Growing Vertically

Start with Healthy Plants

Each spot in the garden has the potential to grow a lot of food so we don't want any bare spots and we don't want to waste space that we are watering and fertilizing. We want a healthy plant in every spot and as close together as possible. When choosing plants it's okay if they have blooms but they shouldn't have fruit. A plant that has fruit at the store has probably been under stress. When plants are stressed they tend to just want to do what they came to do and get it over with and that will often make them bear prematurely. A garden is so much more enjoyable if all the plants are healthy. If you have a plant that is “just hanging on”, pull it up and replace it with something healthy. It will only bring bugs and bring the whole garden down. I keep extra seeds so if one of my seeds doesn't sprout then I can sow another one. 

 Here is a chart to show how close the seeds need to be planted using the Mittleider Method. This will differ from what is on the back of a pack of seeds or what it says on the little tag that comes with the plants. Using this method we can fit in a lot more plants which will give us more food from our garden.

Pruning Away the Unhealthy

Pruning, along with watering is a great way to minimize the number of bugs that get on our plants. We prune off any leaves that are unhealthy and any leaves that touch the ground. Plants naturally start to get brown leaves beginning at the bottom of the plant. We simply take our scissors and cut those off and discard them. The lower leaves are often where the bugs and diseases get onto the plants. By removing the lower leaves we are often physically removing the bugs at the same time. We will continue to prune off the lower dying leaves through out the growing season. It's funny how a garden grows. We wait and watch for the plants to get full grown and begin to bare. Then we can enjoy about a week of a lush and green and amazing garden. Then, the very next week, leaves start to turn brown and it just spoils the effect. Another added bonus to pruning away all the dead and dying leaves is, we can have that 'pristine' look all season. By just giving our plants a little 'trim around the ears', we can have lush and green and amazing, all summer long.

Before pruning

After pruning

Prune Away Some of the Good Leaves.

The leaves are essential but they can also be a burden for the plant. Many plants have 'suckers' that will create additional branches of the plant.  Tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers, all have suckers. 

 

Notice this tomato plant has one main stem.

It has branches with leaves

Notice how the top of the plant has a 'rooster top' or 'crown'.  Sucker will have that 'crown' as well.  Can you see the sucker just to the right of the main top of the plant?  

Interestingly it has a little plume or 'rooster crown' on the top of it, as well. That is because, it is actually, another whole tomato plant. That is why we call them suckers. In fact if we removed this sucker and took it to the kitchen and put it in water, in about a week it would root and we would have another whole tomato plant!  Near every branch of leaves on this tomato plant a sucker will grow. Amazingly, if we left those little suckers growing, they would get suckers themselves and branches. If each tomato plant had 12 suckers, (which is certainly the case) and then each of those suckers all had 12 suckers, in a very short time our 1 plant would have 144 suckers! I often hear people say, “I have a lot of tomato plant but I don't have any tomatoes.” All of the plants energy is going to support the plant and it doesn't have any energy left to make fruit.  If you look at the stalk coming out of the ground it is like a straw in which the plant gets all his water and nutrition.  Having 144 suckers is like 145 people all trying to drink from one straw at once. 
 

It would be much easier if each plant had its own straw. So because our goal is a lot of fruit and not a lot of plant, we will remove all the suckers and just be left with one main stalk with branches and leaves.

We are also going to remove all the fruit, good or bad, just as soon as we can, so then the plant can use all its energy to make new fruit. In fact, I usually pick my tomatoes just as they are beginning to get a little 'sunset' color to them and all my produce, when it is just big enough, so I very seldom ever lose any fruit to bugs.

Same tomatoes 3 days later.  I just leave them on the counter.  They don't need sun or any other help.  Just a couple of days.

Lastly we will prune away the weeds. Weeds are another way bugs get into the garden. Because the weeds are a good place for bugs to live they make a perfect springboard for the bugs to jump from the weeds into the garden. Weeding is the #1 reason for making a raised bed instead of a ground bed. Weeding is much easier in a box. We also want to keep the isles weed free so nothing can grow into our box. This keeps the bugs very far away from our vegetables. 

 

Growing on strings.

Here, I think a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Honey Due Melon on a string

Tomatoes and melons on a string

There is a wire that attaches to the T-Frame and run the distance of the row to the other T-Frame

A string is attached to the wire. One string for each plant.

Then the string is tied to the wood that runs between the T-Frames.  This open loop knot (sorry I don't know what it's called) makes it very easy to untie the string and tie it back. It's like tying your shoes but not pulling the second loop all the way through.  

The string is not taunt, there is slack in the string so the plants will lean.  This slack will make it possible to wrap the string around the plant (not the plant around the string)

Start when the plant is just big enough to want to tip over.  (Much smaller than the one in this picture). Then gently wrap the string around the plant.  Use the limb of the plant to help hold the string in place.  This plant will just lean on the string and keep from falling over.

Because tomatoes grow from the top, we will just wrap the string around again as the plant gets taller.

The tomatoes alternate.  The first to the right the second to the left and so on. The tomatoes are 9 inches apart planted in a straight row.  But because we alternate the direction of the strings (one to the left and the next tot he right).  The tomatoes are 18 inches apart at the top.  This is Jim Kennard's garden!

That means that in a 30 foot box like this one, using the traditional method, we would only be able to fit in 20 tomatoes, but pruning and using string for support we can fit in 80 tomato plants! That's 4 times more plants will equal a lot more tomatoes! 

It easy to see, that if our tomatoes have a straw in the ground every 9 inches, they will be able to absorb 4 times more water and nutrients than before! The natural result is, more fruit!

 

Fertilizer

We fertilized this garden with a homemade pre-plant fertilizer before we planted and then we use a weekly feed, once a week. Now if you are like I was the first time I heard about all this, you might be thinking, “I'm not sure my tomatoes need to eat that well.” Before you dismiss the idea of fertilizer, let me run the numbers for you. It cost about .22 cents to fertilize one tomato plant all season long. You can buy a tomato plant for about .40 cents. Last summer in my garden, my tomato plants produced about 35 tomatoes each, over the season. That makes each plant worth about 50.00 

This is a picture of my counter. This is after I gave away at least that much.  I have 25 plants and it has looked like that most of summer. I pick about 60 tomatoes a week, not counting the cherry tomatoes of which I have plenty.  We have tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner...as it should be.

Plenty of sun, consistent water captured near the roots,  starting with healthy plants, pruning, using strings for support, and nourished regularly.  This is a recipe for a very rewarding garden.  This was only a brief overview.  If you think you're ready to start digging up the yard you might want to get all the facts and details.  The is the book I used The Mittleider Gardening Course    (also available for download) or you can Watch it Done in a YouTube video  Happy gardening!