popes@tellab1.UUCP (Jerry Pople) (07/06/84)
You folks ought to try letting your tomatoes sprawl, rather than caging or staking them. Sprawling will give the heaviest yield of any method. There is no problem with loss from bug damage(other than that you would normally have). You will eliminate the problem of sunscald on the fruit. The fruit will also ripen faster. It does take some additional garden space, but the increased yield and decreased maintenance make it worthwhile.
betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) (07/23/84)
!tellab1!popes says that :
Sprawling will give the heaviest yield of any
method. There is no problem with loss from bug damage(other than that
you would normally have).
Such was not my experience. Lured by promises of heavy yields with light
labor, I set my tomatoes free last summer. Approximately half of my
tomatoes rotted on the ground before they ripened completely. It seemed
that the contact with moist soil was slug and rot heaven. My yield
was the worst I've ever had. There's no sensation quite like lifting
a luscious, scarlet Burpee Supersteak (TM, patent pending) half-way from
the ground, and then feeling your fingers slip deep into its heart, dislodging
the odd slug on the way.
Need I add that this year I'm caging religiously?
--
Betsy Perry
UUCP: {decvax|linus|cornell}!dartvax!betsy
CSNET: betsy@dartmouth
ARPA: betsy%dartmouth@csnet-relaysunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) (07/24/84)
For those advocating either cages or sprawling tomatoes, was your good/bad
experience with uncaged tomatoes based on leaving the plants on "raw" ground,
or on mulch (e.g. wheatstraw). Do you run an organic garden, or do you
use pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers(other than compost)?
{ucbvax|decvax|ihnp4}!sun!sunny(Sunny Kirsten of Sun Microsystems)sjh@CS-Mordred (Steve Holmes) (07/27/84)
We have an organic garden and have no problem with the sprauling vines if we use a heavy straw mulch (which we do everywhere, for various reasons). Steve Holmes
mmr@ritcv.UUCP (Margaret Reek) (08/06/84)
In the last two years I have tried 5 restraining techniques for tomatoes, and combinations of mulch and no mulch. The restaining methods were : none, staking, on a straight row of cage material, on a row of S shaped cage material and cages. My results with sprawling tomatoes and no mulch were poor; slugs, bugs and rot took a large toll on the crop. Sprawling tomatoes on mulch faired somewhat better but take up too much room. I find staking a royal pain, although the tomatoes do well and are easy to get at. The methods of cheating using a big roll of cage material were not totally successful, mostly because the tomatoes plants and crop were so huge and the stakes to hold up the wire weren't tall enough and the wire wanted to fall over. The tomatoes did fine, but I found I had to tie up the tomatoes on the flat wire and run rope around the ones in the S shaped rows. My favorite of the whole bunch was the cage. I don't have to fiddle with the tomatoes much once they are in there, I can put them in myself (not really feasible with my other cagey methods), no bugs, slugs or rot to worry about and I can chose to mulch or not as I see fit. This year all my tomatoes are in cages. You can buy 30 foot rolls of cage material from Sears (pretty soon it should go on sale) and make your own cages fairly easily and cheaply. The only nuisance is finding a place to store the things when they are done. Margaret Reek Rochester Institute of Technology ritcv!mmr
rib@edsel.UUCP (RI Block) (08/10/84)
This is my third year of using cages for tomatos. I, too, use the ones made from a 30 ft roll. I make mine a bit larger than recommended so I end up with about half a would be cage left over. My cage material also came from Sears, and I waited for sale time to get a bunch of fibre-glass cage posts which keep the cages secure. The galvanizing on the cage wire seems ok through two winters of outdoor storage. Caged tomatos are not quite as early as staked, but much easier to take care of.