When I erected the trellis this season, I knew I didn’t have it as snugly in the raised bed as I would have liked. But I’m disabled and my family doesn’t feel like helping me with tasks I can’t do without hurting myself. I didn’t want to ask a family member and I didn’t want to make my RSI flare up by pushing harder. I should have known better. Closing your eyes and hoping it all works out is not the best course when it’ll be so much harder to re-seat later.
So a couple days ago I noticed it was starting to lean. The ‘Amish Paste’ tomato is an utter monster, taking over everything in sight. It was started on its own bamboo pole, extended to another bamboo pole and just starting to lean on the trellis meant for the cucumber. Even that little leaning started pushing it over.
So I had to drag out the taller of the ladders (so I could get above it and let gravity do some of the work) and use a rubber mallet to try to seat it better. I couldn’t get it back where it should be but I did get it a little further into the ground. I had to take an 8’ bamboo pole and try to use that to brace the trellis further.
Then ice my arm afterwards.
A couple branches of the tomato got broken, which sucks because some of them had pollinated flowers on them. Oh well. Next time I know that it would be better to do a little pain early in the season than more pain mid-season.
This entry is about
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Day 90
Solanum lycopersicum |
Previous Journals
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Arugula Harvesting
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Apple 'Yellow Newtown Pippin' Harvesting and Limbo garden
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Gooseberry Harvesting
Later Journals
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Olallieberry Pruning and Apple 'Yellow Newtown Pippin' Pruning
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Plum 'Mariposa' and Grafted Varieties garden
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Aprium 'Flavor Delight' and Cherry 'Royal Lee'
Comments
poppyde wrote:
This weeks Gold Medal For Effort goes to ……….
Posted on 07 Jul 12 (11 months ago)
hotwired wrote:
By the looks of the primary photo, I would have taken some bailing twine and tied it to the top of the tomato stake. I’d screw in an eye-hook fastener to the top of the other rail (other side of the bed) and feed the twine through the eye loop. pull it tight until the stake straightens up and tie it off, so it’s similar to a telephone pole guide-wire. The twine shouldn’t be in the way when working from the other side of the bed since they’re elevated. I’m pretty lazy, so I always look for creative solutions. Usually they end up working better than the back-breaking ones.
If you have a row of wobbly stakes, attach a long rigid horizontal piece across the tops of all the stakes and run guide-wired at the ends of the beds. I used to use a 10’ long piece of copper tubing to stabilize 4 stakes, and guide-wiring the ends so they weren’t in my way.
BTW – You’ve got some good looking plants there. If you break any branches, they’re easy to repair .
Posted on 07 Jul 12 (11 months ago)
spidra wrote:
Thanks, poppyde.
I think I would need a better picture of the bed from the side to show you exactly which stakes were what. I can’t visualize the repair you suggest.
Yeah, this morning it occurred to me that I should have tried to graft the branch back together. I was so tired from the trellis repair it didn’t occur to me at the time. I can see if I can try this long after the fact. Thanks for the PDF.
Posted on 08 Jul 12 (11 months ago)
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