Many moons ago, when the gardening season was still a time for starry-eyed visions of big boxes of tomatoes and crisper drawers full of cucumbers*, someone in the comments recommended I try the Florida weave to support my tomatoes.
I had never heard of it, so I looked it up. There are, of course, many videos showing it. I watched this one. Which is actually from the LSU Ag. Center, so maybe that's a Louisiana weave?
Anyway.
I tried it this year.
A. split some cedar posts for me and pounded them into the ground about three feet apart. For the twine, I used the innumerable pieces of baling twine that are always hanging around after we cut them off of hay bales. I had to tie them together, of course, but it pleased me to use something that is otherwise just a nuisance to be thrown away. It's not going to win any design awards, but I enjoy such re-use.
The video shows the man just going on alternate sides of each post as he goes down the row until he gets to the end. This is presumably the "weave" part. I tried that the first pass, but then realized there is absolutely no point in that when it works much better to wrap the twine around each post a couple of times, ending up on the alternate side from the previous post and then continuing.
This makes for a much tighter length of twine, and the tighter the twine, the better it holds the tomato plants upright. I have no idea why the video I saw didn't show this. Maybe everyone does it like that? Dunno.
This is why I'm re-naming my method The New Mexico Wrap. Catchy, no?
Anyway.
As the plant grows, more courses of woven twine are added above the existing ones to support the plants. The plants themselves can just be gently pulled inside the twine to hold them up. No tying.
This has not been a year of really exuberant growth for my tomato plants (or, well, anything), but the tomatoes I have left are actually fairly big now, and the twine is holding them up. So I will do this again next year.
A couple of things I learned for next year, however.
As previously mentioned, do not just weave the twine in and out. Wrap it around each post as they come before continuing.
Smaller posts are better. The smaller the diameter of the posts (within reason), the closer together the two lengths of twine, and the better they hold the plants upright.
I thought it would be great to have bamboo posts like I had at Blackrock, but then I remembered how slippery those bamboo posts were. I think the twine would probably slide down on them. Small diameter rough wood, either large sticks or small split wood, is better.
More posts are better. No more than two plants between each post seems to work pretty well.
So! To whoever recommended the Florida version to me, thank you. And to anyone else who wants to try it, feel free to make your own modifications and name it after your own location. It's fun.
8 comments:
Oooh, I get so sick of tripping over baling twine. It gets everywhere I don't want it to be. This is an awesome reuse.
The bamboo is perfect if one cuts off the smooth part and uses the little prongs that remain after cutting off the leaves. I didn't weave this year but tried last year but without sufficient stakes. I will go with the double wrap, many stake, system next year. I have these huge pink heritage tomatoes that are too heavy for the vines, sp this year is chaotic! Mil
Repurposed anything rocks, but then you’ve always been on board with that concept. Considering the devastation, really impressed how you’ve worked with unpredictable Mother Nature to make the garden come alive. So happy to see you’re back from you sick week! Can’t wait to see your marvel of human ingenuity.
Yes, cool! My garden and health have had a rough year, so only two tomatoes in a pot, but they were supported by an old wreath frame, and maybe next year, I can try this. And I hope you feel better!
Hope you're feeling better! I tried this but my thread was too elastic, it was a mess. So I ended up just cutting straight branches from the overgrown not-producing hazelnut trees and using one per tomato plant. I put it cherry tomatoes, quite late, so they're just turning red. And apparently we overwatered them, so they have black stem disease. Oh well, you live and learn, there will be another year of gardening. The plants are huge though, higher than me!
Claire
I have seen a great video of a technique where they threaded their string through a length of pipe (plumbing pipe, whatever, if you used tied together bailing twine it would have to be a larger diameter). Tied the string that came out the bottom to the first stake, then used the pipe like a hockey stick to weave the rope between the tomato plants and around the next stakes. It was SOOOO slick and much nicer than bending over, he just kept the tension on the string at the top of the pipe as he threaded, and zipped back and forth... I don't use this technique as I have a greenhouse with strings hanging down (now using repurposed bailing twine from hay bales) but I was mighty impressed...
You were going to add a note about cucumbers? (My brain won't let go of this until I know what that note was.)
Mary W.: Baling twine multiplies in the night. I'm sure of it.
Anonymous: You've probably gotten more from your two tomato plants than I have from my original 25. :-)
Claire: Yes, there is always another year of redemption in a garden. The hope of all gardeners.
ecoteri: Ooo, I'll have to look that up.
Drew: I was, and then I decided it was too depressing, so I deleted the footnote but not the asterisk. Bad former proofreader.
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