Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has there been any consensus here, on the best method of Tomato Training,
also what is a safe & effective treatment of Aphids? Please don't say ladybugs.

Does anyone know of a great tomato thread please?

Thank you all.

Raimuso and Ell are training them horizontally, around and around the fence I guess. Ell had good luck with this method apparently. I am trying to hang twine down vertically to support mine; I will tie the plants to the twine loops with some wide tape-like ties (actually the red ribbon that is on the top of kitchen-tie garbage bags).

The goal would be something like the "tomato tree" at EPCOT in my opinion :-).

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_ ... 184410.htm

Tomato training - I tie twine from the roof supports, down to the growbed, and wind the tomato tree around this while it is growing, once every few days - supports well. Any offshoots that do well are also added to a seperate support.

I havnt got any lady bugs atm, so my only method of aphid control has been to spray with seasol, then wash off a couple of hours later. It works ok, but needs to be redone once every few days to totally remove the aphids. I tried just using plain water, but even after a week of washing them off they were still there. The seasol seems to make them get stuck

Here's Raimiuso's method...works well. Basically one stem per plant, remove all leaves below the set fruit and all laterals. Theory is to grow tomatos not leaves
viewtopic.php?p=64476#p64476

I've modified it slightly (because I didn't have a good way to rig up a bobbin) by keeping the string the same length. I unhook the vine every now and then and re-tie it further up the plant, letting more of the bare stem drop down each time. Hope that makes some sense.

Not sure about aphids. Some places ship ladybirds
Planning to try seasol and garlic spray this aphid season (coming soon )

Not sure when Aphid season is - but I'm pretty sure that lady bird season is coming up pretty soon

Thanks guys!

So tomatoes grown like pot... buds only, no leaf thanks! lol

Ah, I keep forgetting, it winter for most folks here! huh?

Yep, I'm using Raimo's method as DD and Steem pointed out...one lot of 4 cherry tomatoes have gone around the GH (~12 metres) and now I am training them around to head back, still got plenty of fruit (winter now) as the pic shows

it obviously works, but can some one tell me where all the enery to produce the fruit comes from?

Sunlight Steve.... it's called photosynthesis ....

Seriously.... the remaining leaves are probably all that's required to draw the nutrients, sugars, starches etc upthe stem... where photosynthesis does it's job.... resulting sugars, starches, minerals etc are transported back down to the fruit.... essentially with the aid of gravity I suspect.... so no great energy requirement for that phase I guess....

Would expect a point where the energy required to draw up to the leaves would be too great due to the sheer length.... but obviously thats a lot longer than you might think by the look of Les's plants

yep, we have had great success with cherry toms done by this method, bunches of fruit like mad.

Regarding Aphids,
Mine were kept very low by a mass of lady-bugs, until some ants found them. I assume from the prolific growth of the aphids being farmed by the ants, that the ladybugs lost the war I subsequently had all my leaves eaten through in VERY short order. Nature is cool, but she's also a nasty old B**** sometimes

Understand what you are getting at Steve, I was looking at possibly pulling them out if/when they reached the end of the GB, but they just keep on fruiting, so have left them in.

Also have roma's going well too, they don't grow as quickly, but picking fruit off them at regular intervals as well

Obviously they are taking longer to ripen than in summer, but always have some for lunch at least 3 times a week

rupe

the sugars and starches are created BY photosynthesis

but ok, obviously the leaves are more eficient than i thought

yep... no darn edit button....

got the second half right though Steve....

Ahhh but the starches are created in-situ, I would think
eg potatoes would send sugars from the leaves to the roots to be turned into starch

I think don has his answer, so it's safe to go offtopic, right