Disclaimer: This post was originally posted by Hero Member, Woodflower8. This user is located in Herndon, VA NW of DC Zone 6b-7a. This was originally posted on August 23, 2007.
I used a similar tomato cage, opened up instead of the triangular cage, and I ran string up and down to narrow the net to about 4X5". I added an extra side from a second cage and it fit behind the 2 EBs and went into the dirt behind them. BUT, when a heavy wind came, it knocked over the patio (determinate?) type tomato which had a thick stem and I had to shove in a stake and tie it to that with the stocking. I pressed some dirt around the bottom of the stem which had been bent or broken halfway, and watered that a bit to keep it tight until it healed or developed new roots. Its the one on the left, and as you can see, it has lots of tomatoes on it.
The other issue is that the boxes were too close, and the grape tomato blended in to the cukes, so next year Ill add an in-ground stake to the net and an extra side to the backdrop net/cage to separate them more.
Also, the two varieties (one Asian and one like straight of cucumber didn't work together. They were pollinated into a third variety by my local bees and I got some interesting shapes, one looked like a cobra snake coiling up- which I promptly left at my dads plate in his house for fun (he's 85 and an old gardener).
I saw in a magazine called This Old House yesterday that gardeners in the very old days used to put glass tubes over their cucumbers to make them straight for prizes. Very funny how priorities change. I don't think that'd solve the dominance of the variety though.
nan
