Speaking of tomatoes, would you like to see how we set up our tomato patch? We’ve tried lots of different methods, from simply sticking the plants into the ground, to using that fancy red plastic mulch (which doesn’t work at all), but this is our absolute favorite method because it really gets water to the roots. It’s a method adapted to our needs from the book, How to Grow World Record Tomatoes (an excellent read). Grown this way we easily get 6 foot - 10 foot tomato plants each year, organically of course!
First we bought a few yards of drainage pipe (like PVC pipe with 1/2″ holes drilled into it) and cut it into 18″ lengths. Then after tilling the beds, we dig a hole with the post hole digger on either side of where the tomato plant will be planted.
Place a length of pipe into the hole.
Fill the hole back up with dirt (but not in the pipe!).
And place our custom made five foot tomato cages on either side (made with wire fencing). We even have a few cages that are twice as high for our larger 10 foot plants.
Try this method this summer. You won’t believe how getting the water down to the roots that deep affects the tomatoes. We used to use the small, store bought cages for our tomato plants and now after applying this method, we definately need our hefty custom cages.
Great tip for the tomato’s!!
Great idea for the tomato’s!
This is impressive. I hope you post photos occasionally through the season. I can’t wait to see them.
First let me say that I have been enjoying your blog. I also live in Sonoma County and enjoy reading about what my fellow local gardeners are up to. I really like what you’ve done with your tomato plants. I think I might give the buried drainage pipe a shot in my garden this year. i haven’t got my plants in the ground yet. Hopefully this weekend. I look forward to watching you garden progress.
Sarah
Very cool. Not a tip I’ve seen before. I’ve been hoping to set up a soaker hose system for my garden (which is fairly small.. only 21X21), but this would be a very simple way to get crazy water to the tomatoes right at the root. Definitely going to give this a try.
That is a great suggestion. I think I will try it this year. Can you tell me about how many inches away from the tomato plant stem you place the two pipes?
Hi Rick, we place them roughly 18 inches away from the stems. We put them in between each plant in our tomato row.
This is so great. I love the pipe idea. We usually bury coffee cans or barring that, yogurt containers with the bottoms cut off. Then we water into those. Usually 2 containers for each plant. It does really make a difference, that and a heavy mulch. Do you use a fertilizer mid-season at all? Liquid kelp or anything like that? I’ve neglected that this year, but still seem to be doing not bad. I think we’d have had more fruit if I was to have fertilized though.