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Tomato cages/transplanting & drip systems


Did anyone else notice the article in Mother Earth News (just got mine the
the mail today) with the PVC tomato cage?  Looks like it might work really
well for squarefoot tomatoes.  I'm imagining an assembly maybe two cages
deep and four or five wide to support a group of tomatoes.  But do you
think the cages might be too short?  I've heard a lot of people talking
about very high tomato trellises.  I'm a bit of a newbie still (third
season with home started seedlings, and hoping for MUCH better results this
time:)) so I'd really appreciate opinions before I build these cages.

And also on tomatoes- I think I made a bit of an error while potting up.  I
went from my EPS starts, straight into 3 and a half inch sqaure sturdy peat
pots.  I expect to be able to pop them out and reuse the pots (on the
advice of the nursery woman that I bought them from who claims they last
forever and she does this all the time).  Anyway, I find that I'd like to
pot them up again before transplanting outside, but I don't really want to
go to larger containers, and I doubt that they've rooted out enough to have
used up the space in these pots.  But I'd like to bury more stem and go for
stronger roots, etc.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  This may be a
ridiculous idea, but could I repot them in the same pots somehow, moving
them lower into the dirt this time?  I'm also not sure when to put these
guys outside.  We don't HAVE frost for the most part, so last frost dates
don't mean much.  How warm and how much sun will they want in order to do
well?  Our days are ranging 60's-70's now, and nights are lowish 50's (I'm
guessing).

And regarding irrigation emiters thread- We were at the school garden where
we have our plots today and happened to arrive while the water was on.
What a mess!  There seem to be emiters missing in every box, and lots of
faulty emiters.  Each 4'x12' box has a half inch hose lengthwise down the
middle with three 1/4 inch misters coming off.  Well, no one's plot was
getting well watered by these things, and a couple were actually being
abused by them.  There were two that were shooting water 20 feet straight
into the air:)  We did a temporary fix by laying down some soaker snaked
around in a box where we planted peas, potatoes, onions and lettuce a week
ago.  I'm hoping the peas weren't actually washed out of the box by the
screwed up emiters.  I think we need to make a little fieldtrip to the drip
store on Monday.  Soooo, I was wondering what the feelings are on drippers
vs. soaker hose vs. these sometimes obnoxious misters.  I realize they were
put in to be the least fuss for the greatest number of gardeners.  Are
there crops that are really hindered by misters if they are properly aimed
and unplugged?

Sorry to be so long winded!  And thanks for all the great discussion of
late, it's really been helpful for me to hear so many good ideas while I'm
getting my garden going for the year!

Regards,

Laurie
San Francisco (zone 10)


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