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Uncle Marvo · 14-09-2006, 01:54 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In reply to K ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Uncle Marvo writes

Plus tomato canes miles too short for climbers, not anticipating the
weather making the plants grow to nearly six feet! They are still
producing fine tomatoes though, perhaps they like laying on the
ground? Perhaps the only reason why tomatoes are climbed up long
poles is "that's the way we've always done it".

I was looking at a small field of tomatoes in Greece last week - not a
stake in sight, just all scrambling on the ground. And this on an
island famed for the quality of its tomatoes.

It might be that the tomato's natural habit is to scramble over low
shrubs (it doesn't have the apparatus for serious climbing). But isn't
it able to put out roots from stems? - that would suggest it naturally
scrambles over soil.

I presume we stake them because they take up less space and are easier
to pick.

I presume that too. I was amazed at the tastiness of the crop though, they
were like real tomatoes. Haven't had anything like it in years. But then I
sort of guessed that the weather this year meant all tomatoes were like
that.

Which is true?

Probably both.