Sunday, July 13, 2008

Be Careful What You Wish For

We've gotten several more inches of rain again this week. I'm starting to get a panicky feeling because my garden is becoming an overgrown jungle. Yesterday morning it stormed heavily most of the morning and in the afternoon when I went out to check on it, my tomatoes looked like this:
I don't know if you can make it out well or not, but these tomatoes (two Cherokee Purple and one Better Boy) are hanging to the left at almost a 45 degree angle. My little wire trellis is no longer able to support the heavy developing fruit, particularly with the soft well-watered ground. These tomatoes are lying on top of my bush beans. It can only get worse as all of these plants have TONS of new blossoms and/or new pea-sized tomatoes starting. So this morning I went out with twine and tied the wire trellis to the fence to try to hold the whole thing upright for the remainder of the season. I need to get more twine and tie it in more spots. Does this look like a hillbilly remedy, or what?

Obviously I need better support for my tomatoes. In the spring when I bought the trellis, I was using my previous experience growing tomatoes as a guide. I've grown tomatoes several times in the past, but they always ended up being kind of spindly without producing much fruit. This wire trellis would surely handle them fine. What I didn't reckon on was the fact that really preparing the soil, protecting the plants from pests, and adding fertilizer once early on (not to mention all the natural watering they've gotten this year) would make them swell with tomatoes. I'm thrilled with the output, but wish I'd bought more sturdy supports. There is always next year. Lesson learned.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 81 F
Low temp: 60 F
Cloudy early becoming mostly sunny, clear tonight.

1 comment:

Chuck Bartok said...

You are doing such a good Job, your plants are too heavy. Some pruning consistently will help and watch our video series and see how I support out Tomatoes inexpensively

Growing Tomatoes for Health and Wealth

Episode 13 show some Big plants and how I am always pruning.
Keep up the good work