Topic: Tomato disaster

[Paulines7]

It has been so windy these past couple of days that the tomatoes I planted out and staked in the middle of the week are in a dreadful state.  Some have completely snapped off about 6" up the stem.   :'(

I have fleece over some of them but that just comes off in the wind.  Has anyone any suggestions please as to how I can make the fleece more secure given that the tomato plants are about 1½ft tall? 

[Merry Tiller]

Wow, toms out already, you're very brave.
I'd forget about trying to fleece them, it'll probably just beat them into a pulp in these high winds, I'd try and arrange some sort of a windbreak fence with canes & scaffold net or enviromesh

[supersprout]

Hi Pauline, if you make the hoop cloche structure in the wiki and put the fleece over that, then peg or brick it down firmly, it won't beat your toms to a pulp. Good luck, my toms are sulking good and proper too :'(

[saddad]

We haven't put ours out yet, but keep potting things up, definitely standing room only. Allotments Plant sale at start of June, then things can go in the final places.
 :)

[Paulines7]

Thanks for your replies.  Strangely enough it was those that weren't covered in fleece that were damaged.  Yesterday I was able to staple the fleece to a wooden plank on the fence above where some of the tomatoes are and was able to bring the fleece over the top and secure it at the bottom with bricks.  It was an absolute nightmare trying to do it in the wind.  I haven't sworn so much in a long time.  ::) :-[ ;D 

The rest are against chicken wire so there is nothing to staple the fleece too.  I have more time now though having postponed our holiday because of the weather so I will have to make something more secure.  Hopefully they will come in handy next year.  I looked in the wicki but didn't see anything suitable with the materials I have so have decided to staple the fleece to some 2 x 1 stakes.  I will cut about 9ft of fleece from the wide roll that I have and staple the fleece to the posts at top and bottom.  I should then be able to push the posts in behind and infront of the tomatoes and they will be fully covered.

If it is successful I will post some pictures in the wicki.   ;D ;D

[bellebouche]

I feel for you.  :-\

This week I planted out the majority of our tom plants. Four double-rows and about 60 plants in total... that very night.. we had sustained 40km/h winds with gusts to 75km/h

I went out the next morning with every expectation that the plants would have taken a good thrashing but not so... they almost all seem to have come through it allright. i did follow some A4A advice though in planting them 'as deep as you dare' and perhaps that helped save them from getting a too much whiplash.

Only main casualties? My two 'big max' pumpkins that have been getting much TLC in the hopes of me producing a 50Kg pumpkin... the leaves are so big that they acted like sails and I seem to have lost quite a few but the plants seem well established enough and have enough vigour to recover now.... I hope.