- It's the last day of May
and summers beginning,
and it's time to plant, well we've already planted a lot of
tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons, aubergine
and I wanted to show you here a
a way of planting which saves time
in terms of supporting a plant very easily and quickly,
and I'm going to do it with a tomato and a string.
So this video is really all about planting with string,
to support the plants.
The beauty of it is that you don't need to tie
the string to anything at the bottom.
You tie it at the top just with a lose slip knot
to say a wire, I've got wires here in the poly tunnel
running over the crops,
but at the bottom all you do is make a hole.
I'm using a trowl and this no dig so
we've recently applied compost to the surface.
It's homemade compost and a bit mushroom compost on top.
And I pretty much delving through the layer of compost
to the soil below actually it's quite interesting to see
because I don't see my soil very much
cause its always mulched with compost
but it's enriched with compost over the years by worms
taking in the surface compost.
That's pretty much the level I'm getting to
to pop this plant into
so in terms of putting the string into the hole
it's very good to have a knot on the end.
And that means there's more anchorage.
There's less likelihood of the string pulling out.
But it's a very rare thing I find
so what I'm doing is I'm putting the string
in that kind of loop and root ball of the plant
is gonna go on top their,
so the knots coming off a bit the other side.
And that's all it is, there's nothing tied to anything,
it's just that string,
and then the plant.
This is a 6 week old tomato plant,
it was sewn 20th of March
and it modules its been potted on.
Compost is a bit lose here, actually falling in.
And I just wanna make sure this hole is deep enough
cause it's very good also,
this applies whether you're using a string or not.
Oh, this compost is lose, um
Is to um, to put in a,
in fact most vegetable plants
but certainly tomatoes respond to it very well.
You know that could easily go in up to there.
I mean it could go up to there
but if you go to deep,
you're getting into less favorable soil,
so it's gonna go in
about an inch and a half,
4 centimeters below the surface level.
And I'm pushing the compost down now on top of the root ball
with the string underneath it.
And you'll see the string is very lose
so all you need to do is tie at the top to get it
reasonably tight, you don't actually want it too tight
if it's tight-tight then it makes it hard
to twist the plants a rack
cause what we gonna do then is
just loop the plant around gently,
not not too tight and so you can see how the string
with these loops, looping the plant around
supports the plant.
(dusts hand)
(birds chirping)
Also, soon after planting or even during planting
if there's little side shoots, it's something to think about
because what we trying to do with the string
is to grow a tall plant with one stem
that's called a Cordinor in determinant tomato in this case.
And to ensure that happens, if you not careful you
you could have 2 or several stems
for example here, we have
a side shoot, they called side shoots
where you get new, new stems basically
potential new stems growing out of the axle or join
between the tomato leaf stem and the main stem of the plant.
This this is right up the top of the plant here
but you can tell this is a side shoot
and not the growing point
because it's happening below a truss
so a truss is potential fruit,
little flower buds that haven't even opened in this case.
And the truss below that is what I'm going to take out
and that's called side shooting.
So all you do is you, get hold of this by the stem
push downwards and that detaches it from the plant
that's for the compost heap.
And there's other little ones happening here actually.
It's good to do them small I think
cause then they taking less energy from the plant.
This, you can see this tiny one there growing
there's another tiny one there as well,
which didn't quite detach, so there we are.
So basically, the only growing point
the the core heart leaves are happening
right at the top of the plant now
and there gonna lead the plant upwards
and then we're going to gently twist it around
the string as it grows.
And you can do, very similar methods
and there's obviously slight variations.
But with cucumber so burying the string at the bottom
of the hole and then twisting the cucumber plant around,
taking side shoots off.
And also with aubergines but that ones different
cause you can do that with 2 strings
and so let's just go and have a quick look at that.
Now we're in the greenhouse and
I like to grow aubergines here
they do benefit from the little bit of extra warmth
compared to the poly tunnel.
And this is a method of growing aubergines
that I was introduced to by German students actually
who was here 2 years ago
Felix and it's allowing 2 stems to develop
so you can have 2 strings,
basically 1 with, buried the plant in its hole
we've a 2 strings we've knotted as underneath the root ball.
So therefore, we'd all go tied it
to one there and the other tied over there
and there haven't made another stem yet
to go round the string but
both of these what what you do is you keep side shooting
at the bottom of the plant
until about this height, let's say 20-25cm,
10 inches above the ground level
and then let one of the side shoots become a stem.
So it's a nice example of how side shoots
will become a stem if you let.
And then after that you need to keep
side shooting the 2 stems.
So it's not like a low maintenance work growing aubergines
cause I found over the years that I struggle to grow them
and I normally I , or previously done it with sticks like
this put a cane in the ground and then tie the stem
to the cane and then you're always wondering
Ah, what do I do about the side shoots
and its gets quite bushy and then the fruit hang down
and sometimes break the stem even or fall on the ground
whereas this way, they well supported by strings either side
and the fruit are hang down nicely and there easy to pick.
And just to finish off, I must mention the marigolds cause
um these are not exactly a pest deterrent but I think they
do help to um, make the plant stronger against a fetal deter
if it's, in fact there are a few here.
Aubergines are famous for a little white flies
in the heart leaves mostly.
But there are a lot better than they were
they got a bit pot bound and then there were Aphis
getting there Aphis is often a sign of a plant
under stress and that can happen if the plants got
trying to grow out of its pot and its got no where to go.
So once they're in the ground like these have
been in the ground for nearly 3 weeks now
uh, so they've got well established and the Aphis are
getting less and less but probably helped by the marigolds.
I can't be sure.
(laughs)