Grow pole tomato techniques

Last year I grew tomato's on a five pot grow pole. They were a determinate medium sized tomato with a name like "Gardeners Delight." In that pole of 20 plant sites, I had 3 tomato's, 3 eighteen inch high pot marigolds, a couple of purple basils just to add a little color and stink, a couple or three miniature marigolds and some other stuff I cant remember. I didnt know how to post pictures back then so was not photo recording at that time. All plants on the pole grew well and the medium sized tomato's only started ripening about midwinter (They were planted about mid august) and my son, the gourmet at this house, pronounced them yummy. Frost got them Dec 10th. Tomato's grown up on a pole like this are above three of their worst enemies........snails, slugs, and cutworms. I did have one cut worm. How he got up there I dont know but I found him and murdered him with malicious intent.

The stalk of these tomato's grew real stout. Probably in reaction to trying to exist in this area with continuous and sometimes vicious gusty winds. You might think that gusty winds would rip large plants right out of those size pots but what happens is the tomato roots grow from its pot down into the pot below it. That mechanically locks the two pots together and all pots are permanently stobbed onto the 3/4 inch electrical conduit pole. So let the winds blow, the sun shine, and rainstorms pound and the tomato's still hang in there.........literally.:-)

Trying to play it safe, I still figgered I needed to tie up the tomato's. The attached photo shows how I did that. I added a short extension on top of the conduit pole using an EMT coupler and short piece of conduit as you can see in the photo. On top of that, I just loosely set a PVC tee. After that, you can rip up an old tee shirt (or petticoat, depending on gender), rope it around the tomato stem and up thru the PVC fitting and BINGO! your tomato is staked.........to the same pole that holds up the pots.

OK, that is working from the bottom up. In the next post and photo, we will work from the top down.

This photo shows how you can plant tomato's in the top pots of a grow pole and let them drape down.......no staking or tying required. As you can see, I have added a coupling and short piece of electrical conduit onto the top of the pole that is long enough to hold two pots. Again, the tomato roots will grow into both pots and have a firm grip on the pole. I havent done this yet but I think you could easily plant two tomato's in those two pots and maybe some type of small flower for purty, or basils or some other type of herbs in the other 6 plant sites of the two pots. The photo shows additional pots growing beneath the raised tomato pots. That would be my preference, however, you could just use two pots by themself on top of a grow pole about six foot high. But I personally dont like to waste the space on a grow pole because I know, no matter what is planted there, as long as it is watered and fertilized regularly, it will grow.

For those of you just now entering the wonderful world of grow poling, I have this advise. It is an honorable occupation enjoyed by some of the best people so clear your mind of all "dirty" thoughts. Stop feeling snobbish about yourself and your glorious organic past. Wipe those "dirt" thoughts completely from your mind. This is the simpliest form of growing plants that require just two basic things: a grow mix that anchors your plants and is almost impossible to overwater and a good brand of water soluable fertilizer. Thats it. Pour the water/fertilizer to your plants as frequently as necessary so that they never dry out. Have you noticed how fast water drains through a coir grow mix? And its flows faster through a combination of coir/perlite. The grow mix will not hold enough water to over water your plants in any instance I have experienced (except possibly one which I will cover shortly). Forget about plants dying from "wet feet."

Some flowers I have grown in grow poles are advertised as "pre-ferring" dry conditions but put them into a grow pole system with plentiful water and fertilizer and just watch them show their appreciation.

The bottom pots in a grow pole will tend to be wetter. Thats because all the upper pots are gradually draining down thru the bottom pots after you water. I havent noticed any problems with this so far but I am aware of it. If you are watering frequently, it is possible for the bottom pot(s) to remain wetter longer than the upper pots but if your grow mix is still capable of allowing oxygen to the plants roots under these conditions.......no harm, no foul. And coir and coir/perlite mix seems to do that for me. I am aware of it as a possible problem though and if I think it needs correcting, I will stick a couple pieces of clothesline up through the drain holes of the lower pot to act as a wick and drain the lower pots faster.

Last, but not least, is the fertilizer. Really good fertilizer results in really good results.

This should be an interesting growing season for me. I get to try my own experiments and also get to watch some of the goofy things some of the rest of you on this forum are trying. Bob's PeaPole comes to mind.........or is that a bean pole?

This message was edited Mar 5, 2009 5:18 AM

Well here is some romaine growing in that Stack n grow, not bad