All tomatoes were planted last evening. This shot shows the 5 new caged slots. This year there are a total of 14 caged positions as opposed to only 9 last year. Each 3 cu ft. container got about 1/2 cu. ft. of mushroom compost. To help thwart another outbreak of blight from ruining the entire crop, tomatoes will be separated. Of the 14 positions, tomatoes take only 8 — the other six will be something else. At least two will be Cleome which gets huge and attracts bees. The tomato layout is as follows.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
O T O T T O T T O T T O T O

I put Os at the ends because in past years I have noticed the tomato at the end of the line on each side would suffer from something.  We’ll see how well this works.

Also note that the construction of these cages was done ad hoc on site without a square using mostly recycled wood.  Although things look crooked and not up to usual carpentry standards, the cages themselves are very sturdy.  Nothing penetrates the roof BTW.  In a few years when parts wear out I might replace them with cages prebuilt on the ground and at perfect right angles.  For now they work.  No one but me ever sees these up close anyway.