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Re: Price Inflation

By: Zimbler0 in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (0)
Wed, 07 Jul 21 1:55 AM | 44 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 19646 of 60014
(This msg. is a reply to 19633 by Decomposed)
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Decomposed > They're also great for protecting trees from deer.


I'm pretty sure it was rabbits eating my baby cherry trees. And a baby blueberry bush. I 'caged' them and the cherry trees are doing much better. Funny thing . . . one blueberry bush I planted is doing well. The one I had to cage . . not so much.

(GirlFriend likes blueberries.)

Anybody know how many years it takes for a cherry tree to produce?

Zim.




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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Price Inflation
By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE
Tue, 06 Jul 21 11:30 PM 		Msg. 19633 of 60014

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Re: “Thats a boat load of money and I ca't help but wonder if ya cold buy a lot more tomatoes than the cost of trying to grow yr own...”Hm.That's an interesting question.

The cages I build are 5' tall and have a 6' circumference. Each roll of mesh makes 25 such cages. At $175 per roll, the cages are $7 apiece.

Do I get $7 worth of tomatoes per cage? In a good year, absolutely, at least by store prices ($0.99 per pound if on sale.)More importantly, these are durable, reusable cages. I expect them to last the rest of my life. If I distribute the cost per cage over its anticipated life (20+ years), it comes to something like 35¢ per year.

Home Depot charges $133.85 for a 5-pack of the cages to the left, "42 in. Heavy Duty Square Plant Support." My cages are 60" tall and, I'm sure, have a far larger diameter. So I think I'm getting about as much bang for the buck as I can.

FYI, I have around 80 such cages. I've also got a bunch of the square cages - but they aren't very useful since at least some of my tomato varieties will grow to a height of 7 feet. I don't yet know which ones. I'm growing 18 varieties this year, and most are being grown for the first time. With good note taking, I should know a lot more about the plants in the future and won't always have to use the big cages on every plant.

In the future I'll know more and will only grow my favorites.

This year, I felt obligated to grow every tomato variety I had since my heirloom seed pack is getting old. Next year, maybe its seeds won't be viable. That would be a real shame since there are some cool varieties. This year, I'll harvest seeds from the plants that are productive which should secure my [tomato] seed bank for another four or five years.

There's not much more to say about the cages except that in the years to come I won't need so many for tomatoes. But they're perfectly usable for beans, peas, grapes, and most other vine fruits.

They're also great for protecting trees from deer. In fact, I planted two cherry trees about ten years ago and was stumped as to why they wouldn't grow. It finally dawned on me that deer MIGHT be chomping on them every winter, so I plopped cages around two of the saplings and . . . whoosh, they finally took off. These big cages are handy things.





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