Monday, June 9, 2008

Tomato Tree Day 15



Time for a two week update on the Tomato Tree. Everything has been going fine, with one notable exception. One month after I received the Tomato Tree and two weeks after I had planted it, I got a letter informing me of a safety issue with the Tomato Tree Stand. It appears that the legs of the stand have a stability issue. If the stand is moved, the legs may fall out of place causing the entire tree to come crashing down. Lovely!

Included with the letter were instructions on how to retrofit the stand to make it stable. What wasn't explained was how to remove the legs of the stand while it supports 6 plants and 15 - 20 pounds of water soaked potting soil. Since I can't figure out how to retrofit the stand without a 3 person crew and a small hoist, I've taken to surrounding the base with heavy potted plants.

Adding to the adventure(danger) is the fact that we've been going through some extremely fierce (read windy) weather here in the upper Midwest. So you will notice that I have also attached a couple of bungee cords to the top of the stand in order to hopefully keep it upright.

The plants themselves are growing at a spectacular rate. None of the six plants have died, so I'm trying to decide if I need to cull the herd in order to ensure maximum yield. Any ideas?

Here are a couple of photos. If your local paper runs a story with the headline, "Local Man Killed by Falling Tomato Plants, Embarrasses Family", you'll know they're talking about Crabby.

This is the first time I've had to wear a helmet to garden.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about posting a foto of yourself wearing a helmet while gardening?

Anonymous said...

Yes, I would like to see a crabby helmet, also.
With respect to the 6 plants, I would say keep 'em, if you can train them apart. This, of course, involves building a superstructure ala Rube Goldberg. Cool! OR prune each plant of extra branches, which means fewer, but larger, tomatoes from each plant.
I'm assuming the directions for the contraption mentions fertilizing the heck out of these babies? The topsy is a pretty small environment for the roots of 6 plants, but it should work.
Ceres, Goddess of the...

www.crabbycook.com said...

Crablings,

I find your concern for my well being endearing even if a bit sarcastic. I'm thinking about deploying a series of air bags surrounding both the planter and me. We'll see.

Ceres, thanks for the pruning tip. Given my gardening expertise, pruning usually equals killing, so I'm going to opt for fertilizing the heck out of them. Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

Hey, so it's been a couple of months already. How did everything go with the Tomato Tree?

www.crabbycook.com said...

To fully experience the sage visit:

http://www.crabbycook.com/2008/06/attack-of-killer-tomatoes-and-this.html

http://www.crabbycook.com/2008/07/tomato-tree-day-43.html

http://www.crabbycook.com/2008/07/tomato-tree-day-58.html

http://www.crabbycook.com/2008/08/tomato-tree-day-72.html