This way of tying Up tomatoes is a game changer!

hey everybody Welcome Back To Living Traditions Homestead well if you received our new newsletter over the weekend you all may already know that we had two nights below freezing over the last few days which means that as you can see we had to take all of our plants back out of the greenhouse the plans for the farmers market had to come out of the greenhouse and the plants that we have planted in our big buckets we had to take extra precautions to keep them safe from the cold right so it's a early in the morning yet we came out the sun's coming up so we waited a little bit for the greenhouse to start to warm up but we thought we'd bring you guys along as we uncover things in here today and then we've got some work to do if everything looks okay we've got some work to do with our Tomatoes today because they are growing like crazy here in the greenhouse so obviously the first protective measure against the cold was to put the floating row covers on for those of you who don't know floating roll covers are just a thin piece of material that go on these hoops over the plants you can use these for a lot of different reasons you can use them for frost protection you can use them for insect protection and they do a really good job so that is the first way that we kind of took to protect everything and we made sure that the floating row covers went all the way down to the ground right you want them all the way to the ground so they hold in the heat right absolutely we know that that worked because this go round of cold weather we put a thermometer inside the row covers we have one in the greenhouse we have one like outside outside and so we also put one inside the row cover so that we could you know just monitor the temperature in there and the difference and you guys there was a significant difference when we got up this morning it was 31 degrees outside at one point it dropped down to 30 degrees for not very long maybe a half hour but it was 31 degrees outside when we got up inside the greenhouse here it was 32 degrees but the but the thermometer that we had under the floating row cover said that it was 39 degrees you guys the difference between 32 and 39 for these plants is life and death so that's why we're pretty confident that everything over here is going to be just fine because 39 degrees while it is a little on the cold side isn't going to kill the plants foreign looks fine which is great uh hopefully this is the very last time of the year that we're going to be needing the floating row covers so Sarah's actually going to just roll them up here and we're going to get ready to store them for the year hopefully this will be the last time we need them on this side of the greenhouse are mostly plants that are even more tender than the tomatoes we have 40 pepper plants here but we also have cucumber zucchini green beans okra and some of these were from seed that have just barely germinated so we are a little concerned about what happened under this floating row cover the thermometer was under the Tomato row not under the pepper row so we are confident that this is going to be okay but there is that a sense of worry that things were not okay underneath here so let's get this taken off now on this row we also took some extra precautions that will show you once we take the floating row cover off foreign from what I can see all of the peppers look perfect I can't see everything all the way down that row yet so in just a second we'll take a walk down there and look at everything down there all right so we're down here by the seedlings and you can see that what we've done is underneath the floating row cover we added an extra layer of protection by putting these little plastic cups over the plants that had just barely started to germinate you can see like here on our green beans they were up for a while already there was one that was just barely coming up here so this one I protected let's take this cup off so you can see that having this little cup over gave that some extra protection because green beans especially when they're that young really should not be getting down into the 30s all right let's look at some of this other stuff these next four buckets here are our cucumbers and they also were just starting to come up so let's take a look at those you can see that these all look fine it looks like they're gonna be okay next after that is okra now okra really is a heat loving plant so they they really don't like the cold but again it looks like you know having this extra layer of protection is going to keep them alive and then here we have zucchini and it looks like those all made it as well so everything here in the greenhouse looks okay all of our Farmers Market plants have been inside we put half of them in the Sprout house and we put the other half actually when we got home from the Farmers Market on Saturday we never even unloaded the remaining plants from our trailer we put it in the workshop because we knew it wouldn't freeze in there and all of the plants from the farm Farmers Market have been in the trailer in the workshop ever since the Farmers Market on Saturday it's now Monday morning so we need to get all of the other plants back out here into the greenhouse we're not going to bring you guys along for that because it's literally just us carrying about 100 trays of plants back into the greenhouse but as soon as we're done with that we'll be back to show you guys some work that we have to do in here today with the tomato plants well all of the farmers market plants all of the the starts are back in the greenhouse now looks like everything did fine where we had them so that is good so now it's time to get on with the project for the day our project for today is going going to be getting all of our Tomatoes supported to help protect them from the wind and to help give them some extra strength as they start to grow tall we actually use a system where we secure each tomato plant up one single string all the way up to the top of the greenhouse and then we continue to attach that tomato plant to that string all summer long in the garden we use just like a trellis we use a cattle panel and as the Tomato grows up we just attach it to that where we can to help hold it up but in the greenhouse like Sarah said just a single string and then we do we call we do what's called suckery in the Tomato which means we pinch off all of the sucker branches as it grows up and by getting rid of those sucker branches it allows for better air circulation to prevent the growth of different viruses and also keeps the plants healthier in here so that they don't attract pests now we use this same system last year here when we did our very first tomato plants in the greenhouse last year we just did a few plants this year we're doing about almost 30 plants in here by the end of the season last year Our tomato plants were grown up all the way into the purlins of the uh greenhouse and I was actually having to use a ladder to go pick some of the tomatoes off the top once we got to the end of the season it was actually pretty spectacular to see it was pretty amazing so this year we need to plan for that to occur again there are some things that we need to do in preparation for that this year because like Kevin said we've expanded the amount of tomatoes that we're going to be growing in here so we need to expand all the like hardware and everything that we're going to be using so that's what we're going to be starting with so here toward the front of the greenhouse you can see Tomatoes here and then up above you can see that we have attached a pole a metal pole that's like a piece of metal conduit to the top of the purlins here in the greenhouse we have one that runs this way along this row of pots and then we have one on the other side that runs along the other row of pots and we have those already in place from where we grew tomatoes last year but they stop right about here so we basically need to do the same thing down on this end so that we can do all of these Tomatoes this year and keep them all safe knowing that soon we're gonna have to start opening this side we really do need some protection for these plants and something to help support them because this spring has been so windy 20 to 30 mile an hour gusts are not out of the norm for this spring so we need these plants to be safe so let's get started by putting I found some extra pieces of pipe this is just extra that was left over from when we built the greenhouse I'm going to attach this up top and then we'll be able to get started actually attaching the tomatoes to the poles [Music] thank you [Music] and actually come toward you a little bit more on that on your end there I think that's pretty good where you're at okay all right now that I've got this first pull up here the way we keep these up here is with zip ties now it's important to first of all make sure your Greenhouse is strong enough that it can hold the weight of these tomatoes growing ours is um and then also make sure you you want to have your pole on top of your purlins here not underneath because if you put it underneath then all your weight really all your strength is just however strong your zip ties are this way by having it on top all your zip ties are really doing is holding it in place it's the strength of the greenhouse that's actually holding it you're you know giving it support I like to put two zip ties at each joint like this so that it's secured tight and then it really can't move so I'm going to go and I'm going to do that where each of these purlins move and then we'll do exactly the same thing on the other Pole [Music] okay well Kevin got those poles up and it's just about lunch time for us so we're gonna break for lunch we're having salad for lunch again we've got lots we have lots of salads here on the homestead for lunch so I do quickly want to show you how great the lettuce is doing planted in the buckets we have them right on the right on the outside of the greenhouse here and we've added something new to protect the Brassica buckets from Bugs and from those worms that get down into your cabbage and your cauliflower and stuff so I want to show you those before we go inside I don't have to harvest any lettuce today because I have some in the house already from another day but I do want to just show you how beautiful these are doing now in the full sun right now those some of the leaves are a little bit wilty but that's normal with this intense Sun but we've got two buckets doing great our onions are doing great and over here you can see this little mesh topper here for the is buckets these are fruit tree bags that we have started using to cover up our crystalix tubs or our mineral lick tubs that we grow in you can buy these on Amazon that's where we got them they're just fruit tree bags that you would put over your fruit trees to protect them from birds or insects and they are doing a fantastic job protecting our brassicas so I'm just going to put this back on these come in lots of different sizes so if you had different size pots and then at the bottom there's a there's a string and you can just close up the screen the string and it prevents it from basically flying off and there then it'll stay on there it won't fly off in the wind and then we have created we've used those same wires that we use with the floating roll covers we've made a we've used two of them and made kind of an X here to help support them and so they don't just you know fall down on the plants all the time so there you go guys we just wanted to share with you what's working for us maybe it'll help one of you also now that we're finished here we're going to go into the house and make our salads I do want to share with you just real quickly uh the very simple vinaigrette dressing that I use for our homemade salad dressing so let's head to the kitchen real quick so we have these fantastic looking salads to eat today actually Kevin made these salads for us they are mixed greens from that we grew outside we just showed you and some spinach with steak from our cows some diced red pepper and some diced smoked gouda that we got from a friend actually so I just want to share with you a really really quick and easy vinaigrette recipe that you can really just take any direction that you want based on you know whatever ingredients you like because really the ratios are going to be the same no matter what ingredients you put in now all of the ingredients that I'm using today are from Azure standard I've shared with you a lot about them in the past and I buy from them because I can buy bulk things so that I don't have to go shopping very much and they've got great prices so with this vinaigrette first we're going to do a 50 50 ratio of oil to vinegar and I am using avocado oil today I'm not even going to measure as much oil as I put in the jar is this I'm going to put the same amount of vinegar today I'm using white wine vinegar but it's also very good with red wine vinegar a lot of times we use apple cider vinegar looks like that's just about half it's not as easy to tell because the vinegar is the same color as the oil now for seasonings I add some salt I'm just going to put a couple shakes of salt from the salt shaker I'm going to use a quarter of a teaspoon of garlic powder and a half a teaspoon each of Basil dried basil and Thyme you can put more in there actually because that's a little bit more than I thought I was going to be making I'm going to put a full teaspoon in there I have a half teaspoon measuring spoon and then normally you would put some sugar in here to sweeten it up a little bit and balance the vinegar or some honey is a really great way to sweeten this up but we are not eating sugar and honey these days because we're doing a low carb diet a keto diet so I'm going to be using some Stevia drops these are my favorite brand I'm just going to put six drops in there that might have been more than that but I forgot to count and honestly guys you can just put a lid on here I have one of these fancy lids with a pour top put the lid on here and Shake It Up and you have a fantastic quick homemade vinaigrette Shake It Up it's all finished we're going to eat that on our salads and then we'll come back to you in the greenhouse well we're back out from lunch lunch was delicious but now it is time to get back to work before we get busy stringing these Tomatoes up and showing you guys how we do that I wanted to give you a real quick update on something that I started way back in February that I had shared with you guys back then and that is an experiment that I'm doing this year to grow the world's largest and the world's smallest tomatoes so here at the front of the greenhouse you can see these two plants right here these are the world's smallest Tomatoes these are called Tom berry tomatoes and you can see that they are growing absolutely beautifully I've even got some blossoms on them already now these tomatoes are supposed to be small enough that you can fit about 10 to 12 tomatoes on a spoon and that's how tiny they are so I'm excited to try them um I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to use them for I would imagine they're going to be good in salads and things like that but mostly I'm just intrigued by different types of tomatoes and so I really wanted to try these out so let's go to the back of the greenhouse and I'll show you how the giant Domingos are going because those are supposed to be the world's largest tomatoes look how amazing these giant Domingo plants are doing look at how thick those stems are my gosh they are just absolutely beautiful plants they are about to Blossom as well and you guys I'm just impressed with what strong plants they are now I'm not expecting a huge crop of these giant tomatoes if I get a couple off each plant I'll be super happy but again it's just an experiment because I really do just want to try different varieties of tomatoes every year but you can see like this one this is why we're tying these up today this one's actually starting to get a little heavy and starting to fall over a little bit some of that's from days when we've had the greenhouse open and the wind is blowing but some of it's just because the plant is getting tall enough now that it needs to be tied up so once we get this attached to a string it'll be nice and straight up again and then these will start to grow really nice okay it's time to start stringing up these tomato plants we are going to be using this is called Mason line or Mason string it's a really really strong kind of nylon type of type of string we're going to be making a really loose Loop and attaching it to the base of the plant loose enough that as the base of the plant stem grows and expands the loop won't cut into the Flesh of the Tomato stem but tidy enough that it's going to hold it in place I'm going to go ahead and do that and I'll hand that off to Kevin he'll attach it up to the poles that are up there and then we'll use kind of these tomato clips to attach the outside of the Tomato stem to the string and attach it to that and that's what we'll continue doing the entire time as it grows now at the same time I'm going to be looking at all of these plants and seeing if they have any sucker branches and I want to just take a minute to talk with you about what a sucker branch is and why we're going to get rid of those now if you'll come up closely a sucker branch is a branch that grows in between the main stem and a leaf right here and this what it wants to do is create its own branch which will in the end create more Tomatoes but because we want to stabilize this in one string all the way up to the greenhouse we're going to remove these it will also include increase the airflow around this plant and keep it healthier now you can see that right below this Leaf here is a stem with flowers on it we want to make sure to keep those stems because this is where the tomatoes are going to grow the the flour will finish and then a little tomato will grow by each one of those flowers so as we continue to look up the stem we want to make sure that we don't accidentally get rid of these flower stems and only the sucker branches in the case where you have a larger sucker Branch now I probably wouldn't keep this one but I'm just using it as example when you have a larger sucker Branch like this you could actually pinch off some of these leaves and put this in some water and it will root into a whole new plant and you could actually put this in the soil and grow it into another tomato plant so if you're early in the season like now and you want more tomato plants but you know it's going to take too long from seed this is a very easy way to get more tomato plants for zero dollars and for very little time okay Kevin and I are going to start stringing up these tomato plants and get them straightened out and ready to grow through the whole summer we have these first two tomato plants already finished tied at the bottom strung up to the top and we have them tomato clipped to the string here nice and straight I'll just continue growing and as they get taller and taller I'll just continue tomato clipping them all the way to the top and you can see now that we've got it attached to this string they're very sturdy and there is no way that the wind coming this way once we open the side we'll be able to blow these over and last summer man we had some strong winds we thought for sure that our tomato plants which had already reached the top of the greenhouse by then we thought for sure they would have been knocked over and this Mason Line This Mason string did a fantastic job keeping it keeping the tomato plants safe and strung up okay so we're going to do this third one and I'm going to show you a little bit closer how I do this so that if there are any questions you just know and I'll just show you okay so like I said I'm going to make a small loop at the end of this string and I'm going to I'm going to put the loop right underneath right underneath this Leaf right here because it's going to hold this Loop and prevent it from slipping up the rest of this tomato plant also Tomatoes kind of make a bulb there it's called a node where the leaf is at and so even if I end up having to take this Leaf off because it gets too big and this touch in the ground and I don't want disease the the node will still keep it from slipping up like I said before I'm going to make this this Loop bigger than the stem because I'm anticipating that it's going to grow thicker and I don't want to injure the plant I'm going to make a double knot here so nothing special no special Boy Scout knots or anything just a standard double knot pull it tight like that and then this is how the string will be held there I'm just going to hand off the string to Kevin he's going to attach it up to that pole and then we can attach the tomato plant to the string with the Tomato clip so at the top I like to come over the pole and then I come back down you know maybe a good foot or so melt that string just so it doesn't Fray I put a little bit of tension on but you don't want to pull so hard that you're going to injure the plant down below these don't have to be you know like a guitar string they just need to be you know a little bit tight but I like to wrap around here just a couple times so it doesn't slip as much and again just like down below nothing special as far as knots go as long as it stays in place that's all that matters that's all there is to that now we'll clip the plant to the string and move on to the next one now that the string is nice and tight I'm just going to support the top of the tomato plant with a tomato clip I'm we're using these green tomato clips like this we've been using these for several years it just goes kind of around the tomato plant like that and then cross it over the string clip it together and then you can see this string is trapped here and the tomato plant right there will be held right there to the string and that'll hold it for the entire summer like I said before as this grows taller and taller I'll just continue clipping more and more tomato clips up the line so that it stays nice and straight and steady and sturdy we have 25 more to go we're just going to keep working our way down the row and then the second row until we're all done [Music] all right [Music] foreign [Music] perfect now that we have all of those Tomatoes tied up we can open both sides of the greenhouse with confidence to keep it a little cooler in there for all of the seedlings that are still in little pots because we really want it to stay pretty cool for them but it'll also be protection for all of our Tomatoes well having this job done right and it's weird that this morning we were worried still about the frost and now by this afternoon it's 75 degrees here in the greenhouse it feels like summer so what a crazy day from one end of the day to the other that's right this is the third Greenhouse that we've had from grower solution growersolution.com we just continue to be impressed with them we absolutely love them they're doing such a great job for us strength knowing that we don't have to worry about the strength of these Tomatoes hanging on the greenhouse is awesome well you guys I can almost taste that first homegrown tomato of the season I don't know if I shared with you guys last year or not but I brought I bought a waterproof salt shaker to keep out here in the greenhouse and in the garden with me last year it's in the house right now but soon I have to get it back out so I can live out here for the summer you guys if you're enjoying our videos I sure hope that you'll hit that subscribe button before you leave don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and as always the absolute best way that you can help us here on our Homestead is just to share our videos on your other social media so that others who enjoy this type of content may enjoy it as well until next time thank you so much for stopping by our Homestead take care and God bless God bless

Channel: Living Traditions Homestead

Views: 80,208

Keywords: Living Traditions Homestead, Missouri, Ozark's, homesteading, Ozarks, self-sufficient, homesteaders, unjobbing

Id: Fk96jP_U02E

Length: 29min 26sec (1766 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023