August 30, 2021

Tomatoes as Ground Cover (?)

I have a lot of volunteer cherry tomatoes this year. And most of them, I've just let grow. It's been nice to get the extra tomatoes and interesting to observe how they do in their different places. I have one bed that contained fall and winter veggies, but the cherry toms took over once everything was harvested.

A mounding mass of cherry tomato vines. 

The plants are indeterminate. I didn't stake any of these because I was curious how they would do growing on the ground. They've managed to produce quite nicely. They tend to sprawl out of the bed, so I lay the vines back over the plants to keep the aisles clear. They've done so well, that I began to wonder if I could use them as ground cover somewhere. I had just the place, too. 

Ridge on the right and the ground dips above the ridge.

The above photo was taken down in our woods, in the goat browse. Our land is a series of ridges descending toward the back of the property, and some of the ridges have a dip in the uphill side, kinda like a very shallow swale. Were they deliberately made that way? I have no idea. But when it rains, these dips catch and hold water fairly well. They aren't very deep and they are only roughly level, so with some improvement, I think they would make nice swales. 

For my tomato experiment, though, I was thinking about the ridges. Years ago, I placed logs and branches just below the ridges to help catch runoff and slow erosion. Much of that has settled over the years and needs more added, but I've also been wondering about planting something on the top of the ridges. Dan has taken out a number of dead or old trees, so the ridge here receives quite a bit of sun. The cherry tomatoes don't seem to mind partial shade, so this became the spot for my experiment.

Downside of a ridge with my dead wood barrier.

 I chose spots where the soil was bare and then scattered the seeds.

Tomato pulp from making tomato sauce.

The first time I tried this, I just left them scattered on the ground. When I came back a couple of days later, something had eaten them! Birds? Squirrels? Chipmunks? Opossums? Skunks? Could have been any of the above. This time I covered them with soil that I scraped up from the natural swales.

Maybe these dips can be dug out into proper swales.

There are a lot of tree roots there, but any improvement on the depth of the almost-swale would certainly help.

Tomato seeds covered with forest topsoil.

To protect the soil from washing in heavy rain, I mulched it with leaves.

Will it work? Time will tell. Likely, it won't grow until next year. I think it would be neat to see the ridge covered with sprawling tomato plants. They would provide ground cover plus food for wildlife and us too. Best of all, the goats don't eat tomato plants, so this may work very well. 

29 comments:

W. said...

Sorry, but I think it's way too shady for tomatoes to do well. They will likely be scrawny things without many tomatoes.

Joy said...
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Joy said...

Well, it is an experiment, time will tell. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Ed said...

We always seem to get a lot of volunteer tomatoes in our garden and if left alone, they almost always produce fruit.

I am reminded of one time hiking to the base of a cliff along the Buffalo River. There, growing from a crack in a giant bolder in late December was a tomato plant with ripe tomatoes on it. A tomato never tasted so good.

Michelle said...

I'm surprised that goats won't eat tomato plants, as the black-tailed deer here eat them.

Henny Penny said...

What a neat idea. Hope it works. Funny, I have had lots of cherry tomato plants this summer too. Mine are not as pretty and healthy as yours. I found several tomato plants growing in different places around the yard and moved them all to the garden and all turned out to be cherry tomatoes. They sure do grow like vines.

Leigh said...

W, it does get sun. And I figure it will do as well as the other cherry toms in partial sun. As Joy, said, it's an experiment, not intended for tomato production as to help contain soil erosion.

Leigh said...

Ed, that's pretty amazing. I wonder if someone left a bit of sandwich with tomato on it. Or maybe a passing bird? Always interesting things to discover on hikes.

Leigh said...

Michelle, my goats are probably fussier than your deer, on account of being spoiled. :)

Leigh said...

Henny, I have so much seed from pulp and over-ripe tomatoes that I figured why not? This particular (Matt's Wild Cherry) is supposed to be particularly "hardy" and prolific. Last year, I found that they could even take a light frost. Now, I'm wondering if they might make a good replacement for all the horse nettle growing in some of our paddocks. Both are nightshades, so it's possible the tomatoes would perform the same function but without the painful thorns.

Rosalea said...

Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Hope this works. It will be fun to see how this progresses. Love experiments, and trying new things.

Leigh said...

Rosalea, at least I feel better about trying to do something productive with all those seeds. :)

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Leigh, in the Central Valley of California where they grow large acreages of tomatoes, they effectively function as groundcover as they sprawl, so I do not see (other than water) why such a concept would not work. At least worth trying!

Ed said...

Since it is a popular spot to hike too and where we were sitting is the most obvious and comfortable place to sit, we've always assumed a tomato on a sandwich. I've hiked there dozens of times over nearly 30 years since that time and I've never found another tomato there.

Helberg Farm Stories said...

We got started late this year and I have been a bit out of commission (all the-abnormal-rains we are getting is reeking havoc on my joints and even the fake ones are slipping out of place - major OUCH), so I have not gotten our tomatoes up on the rack yet . The rack is taken apart every late fall, then put back up in spring which didn't happen this year. So the field fencing they are supposed to climb on is not there and they are all sprawled out and running amok. There are only a couple of problems we have found doing this: 1) It makes it hard to walk through the area (yes, we throw ours back like you do - sometimes they stay, sometimes not-LOL) 2)With them laying around, we have lost tons of good ones under all the leaves. 3) I cant trim them up for better production like normal. My normal is from the bottom up, as is it becomes a free-for-all on the trimming. 4) Next year we will end up with tons of "volunteers" (you probably already guessed this is not our first time working this way -haha) and not know who they are until the actual tomato shows up. 5) There are a ton of other plants that do not like to grow where tomatoes have grown, so if we dont get it all cleaned out really well, could be a disaster for something else next year. Good luck with yours! Thank you for another great post.

Rain said...

I would love to see that ridge with tomato plants, that would look so nice! We have a lot of ridges around here and eroding soil, we're trying our best to put fallen trees and old lumber in place to keep the soil from eroding more!

Leigh said...

It's amazing how plants get around. I've read that seeds can remain dormant in the ground for years and years. I think a lot of our unexpected plants are spread by birds. It's always interesting to find something new growing.

Mama Pea said...

Believe it or not, even up here near the Arctic Circle (!), I've had Matt's Wild Cherry tomato seeds winter over in the ground and sprout a gazillion little tomato plants the next spring. A good friend grew up on a farm and his mom grew a HUGE garden every year to feed her large family. He said she never had time to stake her tomatoes so always let them sprawl and "run wild." They produced abundantly and at harvest time, the ground was COVERED with a sea of red, ripe tomatoes. I think your experiment is well worth the time and effort expended. Even if you don't end up with a sea of tomatoes!

1st Man said...

You know, I've often wondered about just turning some soil in a random area of the yard and throwing in some seeds of veggies or herbs and covering and letting nature take its course. We will be anxious to see how this progresses. As was said before, nothing ventured nothing gained. It'll be fun!!

Leigh said...

Mama Pea, if the Matt's cherries continue to produce prolifically in the garden, it won't matter how well they produce in my experiments! At least I've figured out something to do with all the seed. :)

I know of others who do well without staking their tomatoes. One year I let my regular tomatoes sprawl without staking, but I guess because of our humidity, bugs, and local disease challenges, many of them started to rot on the ground before they were ready to pick. I reckoned I lost over 50% of them, so I've made sure to stake every year. But these have been different. I suppose the smaller and lighter weight fruits help, because they don't drop to the ground. Also, the vines seem hardier, so I get more of a mound of vines than vines sprawled all over the ground.

Leigh said...

1st Man, you absolutely should experiment! If nothing grows, nothing lost. But who knows, you may find yourself with a huge bonus at the end of the season. :)

wyomingheart said...

Is there much temp difference in that location? Looks like a splendid idea, and makes a lot of sense! Goats don’t prefer them... that’s interesting! Please keep us updated on this project! Thanks, Leigh!

Leigh said...

TB, thanks for that tidbit! I didn't have much luck with sprawling tomatoes before, but after experiencing the cherry toms in the bed, I think it will work.

Leigh said...

Excellent points, and I think why I haven't been a fan of sprawling tomatoes. In thinking of them strictly as ground cover, however, I'm encouraged to experiment. One thing about sprawling cherry tomatoes, the fruit isn't as heavy as slicing tomatoes so the mounds of vines tend to be higher. For this experiment, I'll consider any tomato harvest as a bonus (as I suspect I'll have double or triple the number of volunteers next year!)

Leigh said...

Rain, me too!

I agree, the erosion is a huge concern. We've had so many falling trees and tree clearing in the woods however, that this is the first time I think I can try growing something that won't get smashed or torn up. Here's hoping it's a success!

Leigh said...

Wyomingheart, do you mean day and night temps? Or seasonal temps? There's a roughly 20 degree (F) difference between day and night temps. And I'd say there's a roughly 50 degree (F) difference between summer and winter temps.

About those goats. Now that I've announced goats don't eat tomato plants, I hope they don't change their minds and prove me wrong! LOL

wyomingheart said...

Lol! Me too, Leigh!

Chris said...

That does to be looked man-made to me, Leigh. Not sure if they knew about swales - there were actually a few implemented by the govt, during the great depression, in an attempt to create jobs. So I wonder if someone who worked in those govt swale projects, came back and did it to their own property? Or it was simply designed as a track for moving equipment around the property. It's too uniform to be natural.

It's interesting you should mention volunteer cherry tomatoes. I have a very similar patch, that came up with the chicken tractor, over winter. I'm curious to know how it performs in summer, after rain. As the hot humid conditions, tend to favour disease. I'm guessing you didn't have any problems with that, in your experience.

Leigh said...

Chris, I have to tell you this. I'm watching Bill Mollison's PDC lecture on soil, and he just now mentioned FDR's program in the 1930s. He said one of the things the work crews did was to build swales on farmland. Our next door neighbor recalled his grandfather plowing all the land here with mules. I have an aerial photo from 1968, where you can see the contouring work that was done. So it's likely that that's when they were put in, and now, 90 years later they've pretty much filled in.

With tomatoes, I mostly have trouble with late blight and anthracnose. The cherry tomatoes only seem to be bothered by the blight, although they are still producing like crazy! I can't keep up with them any more. :)