Tuesday, July 19, 2011

‘Mater Stringin’

DSC_2270_6786Summertime is in full swing and harvest time is getting under way.  All varieties of tomatoes are maturing and the bell peppers keep on giving.  The bell peppers grow upright without any support needed.  The tomatoes are a different story.DSC_2275_6791The most important support for the tomatoes is a nice, big roll of natural twine.  No.  Having a strong frame is probably most important followed by a generous amount of twine.DSC_2274_6790Start out with metal stakes driven into the soil.  Screw on the vertical wooden stakes to the metal stakes.  Attach a horizontal wooden stake (beam) across the top of the vertical stakes.  There’s some eye screws at the bottom of each wooden stake that has the first row of twine threaded.  Twine is run vertically from the top horizontal wooden beam down to the horizontal string.  As the tomatoes grow, a row of twine is added.  This helps keep the vines upright and off the ground for the most part.  It makes detecting varmints and harvesting much easier.DSC_2272_6788When the vines have played out, simply cut the string and haul everything to the compost pile. 

1 comment:

Sue said...

Simple but very effective. What an easy way to keep the tomatoes upright and healthy!