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I may have mentioned this earlier in the year but can't find anything so thought I'd start a brand new thread.
So; I have a greenhouse in which I grow tomatoes, peppers, chillis and other oddments.
I have a courtyard which is mainly filled with tomatoes as it gets the sun and is sheltered. I've had loads of toms from these, many many more than from the greenhouse - for some reason.
So, in order to hedge my bets and try and avoid blight at the lottie, I rigged up a frame there inspired by Bob Flowerdew's method of growing toms outside, plus a little 'thinking it through to it's logical conclusion'.
The tomatoes are grown up a frame, which is at about 60 degrees to the ground. The frame has string to wind the toms round. Because the trench that the tomatoes are transplanted in is outside of the frame, when you put the final covering over the top, the water runs down the outside and waters the roots.
What you do is:
Erect two tripods at either end of the area that you want to grow tomatoes. The tripod need to have a cane at the front, on the outside of the area and at the back.
Put one long cane across the top and tie in well. Put another long cane at the front, and tie to the bottom of the front tripod cane. The canes are shown in brown on the image but you can use whatever material you want.
Tie string from the top cane to the bottom, and make sure it is not loose. The toms will grow up the string so make sure you are comfortable with the distance between each.
Next, in front of the bottom cane, dig your trench. Your tomatoes will be planted out at an angle of about 45 degrees, the centre stem of the tomato will be fed underneath the bottom cane, so make sure there is space to feed the stem through. Into this trench, add any additional manure, or slow release fertiliser that your toms will need before they set fruit.
Get your tomato plants, plant one at the bottom of each piece of string [shown in red on the image] making sure the stem goes under the cane, and once it is firmed in, wind the stem around the string. This method works well if you are an avid chopped of leaves, so I trimmed mine off leave just 3 on each plant, wound them round the string and left them to it.
Once all toms are in position, you can do two things.
Firstly, you can underplant with chillis/peppers/onions or anything that doesn't need an awful lot of watering.
Then, once all planted up, using whatever method you want, put a large polythene cover over the top of the whole set-up - I used blue piping onto canes - one at each end and one in the middle.
The polythene however does not cover the tomato trench - it just goes to the bottom cane and no further. This way, you can feed the toms and rain will drain off straight onto the trench and hence onto the roots. The polythene keeps heat in and blight out. All you have to do now is to weed [I've done mine twice all summer] and water under the canopy in extreme heat. I've not detailed the final covering, you can work that out for yourselves. But this is the frame design I used.
The issues I've had are only that the covering blew off at the start, long before blight was forecast and that the weeds do take hold underneath, however I have bigger peppers under my frame now than I have in the greenhouse, more toms than from the greenhouse and all is looking well now that the makeshift covering is secured. This was only a trial and I'll be doing it again next year with more precision over the covering I used.
I hope that makes sense
So; I have a greenhouse in which I grow tomatoes, peppers, chillis and other oddments.
I have a courtyard which is mainly filled with tomatoes as it gets the sun and is sheltered. I've had loads of toms from these, many many more than from the greenhouse - for some reason.
So, in order to hedge my bets and try and avoid blight at the lottie, I rigged up a frame there inspired by Bob Flowerdew's method of growing toms outside, plus a little 'thinking it through to it's logical conclusion'.
The tomatoes are grown up a frame, which is at about 60 degrees to the ground. The frame has string to wind the toms round. Because the trench that the tomatoes are transplanted in is outside of the frame, when you put the final covering over the top, the water runs down the outside and waters the roots.
What you do is:
Erect two tripods at either end of the area that you want to grow tomatoes. The tripod need to have a cane at the front, on the outside of the area and at the back.
Put one long cane across the top and tie in well. Put another long cane at the front, and tie to the bottom of the front tripod cane. The canes are shown in brown on the image but you can use whatever material you want.
Tie string from the top cane to the bottom, and make sure it is not loose. The toms will grow up the string so make sure you are comfortable with the distance between each.
Next, in front of the bottom cane, dig your trench. Your tomatoes will be planted out at an angle of about 45 degrees, the centre stem of the tomato will be fed underneath the bottom cane, so make sure there is space to feed the stem through. Into this trench, add any additional manure, or slow release fertiliser that your toms will need before they set fruit.
Get your tomato plants, plant one at the bottom of each piece of string [shown in red on the image] making sure the stem goes under the cane, and once it is firmed in, wind the stem around the string. This method works well if you are an avid chopped of leaves, so I trimmed mine off leave just 3 on each plant, wound them round the string and left them to it.
Once all toms are in position, you can do two things.
Firstly, you can underplant with chillis/peppers/onions or anything that doesn't need an awful lot of watering.
Then, once all planted up, using whatever method you want, put a large polythene cover over the top of the whole set-up - I used blue piping onto canes - one at each end and one in the middle.
The polythene however does not cover the tomato trench - it just goes to the bottom cane and no further. This way, you can feed the toms and rain will drain off straight onto the trench and hence onto the roots. The polythene keeps heat in and blight out. All you have to do now is to weed [I've done mine twice all summer] and water under the canopy in extreme heat. I've not detailed the final covering, you can work that out for yourselves. But this is the frame design I used.
The issues I've had are only that the covering blew off at the start, long before blight was forecast and that the weeds do take hold underneath, however I have bigger peppers under my frame now than I have in the greenhouse, more toms than from the greenhouse and all is looking well now that the makeshift covering is secured. This was only a trial and I'll be doing it again next year with more precision over the covering I used.
I hope that makes sense
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