Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[Smokerbill]

@gtaus , I trained my indeterminate tomatoes up ropes last year, removing all the suckers and they didn't seem to thrive.

This year I allowed one of the lower suckers to grow, so each plant has two stems producing fruit. The plants seem to be doing much better than last year's vines.

I think that the extra foliage from the sucker makes the plants healthier... more leaves, more photosynthesis.

 

[Molpet]

I usually start taking suckers off at first and then forget. The volunteer laying on the ground that I didn't touch or water had the first ripe cherry type tomatoes. I still haven't gotten any ripe from the cherry or celebrity plants I bought

 

[Sally PB]

I prune the bottom of the tomatoes so that there aren't (as many) leaves touching the ground at the beginning of the season. About the time the plants are 12-16 inches tall.

@gtaus, I want to see what you come up with! My tomatoes are all lying on the ground, as they pulled over the cages. I put some stakes in some that were leaning, and the next thing I knew, almost all the plants had fallen over. SMH.

 

[gtaus]

I want to see what you come up with! My tomatoes are all lying on the ground, as they pulled over the cages. I put some stakes in some that were leaning, and the next thing I knew, almost all the plants had fallen over. SMH

I will certainly post any attempts I make at building some framework to replace the tomato cages. Half my tomato plants have fallen over this year. Not much I can do about it anymore. I think making some wooden frames that attach to the trellis would be a lot stronger and no way they would blow over in the wind.

Another project on my to-do list is building some 4-foot-tall frames and chicken wire protectors for my raised beds. I just came back from my lakeside garden where I was planning on picking a dozen or so nice banana peppers. I was heartbroken when I got out there and saw that some deer had munched all the peppers I was going to pick. They even ate a couple of pepper plants down to the stem, so I am pretty sure those plants are done for the season.

It's been one challenge after another this year with varmints eating my gardens. On the plus side, my pepper plants that are not eaten by the deer are growing strong and tall, about 3 feet or more. So, if I can protect them with some 4-foot-tall chicken wire cages next year, maybe I'll have a lot more success.

I was planning on making more pallet wood raised beds for next year, but I think I will have to build protective chicken wire cages for my existing beds before I build any new beds. And, in the future, whenever I build a new raised bed, I will have to build a cage for it at the same time.

 

[Molpet]

I will certainly post any attempts I make at building some framework to replace the tomato cages. Half my tomato plants have fallen over this year. Not much I can do about it anymore. I think making some wooden frames that attach to the trellis would be a lot stronger and no way they would blow over in the wind.

Another project on my to-do list is building some 4-foot-tall frames and chicken wire protectors for my raised beds. I just came back from my lakeside garden where I was planning on picking a dozen or so nice banana peppers. I was heartbroken when I got out there and saw that some deer had munched all the peppers I was going to pick. They even ate a couple of pepper plants down to the stem, so I am pretty sure those plants are done for the season.

It's been one challenge after another this year with varmints eating my gardens. On the plus side, my pepper plants that are not eaten by the deer are growing strong and tall, about 3 feet or more. So, if I can protect them with some 4-foot-tall chicken wire cages next year, maybe I'll have a lot more success.

I was planning on making more pallet wood raised beds for next year, but I think I will have to build protective chicken wire cages for my existing beds before I build any new beds. And, in the future, whenever I build a new raised bed, I will have to build a cage for it at the same time.

And this is why subsistence farmers eliminated the munchers and predators.

 

[chickengr]

@gtaus , I trained my indeterminate tomatoes up ropes last year, removing all the suckers and they didn't seem to thrive.

This year I allowed one of the lower suckers to grow, so each plant has two stems producing fruit. The plants seem to be doing much better than last year's vines.

I think that the extra foliage from the sucker makes the plants healthier... more leaves, more photosynthesis.

in hot climates removing all the suckers is not a good idea. I left my indeterminate tomatoes to crawl and they survived. they made shade for peppers so they survived too.

 

[NanaK]

I make tomato cages from field fencing. It has 6 in openings so a hand can reach through. I also use this fencing to make trellising for my cucumbers and pole beans. It has heavy wire that lasts many years.

I grow indeterminate tomatoes. I only prune a few sucker's. As the vines grow I prune every thing from the ground up at least 12-18 in. Keeping the foliage off the ground helps prevent disease.

DH sets the posts for me. Posts are set so 2 cages sit between them. I anchor the bottom of the cage with bricks and tied off to the post. When they reach the top of the cage I start "the weave".

The weave is just strapping or rope tied off to each posts on both sides of the tomato plants. This holds the vines up so they get good air flow. I have not had plants hit the ground since I started caging this way.

I have always heard by pruning all but 1-2 sucker's you should get larger but less tomatoes. I do not prune so hard. I can or freeze them so I want lots but I still get some nice large ones too.

My tomatoes in June with the caging and weave method.

 

[gtaus]

in hot climates removing all the suckers is not a good idea. I left my indeterminate tomatoes to crawl and they survived. they made shade for peppers so they survived too.

I live in northern Minnesota, so I don't live in a hot climate. However, I have been thinking about next year not removing all the suckers on the tomatoes to see if my yield increases.

I do like the method of growing the indeterminant tomatoes vertically on a string/rope and keeping them up and off the ground. It's really easy to use those plant clips to keep them on the line.

My plan is to add more vertical trellis frames on my raised beds. Now I am working, in my head, how to build wooden frames that I can put inside the trellis frame to act as tomato cages for my determinant tomatoes. Like I said, we had a windstorm that knocked half of my wire tomato cages over and those plants will be semi-laying on the ground for the rest of the year. Not a big deal, but it would have been better if they had not fallen over.

 

[gtaus]

I grow indeterminate tomatoes. I only prune a few sucker's. As the vines grow I prune every thing from the ground up at least 12-18 in. Keeping the foliage off the ground helps prevent disease.

This was my first year ever pruning my tomato plants. Perhaps I pruned too much. I removed all the suckers for everything below 6 feet. Now a few of my tomato plants are growing up and over the top of the trellis - about 7 feet - so I will just let them do whatever they want for the rest of the season.

I have always heard by pruning all but 1-2 sucker's you should get larger but less tomatoes. I do not prune so hard. I can or freeze them so I want lots but I still get some nice large ones too.

Would you leave the suckers on from lower in the plant? I was thinking next year maybe letting two suckers along with the main stem to grow from the bottom up. With the vertical string method, all I have to do is drop another line for the sucker to grow up on.

My tomatoes in June with the caging and weave method.

Well, your tomatoes look so much better than mine. I think I pruned too hard and that is why my plants look so thin. They are very healthy, but thin. My goal was to end up with foliage like yours. But like I said, this was my first year ever pruning tomatoes, so I had a lot to learn.

In my defense, I live in northern Minnesota, not the much warmer North Carolina. My tomato plants at almost 7 feet tall at the end of August is really an accomplishment for me. My neighbor's tomatoes are about 4 feet tall, and he is happy with his plants this year. We just don't have the growing season and climate to compare to North Carolina.

I had checked out that weave method of growing tomatoes but thought that the string method would work better for me in my 4X4 foot raised beds. All the tomatoes with the weave method seem to be grown in ground and in a long row - like in your picture. That's just not my setup.

At any rate, I am very happy with the string method for growing tomatoes and plan on using it again next year. I have more 8-foot-long salvaged 2X4 wood to add additional trellis frames to my raised beds. So, I plan on just using what I already have to make my upgrades.

 

[NanaK]

Would you leave the suckers on from lower in the plant? I was thinking next year maybe letting two suckers along with the main stem to grow from the bottom up. With the vertical string method, all I have to do is drop another line for the sucker to grow up on.

I would leave at least 3 suckers especially since your season is short. Depending on how many tomato plants you grow, you could experiement a bit by leaving 2, 3 or 4 on different plants and see what you think.

You need enough foliage to shade the fruit so the sun does not scald them.

If you leave a few suckers on a plant you can always remove it later if you don't like the way it's growing.

I like to remove the foliage and suckers low on the plant and mulch them too. This keeps the soil from splashing up on the foliage and deters fungal diseases. You may not have all the issues with foliage diseases that I do here in NC.

You do know you can root the suckers and make more plants? They root easily.