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Re: Vertical tomatoes

I grew a number of varieties on strings last year.  I used
heavy poly twine tied off on an old clothesline.  The clothesline
is resupported in the middle of my beds with a piece of conduit
mounted in the ground.  I left one tomato plant in the corner
untrellised and trellised everthing else.  The trellised plants grew well
and were easy to maintain, though I did have to "Train" them up the
string and snap off suckers.  The plant on the ground did not require
any maintenance but spilled over the sides of my beds and invaded
a few other squares.  The plant produced a little more than the trellised
plants, but took up alot more room.  Also in late season my untrellised
plant suffered from bugs and died.  On the trellised plant I was able
to see hence clean off the bugs.  So for myself with only a small area
to garden in (3 8x4 raised beds).  While invidual plants may do better
untrellised.  I can get more yield per square foot of ground using
the trellis.

I also like to do the untrellis bit.  Before I did the square foot bit
I did container gardening.  With the pots 5 feet off the ground,
(on old fence posts, the fence went away a long time ago) I used
to let the vines (for the vining types)  just drape down from the
container.
I did not trim suckers or anything, but needed to water almost every
day.  (actually a very relaxing ritual on the way to work)  Productivity
was great and I had less disease/bug problems then anything grown
in the dirt.  This year I plan to use both trellises for the ground 
tomatoes and to start growing some tomatoes back in the air again.
Container gardening will also give me space and (from the last time
I did it) will allow me to get an early start on the season I will just
bring them in when it's cold.  Also a few years back I had tomatoes
all the way to december as I had brought the containers in and left them
by the sunniest window I had.  Crops kept getting slower and slower
untill december.  But I still had fresh maters for christmas that year.

On trellises, if near a support mine can support my weight.  The 
clothes line I use as the horizontal support at 6 feet can hold 
a whole bunch of wet clothes so supporting a few tomatoes,
and peas and beans and ... and... has always worked well.
I did however lose it last october.  We received 6" of snow
the week before halloween and I had a 24inch diam trunk tree fall on it.
Needless to say the trellis went down.  I never even had a chance to put
the bed down for the season.  The week before I was still harvesting
tomatoes and peppers...    

Your mileage may vary, offer void where taxed or prohibited.
Ron Souliere

> From: Julia Pittenger <jpittenger@selma.bsu.edu>
> I have recently read several comments in different forums regarding
> decreased production when tomatoes are trained up a "string trellis." 
Last
> year, I used the exact pole--string idea from Mel's book and thought
things
> went pretty well.  I grew Early Girl and Sweet 100.  Neither had great
> amounts of fruit, but seemed OK.  Does anyone have any comments about
this
> decreased production debate or some suggestions to increase the crop?  By
> the way, I had absolutely no trouble with disease or pests.  I just kept
> thinking it was the great air circulation using the vertical method!

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