0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here with Farmers Friend and I'm at Bountiful Blessings Farm with my dad, John. We're going to

0:12be doing a quick overview of the Clipper trellising system and how it stacks up against some other options and why it is

0:19the the favorite trellising choice of Bountiful Blessings Farm. Well, these plants are a little small to really demonstrate. We're in what is it? The

0:29end of April I guess or middle of April. Mid April. Mid April. But um you know traditionally a lot of people have used something like this a tama hook. I mean,

0:42the two that I'm aware of is the toma-hook and the roller hook where you have a bunch of twine, you know, and of course, you got to get this on here in

0:52the first place and then you've got to get this on the cable up there. Yep. And so, you know, you're either on a ladder or I know some people will use one of

1:05those, I don't know what you call them, pincher things to kind of put them up like a tra for picking up trash or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One of

1:13those things. But the point is it's awkward. And when you need to start lowering and leaning, then you've got to manually, you know, get up there and and

1:26let out some more string. So, it's it's just super inefficient. Let's go back for a second because you said traditionally a lot of people would use

1:34that, but I think a lot of people that are watching might think traditionally you would just use like a cage or some people might be familiar with like the

1:43Florida weave or something like that. So, explain just briefly like what the difference between that method and and these methods with just the the

1:52suckering a single leader that type of maybe maybe just need to cover. Okay. So, well, outside normally, you know, in gardens or whatever, you would use

2:03either a cage. I mean, we found cages were really good. Or, you know, if they're growing commercially outside, they'll do a Florida weave where they've

2:13just got a bunch of stakes and they weave it. But usually that's with determinate tomatoes, which only grow up so big and then they stop. But with if

2:24you've got a long season and you're trying to keep them going, you want to use indeterminate tomatoes which keep growing. And obviously, you know, they

2:34got to go somewhere. They get really tall. They get really tall. And so in a greenhouse you traditionally they have have trellised them suckered them and

2:47you know that's another topic taking off the suckers but um trellising them to to some kind of string and they normally had these clips plastic clips you would

3:00clip around. I could have brought one of those but anyway it's just not a very efficient system. So when we saw this system, it was like, "Wow, this is

3:13amazing." Because you've got this stiff rod. And you know, because these are just starting here. I can't really even move this. They're tight. But the point

3:27is, you can, you know, move this down. You can lower and lean from the ground. So there's no going up and down. Um, and yeah, and you only have two

3:43clips. So, with with a traditional system, you know, by the time the plants grown, you could have a bunch of clips on there. And then what do you do with

3:57it? You know, usually you're using a a a twine that is not compostable and so you end up having to take all those clips off. You know, they

4:10did try to come up with compostable clips and compostable twine. But that had its own issues. you know, they didn't compost very well or

4:23the twine composted too fast and it would end up breaking when you got strain on it. So, there's just a lot of issues with it. Um, this solves pretty

4:35much all of them. The height of the the clipper hooks, let's talk about that. It's important to get the right height because that that was the first mistake

4:42we made when we got them, you know, cuz basically you've got this rod with a a nub on the end kind of a a round. Yeah, if you can zoom in, you can see that.

4:58And that just holds the twine on there. Or they also I don't know if you're selling they have these little adapter things. Yeah, we do have that as well.

5:06Yeah, I haven't tried those. We probably should. Um, and that just holds the twine on there. That that's for getting the plant

5:14from down here up to to the metal. So, my initial thought was, well, let's get the longest ones possible. So, we don't have to be fiddling with

5:26all this twine. Just just start clipping straight to this. But that was just I didn't understand the system. Basically, you want this is your working height

5:39right here. And the newer ones have a little little uh flat spot there. So, this you want to be at a comfortable height for you. You don't want to be

5:50working up here cuz that gets tiring or down here. So, so you want to measure your your rods and you've got different size rods or what do you is is that the

6:05hook? Okay. Um based on the height of your your um whatever you're using cables or whatever. Yeah. And and your height. So, this is where the magic

6:20happens right here. So, for starting out, every clipper has one hook and two clips. And you know, these are replaceable. We

6:32need to replace these. The foam. Yeah, we've been saying that for the last 3 years. How Yeah. How many years have you been using those foams?

6:43Uh, I guess at least four. Okay. Wow. That's pretty good. Yeah. So, they need to be replaced. But anyway, so you've got your string here.

6:56And to start out with, it's not a whole lot different than anything else. You know, you it does take a little bit of learning because with the traditional

7:08clips, you you clip the clip onto the string and then around the plant. Whereas this is the opposite. It goes around the plant and then clips onto the

7:22string. I can't see through here. Yeah, there we go. Like that. Now, obviously, this this is too small. It doesn't need a second

7:33clip there yet, but um it will eventually. So, so let's just imagine that the plant is up here and this is your your your working distance.

7:49So, you have a a clip on here and another one up near the top up here. So, you come along, you you take off any new suckers, and then you just take this

8:07clip off. And then slide this one down with the plant still with the plant still on there. So the plant sliding down. And

8:17then you put the new clip on there. And that's all. And then you would move this down however far you need to. Yeah. Um and that's what you do. And so you can

8:30get into a real rhythm. And I think there's some videos on your website that shows somebody just doing that. And it's very fast and very simple. Yeah. So the

8:43top of the plant essentially is going to be, you know, somewhere six or eight inches or so above the above the top clip. Yeah. And then once it gets to a

8:52certain height, you take the bottom clip off, slide this down, and then this top this clip then goes at the top of the plant. Um, so you're not having to deal

9:04with clips. They're right here. You're just doing this little leap frog thing. And then at the end of the season, you know, to take your plant down, you just

9:15got literally two clips. And it's I mean it's take the clip off, the plant falls off, and then you can just put the clips

9:21right back on and then hang these up in your storage shed or whatever to make just again it's just no hassle with all the the plastic clips and twine, which

9:32you know, if you don't have the budget for the clipper, we do sell the biodegradable twine and the biodegradable plastic clips. So that's

9:40like a more affordable entry point, you know, but I mean definitely in the long run, this is this is going to pay for itself pretty

9:50quickly. Yeah. It's not like these are that expensive. At least last I knew. I don't know. I think it's $3 or so per per hook or something

10:02like that. So I mean it's not cheap, but like you say, it pays off in the long run for sure. So, so a couple other things. So, the first mistake we made

10:12was not getting this right. You know, we got some that were too long. So, you really want to get the right height for that. So, you pro probably would it be

10:22safe to say you want the bottom of the hook like mid torso or something like that? Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean that the higher it is, the better

10:33in many ways. And I'll explain that in just a minute. But you just don't want to be way up here because that's very awkward. Right. But the importance of

10:42this this location is that the hook rests on the nub on the bottom of the hook and that holds it cuz when you get a lot of tomatoes on there, there's a

10:52lot of weight. And if you're just trying to hold it up here with your clip, it'll slide right by the weight of the tomato. The

11:02bottom clip has to be at the bottom of the hook. needs to be at the bottom of the hook. Yes. To support that point. So, the second thing we did, the mistake

11:11we did, you know, if you're dealing with really vigorous plants, especially like grafted plants, if you're not moving this clip every week, the stem of the

11:24tomato can get so big that you actually can't get these off. really gets me all choked up thinking about it cuz it was uh it was a mess um

11:41trying to get these off when the stem is just so big it can't come off. So yeah, you got to you got to do it weekly and and if you do it weekly, it's

11:54super fast and super efficient. I mean, you need to be suckering probably just about weekly anyways. Yeah. Right. So, I mean,

12:02ideally in in an ideal world, you would be doing this once a week. So, this this small market farms aren't always the ideal worlds. How how long would you say

12:14it would take somebody to come through and lower and lean and sucker a a tunnel this size? You've got We've got eight rows of tomatoes.

12:26I mean, I'm going to say two to three hours. Yeah. If you know, if the tomatoes, if you've stayed on top of it, as you guys have found and

12:38a lot of other growers, we have a lot of growers that have come to us and purchased a few and then the next year come back and purchased a bunch of it.

12:46So that's a that says what I can't imagine why anyone would go with any other system for for market gardeners. I think this is the way to go

12:58hands down for sure. So if you have any questions about the Clipper system, feel free to reach out to our customer support. Check out

13:06farmersfriend.com. Look at Clipper and see if it'll be a good fit for your farm. Until next time, happy growing.