Senga's Blog
Eco-chic Outdoor Living & Exterior Design
May 9/10 - A Year in a Sustainable Garden: What's Happening Now - Tomatoes on Trellises
How To Produce Tons of Tomatoes - Grow Them Vertically!
May 9/10 and already my tomatoes are starting to bloom. Pushingthe limits last week I put out some sacrificial plants to see how they would do in our cool spring nights.
Not bad - a few cold bitten leaves but already my tomatoes - most of them heirlooms such as ‘Black Krim’, ‘Brandywine’, ‘Purple Russian’, and 'Moneymaker' have started to root in their new raised beds on our edible green roof. And to help them along their way I finished building their vertical trellises as per the square foot gardening guidelines. As you can see on picture on right the system of vertical trellising is simple. Using PVC piping I cut a framework trellis which is 6' high x 9' (the width of the raised bed) and bolted the pipe to the back side of the wood frame (of the raised bed). A series of holes 6" apart was drilled in the piping and twine strung through the holes. The effect is similar to the mesh netting you use to support veggies. I opted to create the meshing by hand to create very taunt string that would suppor the heavy fruits of the tomatoes as they hung off the twine.
Plus the black piping and the white twine go nicely with my black trimmed post and beam house and the black square pots that are also on the edible green roof. One must always think like a designer - vegetable/edible gradensdo not need to look like the 'hippie/communal gardens' of old! Today we wil painting the raised beds in black - also chic aas well as functional - as the black will help attract the warmth of the sun and warm up the beds and the roots of the vegetables. This will help the veggies grow faster and provide us with fresh food ahead of schedule.
As the tomatoes grow I will train the vines up through the mesh. This is one o fthe most efficient ways to grow vines like crops (think Cucumbers, melons) that normally would sprawl on the ground and eat up valuable real estate. The tomatoes I am using are primarly indeterminate which means they will grow higher and higher if allowed so putting them on trellises allows them to grow as high as they will they want and produce tomatoes at will!
Benefits of Trellising Vines and Tomato Plants
- Efficient way to grow vegetables in small space - more yield per plant than traditional trellis or allowing to sprawl on ground.
- More air circulation around plants - less diseases and pests.
- Ornamental Screening - multi-tasking way of screening unwanted views using plants that you can eat too!
****In short Healthier plants mean lots of tomatoes to eat!
