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From: mmr@ritcv.UUCP (Margaret Reek)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Re: Tomato Cages
Message-ID: <1195@ritcv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Aug-84 10:48:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ritcv.1195
Posted: Mon Aug  6 10:48:48 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Aug-84 00:41:31 EDT
References: <148@CS-Mordred>
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Lines: 25


	In the last two years I have tried 5 restraining techniques for 
tomatoes, and combinations of mulch and no mulch.  The restaining methods were :
none, staking, on a straight row of cage material, on a row of S shaped cage 
material and cages.  My results with sprawling tomatoes and no mulch were
poor; slugs, bugs and rot took a large toll on the crop.  Sprawling tomatoes
on mulch faired somewhat better but take up too much room.  I find staking a
royal pain, although the tomatoes do well and are easy to get at.  The methods
of cheating using a big roll of cage material were not totally successful,
mostly because the tomatoes plants and crop were so huge and the stakes to
hold up the wire weren't tall enough and the wire wanted to fall over.  The
tomatoes did fine, but I found I had to tie up the tomatoes on the flat wire
and run rope around the ones in the S shaped rows.  My favorite of the whole
bunch was the cage.  I don't have to fiddle with the tomatoes much once they
are in there, I can put them in myself (not really feasible with my other
cagey methods), no bugs, slugs or rot to worry about and I can chose to mulch
or not as I see fit.  This year all my tomatoes are in cages.  You can buy 30
foot rolls of cage material from Sears (pretty soon it should go on sale) and
make your own cages fairly easily and cheaply.  The only nuisance is finding a
place to store the things when they are done.

			Margaret Reek
			Rochester Institute of Technology
			ritcv!mmr