Vertical Experiments Update

Today I harvested my first tomatoes, some beets, and a carrot.

Holding some roots!

This year I am trying a variety of support styles for tomatoes.  In past gardens, I have tried hardware store cages and the ultomato supports.  

Example of a square hardware store cage. (from gardendesk.com)

Most of the productions tomato gardens I have seen use T-posts and twine to wrangle their tomatoes. This is one support technique that I did not try.

Wasatch Community Gardens uses t-posts and twine to support tomatoes. (from gardendesk.com)

I am slowly building a pergola and fenced area around my garden.  

Right now, my squash are taller than me on my slanted trellis.  On the other slanted trellis, I am growing tomatoes.  While they are resisting the incline, they seem to be doing well.

In my raised bed, my kale and lettuce have gone to seed. I am also growing tomato plants with string supports in this bed.  For some reason, these plants are really scrawny and have brown, dry stems near the ground.

Another view of the string supports.

I have vertical chain-link on which I am growing tomatoes and Armenian cucumbers.  I like the Armenian cucumbers because I can let them get huge and they still taste fine.  One of my tomatoes is doing well on the fence, while the other is still way puny.

I am using single stakes to support some of my plants.  In order for most of my support techniques to work, I have to prune all of the suckers, or the plants will get out of control.

My container tomato is doing great.  It is as tall as me (5'7") and has numerous blooms.

I am using green garden Velcro tape to affix the plant to the stakes.

I have a volunteer cucumber (?) plant growing with a volunteer tomato.  It has already outgrown the stake.

More container tomatoes!

Next year I think I will try the T-posts and determinate tomatoes.  This year I have all indeterminate, but I would like to can/preserve, and determinate tomatoes lend themselves to that more-so than indeterminate tomatoes.