Tying tomatoes to their stakes, like so many unruly prisoners, can be one of the most time-consuming tasks for a gardener. Especially if you’re growing lots of paste tomatoes for a year’s supply of homemade sauce like we do. But we make it easy on ourselves by borrowing a technique that I learned while working with tomato farmers down where I grew up: Lowcountry South Carolina.
There, and all along the southeast coast, farmers start planting tomatoes in January and February. They use a trellising technique commonly called Florida Weave to keep the fruit off the ground so they’ll be safe from fungus, bugs, and critters. But calling it a “weave” overstates the case a bit. Each weave is really just one long loop. Here’s what I mean.
For this technique, tomato transplants (at the seedling stage) are set about two feet apart in single rows in raised beds. Drive a stake (we’ll get into what kind of stake in a minute) into the ground at each end of the row and between each plant in the row. (If you drive the stakes deep enough, creating more stability, you may be able to get away with two plants between stakes. It really depends on your type of soil and how far you can drive down.)
Relate:
When the transplants are roughly about a foot high, tie twine (again, we’ll get into types below) to the first stake at about 9 inches high and loop it around the second stake at the same height. You’ll know you’re at the right height if the twine keeps the tomato from flopping over on that side. Keep tension on the twine and continue looping it around the third and fourth stake in a similar manner until you get to the end. Make a double loop around the last stake for strength, and loop your way down the opposite side of the bed, keeping tension on the line all the way down. When you get back to the first stake, tie off, and cut the twine. You’ve created a long, skinny loop that holds the plants upright and off the ground.
0 comments:
Post a Comment