Overgrown Tomatoes

[DrakeMaiden]

A beer bottle garden! Sounds cool to me. How are the tomatoes doing?

I have found that a nice unplanned benefit of having a board resting on sawhorses holding the tomatoes back is that I can lean on the board when I need to reach some tomatoes closer to the center of the plant. Now my problem is having to wade through the branches behind the row, where there are greenhouse crossbeams to avoid too. My legs get all yellow colored from the tomato stems . . . what is that all about anyway, anyone know . . . the yellow resin that comes off tomato stems? Is it tomato musk? LOL

 

[big brown horse]

Our tomatoes didn't survive the drowning spring, but DH took cuttings- and stuck them in beer bottles on the picnic table. Nothing like a beer bottle garden!

 

[big brown horse]

My legs get all yellow colored from the tomato stems . . . what is that all about anyway, anyone know . . . the yellow resin that comes off tomato stems? Is it tomato musk? LOL

TOO FUNNY!!!! "Tomato musk?" But don't you love the way it smells? I used to hate that smell as a child, but now I love it.

 

[curly_kate]

The smell of tomato plants is, hands down, my FAVORITE summer smell!

There is an orchard up the road, and the guy grows tomatoes in hoop houses. He runs heavy-duty string/twine from the base of the plant to the ceiling, and the tomatoes grow up it. I don't know how they 'attach' themselves to it, but it seems to work for him.

ETA: I've heard that mosquitoes don't like the smell of tomato plants. Added bonus!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I guess I shouldn't be so afraid to wade through the tomatoes then, if they are mosquito repellant!

Thank you for the tip about growing them up twine, curly_kate. I should look into that more and see how it is done.

 

[big brown horse]

Attach the stems to the twine with pantyhose strips.