Great Expectations

I got a little concerned about the stability of the cages to support my indeterminates. So I stopped by the Home Depot to see what I could find to use as stakes. I wanted at least 4 feet above the top of the EarthTainers. The EarthTainers are about 18" high. And I figure I'd drive them about 24" in the ground. So I was looking for something on the order of 8'. Not much to be found at 8'. On the short side are things like T-posts, which are 6' long. On the long side you have things like EMT conduit at 10'. I picked up 4 lengths of 1/2" EMT. Cheap at $2.77 per piece.

So I moved the cages to the buckets that have the determinates and commenced to drive the EMT. The first 18" went pretty well. The remaining 6" caused the pipe to bend in kind of an S shape. I wound up with 2 S shaped stakes and 2 that are pretty straight. If there's a next time I'll have Pam hold the middle section of the pipe so it doesn't flex when I hit it with the post driver. That should help deliver all the force to the ground.



Tying plants to the EMT is a little interesting, because it's slick and the cotton strips don't have anything to grip. Very low friction compared to say a cedar stake. But I'm a geek and have tons of cable ties. So I put a cable tie around the pole and under the tie. Clamped it down real tight so it won't slip down and so far it works great.