What varieties did you grow this year?

And what kind of problems did you have? The variety you plant next year may just do the same unless you fix the underlying problems.

Dave

Just looked at all your photos in your other thread. So now I am really at a loss to under stand why you are "giving up" on this year's crop"?

Other than the fact that they are badly in need of mulch, all your plants look great and they are covered with green fruit. I am in the same zone. All many early varieties have done great but only a few others are ripening over the past week. And all the local growers just started showing up at the farm market with tomatoes this past weekend.

Maybe your expectations are too high, too soon, Joy? ;) Be patient. It looks like you are going to be buried in tomatoes soon.

Dave

The ones that I planted were all indeterminate-
Arkansas Traveler
Rutger
Italian Market
Delicious
Little Pink
Esther Hess Yellow
Starpit Imperial
Manalucie

There's a good chance I am over reacting but we
have to tie them up every day, fifty of them and
they still break our bamboo stakes.
The ones that are on the ground, will it hurt to
leave them there?
I keep hoping they will taste good. The Esther Hess
and Champion are both tangy which I don't care for.

Dave
Somebody else said it looked good, too so maybe it is just more effort than I have right now. I hope to retire
next year and have more time for gardening but right now I work eight hours a day and have been canning, freezing
and gardening in the evenings and week=ends.
I enjoy it a lot but just a little less work in the tomatoes would be nice.

Joytwo, I would have to agree with Dave.
Your garden is fantastic!
Indeterminates will grow & grow, which will require lots of attention as far as tying up goes. I don't think the ones on the ground will do poorly, but they are more susceptible to bugs & diseases. I started using vinyl coated metal stakes for my toms because the bamboo ones kept breaking. There is also a ton of info on here about using concrete reinforcement grids for building cages. Maybe think about that for next year & you won't have to tie up so much with the weave system. Keep that beautiful forest going!! (Did I mention how jealous I am!!!) -Katie

Keep the pictures coming. It looks like you didn't prune and are trying to wrestle the branches to hug together. I hope you are/were in the wrestling team, otherwise, you are going to lose :-(.

I have about 5 branches on my Florida weave and thinking about letting a few extra grow once they flop over the weave.

Dave (DigDirt):

I am anxiously waiting for pictures of your weave/harvest. Perhaps you can post some here to help out Joytwo.

we have to tie them up every day, fifty of them and
they still break our bamboo stakes.

And therein lies the major draw back to using stakes and why I gave up doing it years ago. Cages are SO much less daily work and better support, less fruit loss, and minimal time spent pruning and tying etc. But if you are going to use stakes they need to be substantial ones - metal fence posts or at least steel re-rod stakes.

Cattle panels or Florida weave are other options that have many advantages over stakes. And another alternative - use the sprawl method - no stakes and no cages - just let the plants lay on the ground. But then you must use heavy layers of mulch. (I think I mentioned mulch to you a coupld of times already. ;)

I don't personally care for sprawl growing but many swear by it and it is alot less work.

All of these different support methods and the advantages and disadvantages of them are discussed in many posts here if you want to review them.

All your listed varieties are mid or late season varieties. Next year toss in a couple of Stupice and/or Bloody Butcher for some early production.

Dave

cut back to 25 plants instead of fifty or grow a bush variety. you will have more time and then you can come here and water mine.

We tied a jute cord on a fence post and then run it
to the first bamboo stake, tied it and went to the next one and so on to the end and then tied it to that fence
post. This made all of the stakes sturdy, even the ones that had broken at ground level. Then we went back
and did the Florida weave and the difference is amazing!
You know, I first read about this technique on this
forum and wanted to try it. I won't say who was
against it but I did say I told you so. LOL
Love this forum!!