Staking plants

Comment

Comment by HOMEGROWN.org on March 6, 2013 at 2:18pm

And here's the word from HOMEGROWN's Facebook page:

• Lucy Owsley-Goodman Been using it for years, can tie up 400 plants in under 3 hours.
  
  
• Sandra Loucks We have used it for the past 2 years managing about 16 plants with 6 Tposts. It works well but you need to stay on it. Unless someone has an idea of how to tie them up once they are out of control. You also want to make sure you keep the leaves cut back or getting sun to the tomatoes becomes difficult.
  
  
• Patti Whitaker What exactly is it?
  
  
• Tracy Senita Never heard of it
  
  
• Heather Smith I do a variation on it. I use T posts for each plant, placed about 2 feet apart from each other. Then wind the twine back and forth between the plants to hold them upright. It is important to keep them pruned while doing this.
  
  
• Smooring En Farm Friends We tried a modified version last year in our square foot beds. We didn't prune like we should have so things still got away from us a bit. But it was still the best approach yet. String is ready for this year!
  
  
• Leslie Wilson Corsbie Yes I did a modified version with 8 foot long rows with a post at each end and then wove the plants all together and pruned like crazy and still not enough. They got a bit away from me and this year I will place a post in the middle to help support and prune a bit more. Plus I put the rows to close together(2 feet), so I will add another foot so I don't have to crawl around to harvest the lower branches. They never got over 4 feet since i cut so much, but I'm gona try 5 feet to get a bit more fruit.
  
  
• Gale Bez I've always used individual circular wire cages - one per plant, then prune at the top as they climb.
  
  
• Shelley Boggs Griffin Saw that technique on Farm Kings. Seems like it's the way to go, major time saver.
  
  
• Lynn Sue Mizner I've used the FL weave. It works great if you use sturdy stakes and if you don't wait too long to start. Start right away when the plants are 12-15" high.
  
  
• Jj Starwalker Sounds like something to try. I will have at least a couple hundred plants, so caging is not an option.
  
  
• April McGuire Yes, it worked better than tying individually. But never more than two to three plants in a span. Will use this method from now on.
  
  
• Wire Less Sails Thanks for all the great feed back! I am definitely using this method this year, which will be soon. I trimmed some tree branches this afternoon here in Western Pa and the sap was pouring out of the branches. Definitely are great sign of spring!
  
  
• Josh Bauer I used this method for over 100 plants last year and will use it again this year. I had some problems with tension on the strings though. Probably due to the wrong twine though.

Comment by HOMEGROWN.org on March 5, 2013 at 11:34am

For those wondering what the heck the Florida weave is, here's a video of the Go Indie folks demonstrating.