I mentioned in a previous post that we had put in a vegetable garden (here and on my personal blog, here).
We’ve never grown heirloom tomatoes before, so we didn’t really know what to expect. We’ve had other tomato plants before, so we figured it would be about the same….
I think we’ve misjudged this.
Here are a few photos of the heirloom tomato jungle currently growing in our yard:
It’s only just July. These plants are fully four feet tall, crawling outside the cages and growing into each other. We planted them the minimum distance suggested. We should have doubled or tripled that.
So what should we do? Should we prune some of the stems/branches? Growing this closely together, will the developing tomatoes get enough sun to ripen? I’m totally dumb-founded how out of control these plants are.
Is this typical of heirloom tomatoes? They are growing out of their cages running along the ground and then turning upward toward the sun. It’s hard to get between the rows, let alone the plants. Forget about weeding and who knows how difficult harvesting may prove.
Advice, please!!
Horaayy..there are 2 comment(s) for me so far ;)
I use Bamboo stakes, one four each plant. You can get the Bamboo stakes eight feet long. Tie 3 to 4 stakes together in a teepee. The teepee arrangement is very stable and has with stand 50 to 60 miles wind in thunderstorms.
Thanks Donna. I was thinking I might need to get a machete soon! I also keep thinking of Little Shop of Horrors and wondering if my Amish Paste is really “Audrey’s” sister!