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Sunday, November 11, 2007
Starting my winter reading early...
Just read "How to Grow World Record Tomatoes" by Charles H. Wilbur, and found it quite informative. Seems he got his inspiration from the redwood trees, and perfected the idea in his home state of Alabama. With 220+ days as it's average growing season, he's got quite a bit of time to grow tomatoes, as opposed to zone 5, where I reside, but his ideas are transferable to anywhere. With the Japanese Tomato Ring, the roots grow up and into the bin, all the way around it, with four plants (confirmed, as I had to break up a lot of clumps that were held well with thick and thin roots from my tomatoes on the biggest tomato ring). With Charles Wilber's method, the roots are growing laterally and wide around a single plant, and the plant is pruned specifically to yield the maximum amount of tomatoes for "Better Boy" variety. As his method has been "proved out" not only with tomatoes, but with watermelon, radish, corn and other crops, I think it will be worth a try on two plants, and a container (one of my manure buckets split, and has become the candidate for experimenting with Mr Wilber's container method). I can hardly wait for spring!