On 11/11/2016 04:13 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article , T wrote:

Hi All,

We have has several big wind storm come through
and they blew down, rather, bend over some of my
wire tomato cages. And we have had several freezing
night.

Odd, the tomatoes that blew over did not die. (Everything
else did.)

1) Do I even need cages for tomatoes? They grow
out over the top and then all over the place. Should
I just give up on the cages?

2) does on the ground protect tomatoes from freezing?
Or is this just some odd placement thing I am missing.

Many thanks,
-T

In your dry climate you might get away with tomatoes on the ground. For
the rest of us, they rot and are more accessible to more pests (such as
slugs) when lying on the ground - but it might work for you in the
desert.

Might as well try the experiment next year - I'd suggest some of each,
and bigger cages if you are using the usual little ones. Our "old home
cages" were roughly 8x5 foot sections of 6" mesh reinforcing wire, with
3 sections of 1/2" rebar wired onto the bottom as stakes to go into the
ground - I have got to make some of those, they work much better than
the "2 or three hoops and 3 or 4 legs" type that are sold here. Makes a
roughly 30 inch diameter by 5 foot tall cage, but you can reach inside
for the fruit inside it.

Fussier people train onto a tall stake or twine supported from overhead
and prune down to a single stem. I have not yet reached that level of
fussy (or spare time to be fussy in.) Given that it's used in commercial
production there must be some value to it.

For limited values of freezing being near the ground helps. For less
limited values of freezing it does not. When the ground has not frozen
yet, it's a source of heat on a freezing night - this is also most of
why covering crops in (moderately) freezing weather can protect them
from freezing.



Thank you!

We have no slugs and I frequently pick tomatoes off the ground
that have blown off the vines.

Rebar !!!