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Fw: upright tomatos (long reply, sorry)

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

 > My question
 > has to do with the placement of upright tomatos.  My garden space is 
 > 4'x8'.  The 4' sides face east and west, the 8' sides face north and 
 > 
 > 
 >                         South
 >                    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 >       west side    x T                  x
 >                    x T                  x  
 >                    x T                  x
 >                    x T                  x
 >                    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 > 
 > Teresa  :-)
 
 In my garden I put all my vertically grown crops
 (Some Tomatoes, Squash, Cucumbers, Snowpeas, pole beans)
 on the North end of beds.  My beds are aligned the same as yours
 and I find that this way does not shade any part of the garden.
 I then put bushy plants in the middle and finish up with small
 plants on the front (south) side and ends.
 
 			   The Sun
 
           SOUTHENDSOUTHENDSOUTHENDSOUTHEND
           E herbs  onions garlic lettuce W
           A onions caged peppers lettuce E
           S lettuce caged tomatoes chivesS
           T Vining plants X  (Trellised) T
           NORTHENDNORTHENDNORTHENDNORTHEND
 
 	               North
 
 Something like above, for two (soon to be three beds)
 I also have in the past grown some vining plants away from
 the garden (using fence posts)  In fact the new fence I am
 putting up is specifically designed to also be a trellis
 along it's entire 40 foot length.  
 
 If you find 8 feet too long a length for your trellis you could just
 center it on the north side.
 
 I do not use a traditional trellis.  I wanted to be able to reach
 through it.  My Trellis is actually an old strong clothes line that
 runs over the last row of my garden.  The clothes line is 32 feet long
 and could never support all the veggies I grow there.  So I push a 
 ten foot long piece of electrical conduit vertically down into each bed
 that I plan to use for crops.  See the X in the diagram above.
 I then lash the clothes line to this piece of conduit.  The steel posts
 that hold the ends of the clothes line keep it from moving back and
 forth and the conduit holds it upright against the local load of 
 the crops.  I then drop twine down from the clothes line and tie loops
 into that I can later on train the plant thru.  Some plant like tomatos
 I give several twines to climb and loop them back on themselves.  
 Others like peas that just go straight I just go outside every few
 days and wrap their tendrals around the twine I want them on.  
 I am using cheap plastic twine.  It lasts the season but I have to
 put knots or loops in it occassionly or risk having a heavy tomato
 plant slide down to the ground near the end of the season.  Downside
 of the plastic is if any get on the ground it fouls the lawn mower.
 I have tried cotton string but it tended to fail before the season was
 done.  And a 5000 foot spool of the twine only cost around $5-6.
 I store the twine away from the sun though.  It will last for years
 but once outside, it only is good for one season.
 
 Good luck.  - Ron


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