My container grown tomato plants were beautiful, when they needed staked we were chopping down an apple tree, so I used some of the long straight branches for stakes. Now my plants look terrible, I think they're almost dead. Does it have anything to do with the apple branches?
I don't *think* it has to do with the apple branches vs. some other type of stake. It may have something to do with pushing a stake into a container already full of roots, trying to tie up plants that were happily sprawling around.
Or it could just be coincidence, and a disease has hit your tomato plants that would have happened, apple stakes or not.
(Container-grown plants may need watering more than once a day. Can that be a factor?)
I put the stake in the same time I put in the tomato plant, and train them to the stake from then on.
I can't think of anything an apple tree could harbor that would harm a tomato plant. Did you punch the branches into the pots after you planted the tomatoes? You should install the stakes at planting time, so you don't hurt the roots.
Use that applewood to smoke meat/fish or in your BBQ. It's the best!
Jan
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