Upside Down Variation
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Posted by: Jim ® 05/23/2010, 19:01:48 Author Profile Mail author Edit

The techniques discussed are excellent. I'd like to suggest, for those who have some measure of "ground space" and aren't bothered by animal pests, a perhaps comparable technique I used successfully when I lived in Colorado.In a sunny section of my yard, I installed a cylinder of what's called "hog wire," with a mesh of about 4" across and 2" or 3" high. I had enough, picked up at a hardware store, for a cylinder about 3.5 feet high and 2 feet across. I cut the wire such that I had "spikes" at the bottom to push into the soil and used bailing wire to close the ends of the wire sheet to form the cylinder.Once set up, I filled the cylinder with a mixture of composted lawn trimmings and composted horse manure, from a local stable, to a depth of about 4" from the top of the cylinder.I made a small depression in the top of the mixture to hold water as I applied it, then planted four tomato plants around the top.As the plants grew, they flopped over the sides of the cylinder, which I soaked from the top. The vines, as they grew downward, set additional roots into the sides of the cylinder.Advantages? Plants off the ground, without staking, constant moisture, and in a high-nitrogen "soil."Of course the dimensions of such a planting cylinder can be adapted to meet individual needs, as can the size of the openings in the mesh used.Jim 23may10

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