Hard to believe he just started less than a few years ago, huh? I was watching an older vid and he was like 'I just started doing this 18 months ago'. 🤯 I half grew up on a farm and didn't get this advanced til I was about 25. 🤣
I’ll second this comment. So many videos are “here’s how you do ____” with no follow up. This one has all the info to really help figure out if this system is right for you. Thanks!
Omg…. Take a shovel… turn it upside down and put the sharp edge under a bump on the post. Now push away the T post. Then.. pull the T post towards you…. Push away, pull towards…push away pull towards…. The shovel uses each bump and ratchets itself right out of the ground. You don’t need to try and loosen it first… just ratchet it out in 30 seconds and never break a sweat. It always works.. never fails !!! And that my friend is the million dollar tip!!! You will be amazed at how great it works. You can bring a hush over a crowd of farmers when they see me do this. LOL. T posts are really hard to remove any other way. I’ve spent a LONG time digging one out.. haha. Million dollar invention….
For next tomato season, to make your life easier get 2 tools. A fence post driver or pounder, and a T post puller. Both make working with t posts so much easier.
Excellent reference video! My mind is blown by the fact that you've only had your garden a few short years and yet you've been able to create so much abundance for yourself and so much knowledge and inspiration for us. Thanks!
This was amazing, love the full lifecycle video format. Yes, as someone who edits videos I KNOW the work and also the amount of patience, half a year for 1 video is a lot, but the content is excellent 👍
I've been growing tomatoes for many years. It's nice to learn something I don't know about how to grow them, and you had several useful ideas. Thank you.
These season long videos are so helpful. Thank you so much! Meanwhile, I’m just amazed that soil exists that you could even start getting the post in without great force. I live with soil compacted by construction, and getting posts in the ground next to my raised beds is work!
Considering how often you drive t-posts, you might consider getting a t-post driver. They’re WAY easier to use than a hammer, and you can drive the posts deeper. They won’t budge once they’re in the ground. Just a thought.
I am from Fl. but live in Costa Rica and can only find that Poli Plastic down here and the best way I have found is to burn it with a lighter instead of cutting it. It stays together and you wont have that problem any more. Love the vlogs. PURA VIDA🌴
I've never actually had an issue with jute rope causing injury to the plants. They're my go to since it's natural and lasts multiple years. I'm in a cold climate so maybe the lack of sun makes it last longer here. I also tightly wind the plant around the jute so that could be why they don't have the slack to rub against the rope and cause injury
I also live here in San Diego, down near the boarder (San Ysidro) and really enjoyed your indepth information on constructing and maintaining the Florida weave. Between you and The Epic Gardener I'm able to grow more than I thought I could. Thanks for taking the time to put this in a video format! Much better seeing than just reading up on this procedure. Looking forward to your next video.
I Florida weave my peas too in fact I didn't even realize the system I used has a name 😂. For peas I can use a cotton yarn and bamboo sticks and it works great 👍
My season is short, so I do have to top my plants late season. Our winds are so strong and the hot sun at my elevation is intense. So, I hang mine vertically in a covered hoop tunnel to protect them from the elements with shade cloth and a poly. I always end up with a lot of green tomatoes at the end of Sept. So when I cut mine at the base, I just move the whole plant, still attached to the vertical string, clips, and hook, and hang it in my sunroom. I just stick the bottom of the stems in a bucket of water until they ripen. I also remove all the leaves before bringing them in. I had 25 more pounds of San Marzano tomatoes ripen the first year. The hook, string, and clips are all reusable. I do use the Florida weave to keep my peppers upright, though. Works great! I can protect them from the elements differently because they are much shorter.
This sounds really interesting. Is it possible to add photos here? If you have time, I would love to see the whole plant still attached to the string, clips, and hook :-)
Great info on topping the plants to force ripening! Will definitely do that this fall. Any tomatoes that are green when I pull the plants will become fermented pickles. Delicious!
4:11 For the poly string you can melt the ends for a couple seconds with a lighter. I wait until it’s still pliable but not super hot and then mush the melted ends together and it won’t fray as much. I do it to the cut end of the roll as well.
Fantastic, Ive got about 50 tomato plants I just planted and was dreading going to find some stakes in the forest ( we do it old school here in Poland ). This will cut down the work by more than half! Happy harvests.
Thanks for this video. I've seen several that show the first weave, but none that have shown it on mature fruiting plants. Makes me more confident in trying the method this year.
I would only make one adjustment to your weave. If you look at 6:36 on the right side of the screen where the twine meets the post and compare that with the opposite side you will notice there is a large gap. If you were to swap sides one more time after your last plant and before the post you would create an axis point where the strings come together, providing more support. Otherwise it looks great.
Excellent demo and explanation, Jacques! I appreciated that you showed the whole process from beginning to end, even how to cut it down. These details are immensely helpful! I had wanted to do cattle panels, but have no truck to haul them home. This weave method is doable for me. Thx for a well thought out video! I really like your channel.
If you have a farm supply store or Tractor Supply store, put a T-post puller on your Christmas list. Makes pulling up T-post a 2 second breeze! Great Video, enjoyed. Problem I had using basket weave was the plants got away from me and there was so much follage it compacted way too much folliage between the strings. I may try this one more time this year as planting indeterminate tomatoes so I will prune them a bit.
Amazing! Tomatoes are so worth it fresh out of the garden. Try starting with 1 large slicing tomato and 1 cherry to get a feel for it! Too many tomatoes can get overwhelming at the start but becomes second nature in no time!
Sweet info on the tomato life cycle. I'm just getting ready to start planting my peppers and tomato plants into the ground. This year we are not doing shishito peppers, we had a major harvest on them last year. my husband and I are sick of them lol 🤐. We 're doing lemon citrus and brown jalapeno, padron, korean dark green and datil. Of course we will also be doing the usual poblano and serrano. My hubby said he has a death wish with chiles this year. Happy gardening Jacques and all my fellow gardeners.
If you have access to willow, hazel, or other very bendy branches, a few more uprights and a very loose wattle-style weave also works really well for tomato, pea, bean, eggplant, okra, and similar wandery plants.
In Virginia clay I use a digging bar to get the T posts started and then use the bar's flat end to tamp down the earth around the installed post. Otherwise I would have to hammer the post after the first 3-5 inches.
If you can get an old fashioned jack like I had in my El Camino or a High Lift jack you can get a small piece of chain to wrap around the Tpost and just jack the post out of the ground trust me it's a lot easier then the wiggle and pull method😂
Great video, especially for a new gardener, but I've got questions! First, do you re-use the T posts with the rusted bottoms? Second, before completely tearing out the aged tomato plants, do you save some seedlings for Spring planting- OR do you start over from scratch? We have two growing seasons in Central Texas, so the cycles are a bit different. I'm wondering just how long a tomato plant can last! Lastly, do you have any variety suggestions that do best with your weaving method? Thank you in advance! 💚
I used this method after watching some of your first videos explaining it and it really did me wonders. It was my first year planting and I was so excited about how prolific my tomato’s were. I’d like to do this structure again. Could I plant the same kinds of tomatoes in the same plot of land?
You can but it will eventually build up disease and causes issues, I planted here back to back three times and eventually root knot nematodes moved in and now I can't grow tomatoes there for a while :(
Wow Jacques! Thanks so much for this very useful and informative video! I am going to do the basket weave this year. The tomato cages didn’t work to well for me last year. Keep up the great work!
Great video. I have topped my tomatoes to get them to ripen up before frost. Man, I like your hammer, but you need a maul for those posts. I have red clay. A maul is essential here. 😄
I've tried the other method of single stem but I'm not really impressed with the result so I'll give this a go this year (and good to know I don't need to buy $70 post driver)
This is great! I’m afraid this technique wouldn’t work for us. I have to check all the leaves daily for horn worm eggs on our tomatoes here in Mississippi. 😢
I think that the tomato plant that didn’t work out for you, the brandy wine cherry, is the tomato that you let set fruit early and didn’t pull it off, so it might’ve just been a smaller plant from that energy being used too early
To greatly increase rigidity and maintain string tension, use +/-12" of 1" pvc pipe with 1" pvc tees slid over the top of the middle post(s). Do the same using ells on end posts. Then insert 3/4 or 1" metal conduit/pipe horizontally to maintain spacing of t-posts (pvc pipe bends too easily, especially in warm temps). All can be loose-fit for easy disassembly. This gives added benefit of being able to use vertical strings to train tomatoes. Fwiw, I think this setup looks haphazard/untidy and use redwood to build a simple trellis - when not using it, it still looks decent in the garden. Costs more, of course, but looks much better.
Get a t-post pounder to set your t-posts and it can be used to remove them too, using leverage and the nodes. Or get a t-post puller for removal. I’m a country farm girl. I have never seen someone set a t-post using a hammer or remove one by digging it out.there are much easier tools made for the job
Looking forward to trying Forida weave this coming season! We plant our tomatoes in central Florida in the early fall months. What type of twine did you end up choosing g after the experiment, the poly or the cotton? Thanks Jacques, for your great content and informative videos!!
I did the Florida weave last year and it worked great! I didn't take the T posts out though, just the plants and the twine. I'm planning to just replant and restring on the same posts this year. Any reason I shouldn't do that? Did you only pull yours up so you could plant other stuff, or is there another reason to take them out and replant them each season? If I'm missing something, please let me know. Thanks!
You can foster diseases that target specific plant families growing the same related things in the same spots year after year. It's more productive to rotate where you plant each thing.
You would take out the T posts if you were moving the tomato plot to another part of the garden next season and weren't using the T posts for trellising another crop. Rotating crop family planting spots helps prevent disease buildup, especially for something as easily diseased as plants in the tomato family (includes eggplants, peppers, and potatoes). If you have the space to do it, it is recommended. However, if you didn't have any major issues last season, you could very well plant in the same spot again this year and have good results. Tomatoes are also heavy feeders, so be sure to amend the soil with some compost whether you choose to grow in that spot again or not to revitalize the area.
I had planted back to back in this same spot last year but upon pulling some of the plants out I discovered they had root knot nematode. If I plant here again the new tomatoes will get wrecked by the nematodes and it will keep fostering their population. So to avoid it I am crop rotating to a different region.
Root knot nematode are my nemesis. What helps me control it is to use marigolds in my tomato bed and then to compost the marigold cuttings and eventually plants right into the bed along with organic matter like coffee grinds, egg shells, and fruit scraps (strawberry tops, banana skins, kiwi skins, ect.)
Thanks so much for the Florida Weave video. I have some great tomato cages made from Cattle panels but could use a less expensive way to support a few more plants. I will try this. I was wondering why you pulled your T-posts instead of just leaving them for another use? Once ours are in the ground (clay based soil in the SE) that's where they will live the remainder of their life.😊 Thanks also for the tip about the "old" tomato leaves. We have a long growing season here so that explains a lot. I am enjoying your channel.
I tried a few different tomato support experiments and I liked the Florida weave for the first half of the season 😆 it just became too unruly and floppy. I saw a while ago you did a trellis net for a few things, did you try it on tomatoes? If so, did you like it?
I do have a couple of questions for you. What was the kind ,variety of tomatoes you have planted in this video other than Black Crim and Cherry type? Also how much more pruning did you do as they were growing up? Did you allow all suckers to grow or just a few on each plant. When I tried this method I had too much foliage and felt like I was compacting the foliage too much but then the growth actually got away from me. I was growing Homestead determinate variety and had one Better boy Hybrid which I pruned and did the best as it reached the top of my weave and then cascaded back down toward the ground. I'm growing all Better boy Hybrids this season coming up and plan to prune them some to contain folliage but will definitely try this method again.
I think it would be worse off, they have fragile stems that break easily and unlike tomatoes they actually have tendrils. The tendrils allow them to literally climb up whereas tomatoes have no way of grabbing onto something which is why this works well for them.
How would you compare this to the drop line type of trellis with those clips? Do you think one method is superior to another in particular circumstances?
I love the complete lifecycle format of this video. I know it’s a lot of work and planning. Keep up the great work!
Hard to believe he just started less than a few years ago, huh? I was watching an older vid and he was like 'I just started doing this 18 months ago'. 🤯 I half grew up on a farm and didn't get this advanced til I was about 25. 🤣
I’ll second this comment. So many videos are “here’s how you do ____” with no follow up. This one has all the info to really help figure out if this system is right for you. Thanks!
Omg…. Take a shovel… turn it upside down and put the sharp edge under a bump on the post. Now push away the T post. Then.. pull the T post towards you…. Push away, pull towards…push away pull towards…. The shovel uses each bump and ratchets itself right out of the ground. You don’t need to try and loosen it first… just ratchet it out in 30 seconds and never break a sweat. It always works.. never fails !!! And that my friend is the million dollar tip!!! You will be amazed at how great it works. You can bring a hush over a crowd of farmers when they see me do this. LOL. T posts are really hard to remove any other way. I’ve spent a LONG time digging one out.. haha. Million dollar invention….
You should make a video. Seriously this is good advice.
And Buy a REAL hammer! Lol
For next tomato season, to make your life easier get 2 tools. A fence post driver or pounder, and a T post puller. Both make working with t posts so much easier.
That’s just what I was thinking!
i have a pounder. Any reason not to leave posts in the ground?
@@lydiaahubbell8545 my tiller makes a terrible racquet when I go over a tpost.
Excellent reference video! My mind is blown by the fact that you've only had your garden a few short years and yet you've been able to create so much abundance for yourself and so much knowledge and inspiration for us. Thanks!
All hail the garden hermit! Thanks for these tips 🍅
This was amazing, love the full lifecycle video format. Yes, as someone who edits videos I KNOW the work and also the amount of patience, half a year for 1 video is a lot, but the content is excellent 👍
Thank you for the hard work of this video! So rare to see a video focused on the entire life cycle of a plant
With already 25 tomato plants going in my garden in Central Florida this is definitely my next experiment!
I've been growing tomatoes for many years. It's nice to learn something I don't know about how to grow them, and you had several useful ideas. Thank you.
I love the way he says "remember"❤
Thank you, not even any ads & was very informative from start to finish.
These season long videos are so helpful. Thank you so much!
Meanwhile, I’m just amazed that soil exists that you could even start getting the post in without great force. I live with soil compacted by construction, and getting posts in the ground next to my raised beds is work!
Considering how often you drive t-posts, you might consider getting a t-post driver. They’re WAY easier to use than a hammer, and you can drive the posts deeper. They won’t budge once they’re in the ground. Just a thought.
I am from Fl. but live in Costa Rica and can only find that Poli Plastic down here and the best way I have found is to burn it with a lighter instead of cutting it. It stays together and you wont have that problem any more. Love the vlogs. PURA VIDA🌴
I've never actually had an issue with jute rope causing injury to the plants. They're my go to since it's natural and lasts multiple years. I'm in a cold climate so maybe the lack of sun makes it last longer here. I also tightly wind the plant around the jute so that could be why they don't have the slack to rub against the rope and cause injury
I also live here in San Diego, down near the boarder (San Ysidro) and really enjoyed your indepth information on constructing and maintaining the Florida weave. Between you and The Epic Gardener I'm able to grow more than I thought I could. Thanks for taking the time to put this in a video format! Much better seeing than just reading up on this procedure. Looking forward to your next video.
I Florida weave my peas too in fact I didn't even realize the system I used has a name 😂. For peas I can use a cotton yarn and bamboo sticks and it works great 👍
Craft yarn can be very economical!
My season is short, so I do have to top my plants late season. Our winds are so strong and the hot sun at my elevation is intense. So, I hang mine vertically in a covered hoop tunnel to protect them from the elements with shade cloth and a poly.
I always end up with a lot of green tomatoes at the end of Sept. So when I cut mine at the base, I just move the whole plant, still attached to the vertical string, clips, and hook, and hang it in my sunroom. I just stick the bottom of the stems in a bucket of water until they ripen. I also remove all the leaves before bringing them in. I had 25 more pounds of San Marzano tomatoes ripen the first year. The hook, string, and clips are all reusable.
I do use the Florida weave to keep my peppers upright, though. Works great! I can protect them from the elements differently because they are much shorter.
This sounds really interesting. Is it possible to add photos here? If you have time, I would love to see the whole plant still attached to the string, clips, and hook :-)
There is a cool tool for pulling T-Posts from the ground. It really speeds up the process & saves your back.
Yeah I guess I am cheap haha, I should eventually invest in post hammer and t post puller.
This video seems very thorough, and made this seem very doable. I am no longer intimidated by the idea of growing tomatoes! Thank you 😊
I'm a vertical string guy but one day I will try this!
Nice to see the entire life cycle and care of the tomato!
Thank you! This is the best and most thorough Florida weave demonstration I've seen yet. Much appreciated.
I'm telling you, do a review on those klein tin snips/electrician's scissors. It's gold Jacques! It's GOLD!
I am going to have to get some for real
It's gold, Jerry, GOLD! 😆
Great info on topping the plants to force ripening! Will definitely do that this fall. Any tomatoes that are green when I pull the plants will become fermented pickles. Delicious!
Or fried green tomatoes 😋
4:11 For the poly string you can melt the ends for a couple seconds with a lighter. I wait until it’s still pliable but not super hot and then mush the melted ends together and it won’t fray as much. I do it to the cut end of the roll as well.
My dad used to use a lighter to burn the frayed ends of the poly string. Made it much more secure and I don’t think it ever unraveled!
Fantastic, Ive got about 50 tomato plants I just planted and was dreading going to find some stakes in the forest ( we do it old school here in Poland ). This will cut down the work by more than half! Happy harvests.
Thanks for this video. I've seen several that show the first weave, but none that have shown it on mature fruiting plants. Makes me more confident in trying the method this year.
Wow, this a a great primer on handling & understanding your indeterminate toms. TY!! I’m trying the Florida weave for the first time this season.
I would only make one adjustment to your weave. If you look at 6:36 on the right side of the screen where the twine meets the post and compare that with the opposite side you will notice there is a large gap. If you were to swap sides one more time after your last plant and before the post you would create an axis point where the strings come together, providing more support. Otherwise it looks great.
Ah yeah I noticed that too. I always tie them together at the ends as well good call
For sure that is good catch, sometimes I remember to do it and other times I don't
Great instructions! You always do such a great job teaching and explaining!!
WOW, talk about start to finish! I appreciate that you took the whole season for this video. New subscriber.
you have convinced me to try it only instead of Florida Weave im calling it Bulgarian Weave
👏👏 I am here for it haha
Excellent demo and explanation, Jacques! I appreciated that you showed the whole process from beginning to end, even how to cut it down. These details are immensely helpful! I had wanted to do cattle panels, but have no truck to haul them home. This weave method is doable for me. Thx for a well thought out video! I really like your channel.
Exactly what I needed to see as my tomatoes are at about 15 inches!
If you have a farm supply store or Tractor Supply store, put a T-post puller on your Christmas list. Makes pulling up T-post a 2 second breeze! Great Video, enjoyed. Problem I had using basket weave was the plants got away from me and there was so much follage it compacted way too much folliage between the strings. I may try this one more time this year as planting indeterminate tomatoes so I will prune them a bit.
I really enjoyed that you went through the entire process I was actually thinking how I'd like if you guys did that.
Gotta love Jacques in the garden!
You are a very good teacher. I always learn a lot from you.
This will be my first garden this year. I am going to give tomatoes a try.
Amazing! Tomatoes are so worth it fresh out of the garden. Try starting with 1 large slicing tomato and 1 cherry to get a feel for it! Too many tomatoes can get overwhelming at the start but becomes second nature in no time!
Sweet info on the tomato life cycle. I'm just getting ready to start planting my peppers and tomato plants into the ground. This year we are not doing shishito peppers, we had a major harvest on them last year. my husband and I are sick of them lol 🤐. We 're doing lemon citrus and brown jalapeno, padron, korean dark green and datil. Of course we will also be doing the usual poblano and serrano. My hubby said he has a death wish with chiles this year. Happy gardening Jacques and all my fellow gardeners.
I grew a Datil last year and quite liked it! Nice list!
Thank you sensei 🙏
Look at the tomato system, next level gardening. Im not a gardener, but it may be easier
Best video I've seen on youtube. Thanks!
If you have access to willow, hazel, or other very bendy branches, a few more uprights and a very loose wattle-style weave also works really well for tomato, pea, bean, eggplant, okra, and similar wandery plants.
Jacques! You're a genius! You gave a solution for my jungle to be ! Definitely will going to try this method. Thank you!
In Virginia clay I use a digging bar to get the T posts started and then use the bar's flat end to tamp down the earth around the installed post. Otherwise I would have to hammer the post after the first 3-5 inches.
I wonder if this would work on my bery small stand of corn.
Hi Jacque, wondering if you could flush out determinant, semi-determinant, and indeterminate tomatoes in 2024. Love the videos!
I'll try to remember to include it when I do my tomato lineup video!
Jacques, the natural cotton twine will lose tension in a couple of weeks; that's why the synthetic is used.
Very well explained. Very in depth. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for this video! It's my first season growing a non container variety of tomatoes and I learned a ton
Thank you so much for showing the full growing season! This was a huge help as every other video I've seen only shows the initial set up
I loved this video! Thank you for taking the time to do the follow ups in the same video. I wish your videos were longer! My favorite kind of tv :)
This was an excellent video. Thanks for the great information. It’s nice to be able to see beginning to end.
This video is EXCELLENT. Learned a lot! Great Work Jacques!
This was great...I love videos that show the beginning to end. Thanks Jacques!
If you can get an old fashioned jack like I had in my El Camino or a High Lift jack you can get a small piece of chain to wrap around the Tpost and just jack the post out of the ground trust me it's a lot easier then the wiggle and pull method😂
That does sound a lot easier, and truth be told some of these required serious excavation haha
I'm doing my tomatoes this way this year.
You need to go to tractor supply or a similar store and get a t -post puller. Sure saves your back .
Man Jacque can’t wait for my college semester to be over & start planting all my peppers & tomatoes
👏
Great video, especially for a new gardener, but I've got questions!
First, do you re-use the T posts with the rusted bottoms?
Second, before completely tearing out the aged tomato plants, do you save some seedlings for Spring planting- OR do you start over from scratch?
We have two growing seasons in Central Texas, so the cycles are a bit different. I'm wondering just how long a tomato plant can last!
Lastly, do you have any variety suggestions that do best with your weaving method?
Thank you in advance! 💚
Why not use the little hooks and holes in the post to help with tension?
HAVE YOU SEEN THE TPOST DRIVER REMOVAL ? you can use the driver to put in and hep you remove the t post..... im going to try it this year!!
Perfect timing! Just watching your last video on this. Thanks for such detail.
Great lesson.
I used this method after watching some of your first videos explaining it and it really did me wonders. It was my first year planting and I was so excited about how prolific my tomato’s were. I’d like to do this structure again. Could I plant the same kinds of tomatoes in the same plot of land?
You can but it will eventually build up disease and causes issues, I planted here back to back three times and eventually root knot nematodes moved in and now I can't grow tomatoes there for a while :(
Im trying a taut knot with the flordia weave so i can add tension or loosen the tension on the fly when ever i need too its a very simple knot
Wow Jacques! Thanks so much for this very useful and informative video! I am going to do the basket weave this year. The tomato cages didn’t work to well for me last year. Keep up the great work!
You can burn the ends of the polly twine to keep them together
Great video. I have topped my tomatoes to get them to ripen up before frost. Man, I like your hammer, but you need a maul for those posts. I have red clay. A maul is essential here. 😄
You should use your foot on the flat part when you push it in
Thanks, Jacques!
In retrospect, would you have used organic twine or the poly “tomato” twine?
Is there a reason you have to remove the posts after the season is over? Thanks for the explanation, I'm thinking of doing this method this years!
This was an incredible video! Thank you so much!
I've tried the other method of single stem but I'm not really impressed with the result so I'll give this a go this year (and good to know I don't need to buy $70 post driver)
The driver makes life a lot easier but its not strictly required!
Great video! Very well done and I'm sure the added effort of completing the life cycle in one video will get you more views. Subscribing now.
This is great! I’m afraid this technique wouldn’t work for us. I have to check all the leaves daily for horn worm eggs on our tomatoes here in Mississippi. 😢
I use stakes and canes, they're free pretty much
I love the full picture this provides! Can someone tell me what the pretty red flower is at 17:44?
I think that the tomato plant that didn’t work out for you, the brandy wine cherry, is the tomato that you let set fruit early and didn’t pull it off, so it might’ve just been a smaller plant from that energy being used too early
Your job is great brother ❤
This was incredibly helpful. Thank you. 🙌🙌🙌
Buying a dedicated Manual T post Lifter would make life a lot easier. If you have enough to justify one :)
I think its finally time haha
Thank you Jacques, great info.
To greatly increase rigidity and maintain string tension, use +/-12" of 1" pvc pipe with 1" pvc tees slid over the top of the middle post(s). Do the same using ells on end posts. Then insert 3/4 or 1" metal conduit/pipe horizontally to maintain spacing of t-posts (pvc pipe bends too easily, especially in warm temps). All can be loose-fit for easy disassembly. This gives added benefit of being able to use vertical strings to train tomatoes.
Fwiw, I think this setup looks haphazard/untidy and use redwood to build a simple trellis - when not using it, it still looks decent in the garden. Costs more, of course, but looks much better.
Nice video, thanks for the tips
Get a t-post pounder to set your t-posts and it can be used to remove them too, using leverage and the nodes. Or get a t-post puller for removal. I’m a country farm girl. I have never seen someone set a t-post using a hammer or remove one by digging it out.there are much easier tools made for the job
Where can i find the T-posts
Looking forward to trying Forida weave this coming season! We plant our tomatoes in central Florida in the early fall months. What type of twine did you end up choosing g after the experiment, the poly or the cotton? Thanks Jacques, for your great content and informative videos!!
I have a feeling the brandywine cherry had a determinate nature or the main stim was trimmed.
I did the Florida weave last year and it worked great! I didn't take the T posts out though, just the plants and the twine. I'm planning to just replant and restring on the same posts this year. Any reason I shouldn't do that? Did you only pull yours up so you could plant other stuff, or is there another reason to take them out and replant them each season? If I'm missing something, please let me know. Thanks!
You can foster diseases that target specific plant families growing the same related things in the same spots year after year. It's more productive to rotate where you plant each thing.
You would take out the T posts if you were moving the tomato plot to another part of the garden next season and weren't using the T posts for trellising another crop. Rotating crop family planting spots helps prevent disease buildup, especially for something as easily diseased as plants in the tomato family (includes eggplants, peppers, and potatoes).
If you have the space to do it, it is recommended. However, if you didn't have any major issues last season, you could very well plant in the same spot again this year and have good results. Tomatoes are also heavy feeders, so be sure to amend the soil with some compost whether you choose to grow in that spot again or not to revitalize the area.
I had planted back to back in this same spot last year but upon pulling some of the plants out I discovered they had root knot nematode. If I plant here again the new tomatoes will get wrecked by the nematodes and it will keep fostering their population. So to avoid it I am crop rotating to a different region.
Root knot nematode are my nemesis. What helps me control it is to use marigolds in my tomato bed and then to compost the marigold cuttings and eventually plants right into the bed along with organic matter like coffee grinds, egg shells, and fruit scraps (strawberry tops, banana skins, kiwi skins, ect.)
@@jacquesinthegarden Okay thanks, that makes total sense. I guess I'm lucky that so far I've had no issues. Good luck in the new location!
Thanks so much for the Florida Weave video. I have some great tomato cages made from Cattle panels but could use a less expensive way to support a few more plants. I will try this.
I was wondering why you pulled your T-posts instead of just leaving them for another use? Once ours are in the ground (clay based soil in the SE) that's where they will live the remainder of their life.😊
Thanks also for the tip about the "old" tomato leaves. We have a long growing season here so that explains a lot.
I am enjoying your channel.
I pulled them because I want to rotate where I plant the tomatoes this year otherwise there is no reason or need to! Glad to have been of help!
I tried a few different tomato support experiments and I liked the Florida weave for the first half of the season 😆 it just became too unruly and floppy. I saw a while ago you did a trellis net for a few things, did you try it on tomatoes? If so, did you like it?
I do have a couple of questions for you. What was the kind ,variety of tomatoes you have planted in this video other than Black Crim and Cherry type? Also how much more pruning did you do as they were growing up? Did you allow all suckers to grow or just a few on each plant. When I tried this method I had too much foliage and felt like I was compacting the foliage too much but then the growth actually got away from me. I was growing Homestead determinate variety and had one Better boy Hybrid which I pruned and did the best as it reached the top of my weave and then cascaded back down toward the ground. I'm growing all Better boy Hybrids this season coming up and plan to prune them some to contain folliage but will definitely try this method again.
Can this Florida basket weave be used with other plants like Cucumbers or raspberry plants?
Great job on a great video. Very helpful, & informative. 😁
Jacques, do you think you could use the florida weave to trellis cucumbers?
I think it would be worse off, they have fragile stems that break easily and unlike tomatoes they actually have tendrils. The tendrils allow them to literally climb up whereas tomatoes have no way of grabbing onto something which is why this works well for them.
@@jacquesinthegarden Makes sense. Thanks.
@@jacquesinthegarden I use the t posts to trellis cucumbers directly! They grab those little hooks and even trellis throughout the holes!
I’m so jealous you have tomatoes in the ground already 😅
How would you compare this to the drop line type of trellis with those clips? Do you think one method is superior to another in particular circumstances?