so I thought I'd ask you guys for advice too. I will probably set up the smaller varieties on shelves close to the house like last year, but I've got some tall varieties too this year, and I'm going to have to think of a way to support them. So, cage or trellis? What do you guys think. If I build the cages out of rebar, I was thinking of taking about 3-4 by 6 foot pieces of rebar net, and making a circle out of them, 6 feet high, and placing the tomato plant in a pot in the middle. I think it would look pretty cool, but it might be a bit more costly. A benefit with this is that I could wrap the towers in clear plastic in the beginning so that they keep heat better. The other idea would be setting the tomatoes up like vines in a vineyard. That would also be pretty cool, and maybe I could just put plastic over that like a tent too. But what are your thoughts?

For salads and herbs, I'm going to plant them in old tomato sauce cans. I'm going to set up a gutter low on the bunny hutch, plug both ends and place a net on top, and then make little holes in the bottom of the cans with some string coming out, and grow all of them in a wicking system there. I'd like to set up the tomatoes with a wicking system too, but making it affordable might be an issue. I need to find some decent looking cheap buckets or something to contain the water in.

We do stakes and cages. It just depends on the plant. For cherry and other small varieties we do cages. A lot of times we just use stakes on anything that's going to be tall.