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| Until now, I have been growing only in my own yard. But this year my garden plans exceed the space available in my yard, so I plan on expanding by renting a community garden plot. Up to now, I have supported my tomatoes by using the fence around my yard as a trellis. That is not allowed in the community garden. There is also a rule against casting shade on adjoining plots. Can anyone suggest a method of supporting long, indeterminate vines that will avoid casting much shade? Angie |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 11:26
| Plant the shorter varieties in the community garden and the taller ones at home. Utilize dwarf varieties. The best sources I've found for plant height are these three: = the DG Cultivar Finder (which this site won't let me link to, but if you Google "cultivar finder" (with quotation marks) and tomatoes, you'll see it). Plants are in rough height categories. Keep in mind that this is amateur-provided info. = Ventmarin is a huge database in French, and also amateur-provided info which is occasionally totally off the wall. There are also some eccentricities due to the language differences; for example, all oxhearts are listed as "coeur de boeuf" ("heart of beef") and then the rest of the variety name. It gives height for roughly half the varieties -- in centimeters. Multiplying by .39 gives height in inches ... or use one of the many sites which will convert from metric to feet. [They also give fruit weight in grams: divide by 28 for weight in ounces.] = Rutgers's Tomato Varieties database. I haven't used this one as much. In addition, Tatiana's TOMATObase sometimes gives height, or gives hints that a plant is particularly large. You can also look here under "Tomatoes by growth habit" for lists of dwarf, determinate, and container varieties: Another possibility is to grow tomatoes on a trellis which is not vertical but slanted or horizontal. I've seen photos of this done with CRW (concrete reinforcement wire) or cattle panels (aka hog panels, stock panels), but if that's not an option, you can use fence wire with smaller holes. If you're growing tomatoes this way, you'll need to weave the vines into the mesh every few days to keep them from going vertical. [You can also use a trellis for pole beans, cucumbers, etc.] |
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| Agree with missing - just grow determinate varieties in the CG. Any healthy indeterminate is going to shade things no matter how it may be supported. BUt best supports - CRW (concrete reinforcing wire) cages are best. Lots of discussions here about them. Dave |
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