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I've had problems growing tomatoes outdoors for the last couple of years; mainly due to having to get rid once blight strikes [and it does strike, overnight usually].
During the growing veg part of my course, my tutor mentioned growing hers sideways, ie letting the plants root where they wanted to and training them horizontally along canes in the greenhouse.
I also saw a method of trying to contain the foliage and thereby preventing blight taking hold by growing upright, at a slight angle, and covering the foliage with a plastic covering and just leaving the last 6 inches bare so that the plant would still get watered.
So, putting 2 and 2 together, I thought of growing some outside, horizontally under a cloche [only coming off when it is scorching hot] and having the root ball under soil but outside of the cloche; so the tomato grows fully indoors but the rain can still water the plant outdoors [ie water can still get to the roots]. Obviously if there was no rain I'd water by hand anyway.
Am I crazy? Apart from the fruit getting dirty [I'd use a sawdust mulch as we get this free from lottie neighbour], and the fruit setting [insects would still get in as the ends would only be closed up when rain is expected], and the foliage getting scorched [there's always a downside].....any thoughts on this?
After all, in the wild, they would grow horizontally wouldn't they?
During the growing veg part of my course, my tutor mentioned growing hers sideways, ie letting the plants root where they wanted to and training them horizontally along canes in the greenhouse.
I also saw a method of trying to contain the foliage and thereby preventing blight taking hold by growing upright, at a slight angle, and covering the foliage with a plastic covering and just leaving the last 6 inches bare so that the plant would still get watered.
So, putting 2 and 2 together, I thought of growing some outside, horizontally under a cloche [only coming off when it is scorching hot] and having the root ball under soil but outside of the cloche; so the tomato grows fully indoors but the rain can still water the plant outdoors [ie water can still get to the roots]. Obviously if there was no rain I'd water by hand anyway.
Am I crazy? Apart from the fruit getting dirty [I'd use a sawdust mulch as we get this free from lottie neighbour], and the fruit setting [insects would still get in as the ends would only be closed up when rain is expected], and the foliage getting scorched [there's always a downside].....any thoughts on this?
After all, in the wild, they would grow horizontally wouldn't they?
.................or is that too easy?
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