I hadn't tried it. I have no idea if the fruit would rot or not. 2009-06-13T11:08:19+10:00 false 11037 2413 2009-06-13T11:08:19+10:00 5447 My mom has told me stories of my grandmother and grandfather growing their tomatoes this way. That was how it was done then. What you managed to harvest you managed to harvest, if you couldn't get to some of the fruit or it rotted, that was that. I would think in your case, Nax, you could fabric under the sprawl area to help protect the fruit from rotting. Pest may be an issue as the tomatoes will develop on the ground. I often wonder about mildew issues as it would decrease air circulation. give it a go and let us know how it goes. 2009-06-13T12:04:27+10:00 false 11038 2413 2009-06-13T12:04:27+10:00 5657 I had some volunteers a few years back that I didn't tie up because they were about a row and a half into my corn. They weren't really in the way so I just let 'em go. About half of them were blemished in one way or another, mostly related to bugs. 2009-06-13T13:03:06+10:00 false 11039 2413 2009-06-13T13:03:06+10:00 5362 Interesting nax. I would like to know how this experiment turned out! 2009-06-13T13:20:46+10:00 false 11040 2413 2009-06-13T13:20:46+10:00 5779 I did this with some of my plants last year since I had about 30. Most of the fruits rotted before they were ready to be picked. If that was not the case, it would look like a great tomato on top, and when I turned it over it had been eaten away by bugs. I had a lot more pests and fungus problems than on my trellised ones. I had four of them over mulch, six of them over grass/plantain, and two of them over burlap bags. I had the same problems with all of them. However, the areas in which I did this have returned me many, many, many volunteer tomato plants this year. So in terms of the plant reproducing as nature wants it works very well, but for the purpose of human consumption, not so great in my experience. 2009-06-13T15:19:36+10:00 false 11047 2413 2009-06-13T15:19:36+10:00 3716 Well, that got me thinking, Om, what aBOUT doing this just for the volunteer seedlings, or even just mushing a tomato into the dirt in order to get the volunteers? Kind of a new take on wintersowing. Of course, you'd have no idea which were which, but since I always misidentify them anyway, no worries! 2009-06-14T04:50:52+10:00 false 11059 2413 2009-06-14T04:50:52+10:00 3568 I don't even think you'd need to mush it into the dirt Nax, I know I forgot a few tomatillos last year and they were just sitting on top of the dirt. The winter snow, freezing, and thawing took care of actually getting rid of all traces of the fruit, and I had at least 100 tomatillo babies I had to pull up this year. And they germinated even AFTER I had worked in mushroom manure and turned the dirt. 2009-06-15T03:34:10+10:00 false 11086 2413 2009-06-15T03:34:10+10:00 12 My tomato last year kept sprawling all over the place and knocking down anything I tried tying it to. In the end, I just let it sprawl. None of my fruit were in any way damaged. I think it would depend to some extent on the vine. This particular vine was big and beefy so it went up and down like a slinky. Most of the fruit didn't actually touch the ground; the vine just did in a bunch of places. Although it's probably also relevant that it was sprawled out of the bed and onto pavers, so the parts that touched the ground didn't sit in dirt. And, my partner likes green tomatoes, so most of the fruit didn't actually sit around long enough to ripen anyway. 2009-06-16T01:05:04+10:00 false 11105 2413 2009-06-16T01:05:04+10:00 1237 There was a guerrilla patch of tomatoes in town last year that a sunday school planted. Maybe 45 plants in an 8 by 8 space, and they sprawled. I remember some of them going bad, but people picked from them all summer. What about putting cardboard down in the ground to stop bugs and maybe rotting? 2009-06-28T15:40:05+10:00 false 11424 2413 2009-06-28T15:40:05+10:00 2013 Hi , living in England where sun is at a premium I have always grown tomatoes under glass and as a vine, but being overworked they always get away from me and end up as a tangled monster up in the roof. They fruit prodigiously. I've seen the french down south grow them anywhere and just put a ring of sheep fencing or chicken wire around them to scramble over. So I reckon it's down to how much sun you have and if increasingly skilled cultivation has to make up the shortfall. 2009-06-28T18:54:29+10:00 false 11427 2413 2009-06-28T18:54:29+10:00 9063