As you can see, my first try at growing Brandywine Red Tomatoes has been a success. I have a ton of green tomatoes covering the six plants. What I wasn't expecting was how huge these plants were going to get. Two weeks ago they started to flop over from the weight. I had them all growing up spirals supports, but that wasn't enough. I had to run out to the garden store and get six tall heavy duty spikes to randomly place around them. Then, taking advice from my mother-in-law, I cut up an old t-shirt into strips, and tied up the flopping stems to the new supports. (The soft fabric is gentle on the stems).
Of course I lost some stems doing all of this, as they break easily. I have also had to thin out some of the extra stems to let more light and air circulation into the center of the plants. Next year when I grow these, I will plant them in a long row so they are easier to get to, and get more sun.
Here is the first tomato of the year, collected a few days ago. I sat it in my kitchen to ripen up some more.
Follow my tomotoes' journey:
How to Grow Tomato Plants from Seed, Part 3.
How to Grow Tomato Plants from Seed, Part 2.
How to Grow Tomato Plants from Seed, Part 1.
1 comment:
Another great thing to use to tie up tomatoes or any other plant is pantyhose. I cut up my old pantyhose and nude kneehis which have gotten holes and runs. They are very stretchy but still supportive and allow for growth of the stem without cutting into the plant stem. It's a great way to recycle holey hose. In the last couple of years, I have noticed that I'm not wearing pantyhose as much as I used to, so I don't have as many holey hose to cut up. I've been using old leggings and my daughter's holey skating tights as well.
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