Can you use treated wood to make a trellis for tying tomatoes? My neighbor has his tomatoes in huge tubs. He wants to tie them and has some treated wood that he could use for trellis's if the wood won't harm the tomatoes or make them taste bad. dooley
Hello Personally I stay away from PT wood these days. I know they have changed the recipe for the dip and the chances of contamination are low compared to everything else we are exposed to?? It's great when you can use stuff you already have! Again,personally I would use branches or rip a plank off a old pallet into strips before I would use PT near food for consumption or anywhere near my well? If I was to use PT for veggies I would try to find older dry material. The stuff you get today weeps when you drive a screw into it But hey ..what do I know ...... ;-)
My husband and I have been using 1/2 inch rebar for the past 10 years. You can reuse it every year. Just my 2 cents.
I wouldn't use pressure treated wood for the stakes. Bamboo lasts a long time, they make really heavy plastic poles, and the poles I love the best are rebar that are covered with old hose. They are sturdy and tall.
He has some wire field fence that he says he can make into circles like those tomato cages. We were talking about alternatives last night. I wasn't sure about the treated wood so I told him I would ask. It's just you have to cut the fence into sections and couldn't use it for fencing again. But, he will do that. He asked if he should build a roof over the tomatoes to give them more shade but he doesn't need to do that as he already has them mostly in shade. My tomatoes are in full sun and may need some shade later. His tomatoes are looking good. dooley
I have tomato cages made from concrete reinforcing wire. I like them. And, I see you are from Texas. Arizona desert here. I plant my my slicing tomatoes under the mesquite trees. When the days hit 105 degrees, the plants will burn up in full sun. If it doesn't get over 95 where you live, then you probably don't need the shade. There's full sun then there's that blistering, desert sunshine we can get here in Arizona. Do you get sun like that?
I'm from Texas as of December, 2008. Before that I was from Arizona. I did plant my tomatoes in afternoon shade there. I may have to move them here but I have them planted in buckets so it will just be a matter of moving my fences, etc. Maybe it will just be easier to use shade cloth. It's been near 100 here for a couple of weeks now and that's true for most of the summer here. dooley
