that is a nice looking setup you have there water about every three to four days weather according as for pruning i would just cut back the growth on the lower parts to keep your plants off of the ground, the broken limb will be ok it will just grow from where it was broker as for support maybe some bamboo would be ok they will be fine , if not they look good what kind of pepper plants are those in there with them ?

Oh thanks, those other plants are basil, i put 6 of them around the edge, one of them doesn't look like its gonna make it thought ;(

Nice looking bed! Here's a picture of mine:

My bed is 18" tall with soil removed and replaced 12" below...the red plastic mulch I got from gardeners.com -- it's supposed to increase yield by 20%...I've found that I rarely have to water (I also use .25" irrigation tubing beneath the mulch) and most people tend to overwater tomatoes thereby diluting the taste and encouraging a whole host of problems...get a moisture meter from a garden store of big box and stick the meter down 8 or more inches to the root zone to see how wet it is there...

The WOWs will come off tomorrow and I am going to put up a combination overhead tie/fl weave system...I'll post pictures when it's done...

Here is a link that might be useful: Laurel's tips

Hi piotr - good looking set up. I think most SQ.' gardeners stake their plants individually and prune them to 1 or 2 stems. To do that just remove everything below the first set of blooms and then remove all the suckers as they bud. The FAQ here on pruning will give you details.

I would think a florida weave would be hard to do in a square rather than long rows but it might be worth a try. Tall cages for each plant would work too and you wouldn't have to prune as much.

On the water - go by your emitter ratings (how long to get a gallon) every 3-4 days - more often on the really hotter months because raised beds will dry out quickly.

Happy gardening. ;)

Dave

Bluemater, ahh nooo your maters are bigger than mine! ;p

I like the idea of the wall of waters but they seem kinda flimsy i wonder if i could make something better for next year.

I've currently got 8 inches of mel's mix in mine and 2 inches of topsoil under it and then sand. I hope that's good enough.

piotr...I started my toms from seed on March 1st (which I knew was too early but I was soooooo tired of the long, hard winter) and planted them with the WOWs on April 21 or 22 so they've been in the ground for over a month now...

I'm almost done with my frame...hopefully I'll have pics in the next day or so...

It sounds like you've got a nice mix of soil and it's obvious that you pay attention to detail so I think you'll have a great crop!

The WOWs are really not flimsy but some here have made their own version using plastic soda bottles...the link below will take you to an early March discussion on using them...one poster has pictures showing his homemade version...

Burpee also sells WOWs and another brand as well...

Here is a link that might be useful: previous WOW discussions

I can't help because I'm just a mater newbie myself. I just wanted to say that your garden looks lovely.

My camera batteries are charging as we speak. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some pictures of my veggies. Mine looks a little more jungle-like than some, though. When I moved into this place two years ago, the area where I'm now gardening was nothing but waist high weeds. When I got them pretty much cleared out, I found out that I had a nice little rocky area layered with red granite, with a circular bed in the center. The weeds are only about ankle-to-knee high now.

Nice looking patch!

If you want to keep them to 1 stem, pull of every sucker that comes up between the stem and the leaves. I've allowed one sucker on each of my plants for a total of 2 stems and twice as many fruit (the more suckers you let grow, the more fruit you will get but the smaller the fruit will be). Keeping up with suckers is more than you might think - they keep popping up from every new leaf and since I have 2 stems there are twice as many popping up.

As for your broken BK plant, let one sucker grow up from directly below the break and let that take over as the new stem. It will grow vertically like the rest as long as you have them tied to the stakes.

Hope this helps

Finally I've put up my tomato trellis/frame and removed the WOWs!

Here's a picture of the bed as of this a.m.:

It's made of 1.5" pvc painted red...I plan to use the weave method as well as the overhead that I started...I've also attached cleats to the upright parts to hold the nylon string and used plastic stem clips to attach the string to the stems...

The other two advantages of this staking system are that the plastic covering I'm going to make for it will 1) turn my bed into a mini-greenhouse in the spring and 2) protect the bed from the type of torrential rains we got hit with last August that ruined my ripening tomatoes...

wow cool! I like your idea. i think i might copy you and report back with photos! 8)

piotr...thanks for the compliment :-)

more info on the set-up...I didn't chemically weld the joints together because I want to be able to take it down and use half the height in the spring so to make it stronger I'm adding 12" X 14" shelf brackets to the overhead supports to give it more strength and make sure the pieces stay in place when it gets windy...

You might want to have the Home Depot thread the ends for you and then use the threaded fittings though you won't be able to experiment with differing lengths of pvc...I started by cutting down the 10' pieces to 8' lengths then decided they were too long so I cut another 6" off to make the overall height 7.5'...made changes to the length of the cross braces too...

Next year I might make changes in the design based on how well this performs...when I'm sure I've got what I want then I'll probably upgrade to threaded material...

Please post the pictures when you've decided on what will work best for your bed!

Piotr, to answer your third question, yes the plants will
get much bushier, The tops of two of mine got frost bite and I broje off the top. They are getting wider every day. I am getting tired of trying to keep them tied up. I nay just whack some off half way.

They look beautiful to me! AWESOME SETUP

piotr...here is the evidence that the WOWs do extend the season:

I discovered two clusters of these little "Purple Prince-lings" tonight as I was tightening the support strings...all the plants have fruit forming but this variety is a 75 dtm so it's developing faster...