OnTheBrink Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I planted an heirloom tomato plant. Just one. It's an orange oxheart tomato. Well, when I left on vacation for 3 weeks, it went from one healthy stem to a monster. Seriously, it's a good 5 feet high and probably 4 feet around. I tried to tie it up, using twine and the posts on my front porch. It was ridiculous looking, but I didn't care. Now, after a storm last night, the twine has broken and the whole thing has just flopped over. It's laden with unripe tomatoes and some of the branches have broken. How in the world do I deal with this mess? I can't find one end from the other on this thing and if I tug, I end up creasing the stems or breaking them. Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretchen in NJ Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I would tend to leave it since you may do more harm then good trying to tie it back up again. I was watching Gardening by the Yard last week. Paul James said that if you let tomatoes grow naturally you will be able to harvest more of them. I would leave the mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS_ Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I would tend to leave it since you may do more harm then good trying to tie it back up again. I was watching Gardening by the Yard last week. Paul James said that if you let tomatoes grow naturally you will be able to harvest more of them. I would leave the mess. I agree - unless you really need to move it from where it's at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 The only thing is, if you don't want tomatoes on the ground, you might want to try a little bit of support again. And if you can't get to them all, you might want to try some support--just be careful, as you've already found it's easy to damage the vines. I had tomato plants that sprawled all over last summer, and I think I was only able to harvest about half of the tomatoes. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted July 29, 2009 Author Share Posted July 29, 2009 I don't particularly need it to be tied back up, space wise, I mean. I might try to lift it up using some fabric as a hammock to cradle the whole thing, just so the tomatoes on the underside ripen ok and can be harvested. I'll go look at the underside again and see how bad it is. I've never seen a tomato plant get this huge! The other plants are piddley. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gr8tcook Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 If you don't need the space leave it for a day or two then try to tie it up again. Give it a little time to recover before you mess too much, it might bounce back a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OHGrandma Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I'd let it lay and pull dirt up to cover some of the stems. Tomato plants will root on the stems. If the tomato plant split when falling the extra dirt on the stems will let it root above any stem splits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS_ Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I'd let it lay and pull dirt up to cover some of the stems. Tomato plants will root on the stems. If the tomato plant split when falling the extra dirt on the stems will let it root above any stem splits. That is an excellent point! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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