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What happens when 32 tomato plants, 3 hammers, a ball of
twine, 128 wooden stakes, a pair of scissors and 8 Summer Stretch youth
volunteers from Woodbury Peaceful Grove United Methodist Church come together
in the Giving Garden?
Those tomatoes get
CAGED!
On this beautiful July morning our volunteers pounded
stakes, wound twine and propped up
the wonderful sun loving tomato plants. Many of the youth noticed the tomato
fragrance coming from the vines as they lifted up the plants and carefully draped
them over the twine supports. It will still
be several weeks before we start harvesting but it will be worth the wait!
Why cage tomatoes?
Are they trying to run away? No,
not run away but as the plant produces more and longer branches and as the
fruit grows and gets heavier– the plants need some help supporting all that
weight, get sunshine throughout the plant and help keep the fruit off the
ground.
Our garden talk today was about determinate and
indeterminate varieties of tomatoes.
Determinate varieties grow to a certain size and then stop growing branches
and just put their energy into making fruit.
The indeterminate types keep growing foliage and fruit all summer –
those are the types that need help with caging. Thanks for the great team work today, Summer Stretch volunteers!
- Contributed by Deb Lynch, Washington County Master Gardener
