Griffin Campus

When the University of Georgia Bulldogs step between the hedges at Sanford Stadium, the grass on Dooley Field needs to look perfect. More importantly, it needs to help safeguard the health of athletes who compete on it. Gerald Henry plays a big role in the latter. The UGA Athletic Association’s endowed professor in environmental turfgrass leads a research team committed to creating sports fields that look good and perform well to limit the occurrence of injuries.

We have already ranked the best tomato cultivars for stacking high on a slice of bread and covered the essentials of pruning and staking to tame those wild, vining plants. Now comes the gritty middle of the growing season — when the heat bears down and the battle against pests, diseases and plant stress ensues. Whether you have only just started harvesting or are already preparing for a second planting to carry you into fall, Georgia’s hot, humid climate creates the perfect environment for problems.

Now that we’ve announced the winners of the tomato sandwich slicer showdown and your plants are taking off, it’s time to address our first tomato gardening issue: supporting unwieldy tomato plants through staking and pruning. For the best chance at productive plants with healthy fruit, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension consumer horticulturalist Bob Westerfield urges home gardeners to invest in providing plants a strong support structure all season long. “No other vegetable comes close to bearing as much produce in such a limited space,” Westerfield said.