Help!

[Starlight]

I need some staking help big time. I have a bunch of cherry types tied up with a single string that I keep shortening up as the plants have grown taller.

My plants are in containers, on pallets a foot off the ground and they are ranging from 5 to 6' now and have reached the top of the structure I had them tied too. I took the heavier green shade cloth of my shade house, ran clothes line from main frame boards and tied the plants up to it and put cheese cloth over the top for shade.

I am still a bit shaky from my accident and with getting up on a ladder to try and pic tomatoes. There are a few plants that are almost 5' tall and are just now putting out blossoms.

I need to know what will happen if I top the plants. Will the suckers produce branches and tomatoes too if I top the plants?

Since most of these plants have wispy foliage and we already going to the 90's and up starting this week other than removing leaves from the bottom I have let the plants just grow as they want.

I can't put single stakes to hold them up as my soil only goes about a foot or so deep and with the winds we get, the stakes won't stay in the ground. I can't figure out a cheap yet sturdy way to stake these guys and get shade cloth up above them too.

Besides trying to figure out a way to keep the plants staked up right, I am worried about trying to keep branches from breaking. I have alot of plants that have like almost 60 to 80 blossoms and making tomatoes. I don't know if the weight of all those tomatoes will break the branches. Do I leave them all on or take some off, or stake those branches up too?

I hope I don't jinx myself, but this is my first year with such huge, full plants that are loaded with no disease and not even the first bug so far this year. I've never grown so many cherry types before and never seen so many tomatoes at one time on a plant so I am at a lose at how to proceed.

Also, with so many tomatoes on the plants, do I need to feed the plants even more ferts? I water with MG everyday but one, then run just clear water to wash out salts. I been giving 2 TBS of Tomato Tone once a month and 1 TBS of Epsom Salt every other week.

Oh and does this type of foliage have a name? I have never seen foliage that looked wispy and had little heart heart shaped leaves in between.

[Father'sDaughter]

Sounds like you cracked the code for your growing conditions!

I remember seeing a technique I believe used by someone on here. I'll try to explain it as best as I can!

They installed a post on each end of their tomato row then ran a high cable between the two posts. They wound a length of string around the cable then dropped the other end down and tied it to the plants. As the plant grew close to the top cable, they unwound enough string to cause the plant to sag and then slid the top of the string off to the side along the cable. This way the plant would be growing sort of sideways instead of caving down on itself.

Since yours are supported by strings and in pots, maybe you could you use a similar technique except move the pots sideways as you drop the tops?

It's amazing how out of control some cherry plants get. I usually only grow one cherry plant and it's typically the first one to overgrow its stake and topple over completely! It would still keep growing and producing sprawled all over the ground. With the heavy duty 8' bamboo stakes I switched to last year the stake held, but the cherry plant quickly outgrew it and folded down on itself. It was still one of the last plants producing toward the end of the season. They're pretty tough!

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Sounds like you cracked the code for your growing conditions!

I remember seeing a technique I believe used by someone on here. I'll try to explain it as best as I can!

They installed a post on each end of their tomato row then ran a high cable between the two posts. They wound a length of string around the cable then dropped the other end down and tied it to the plants. As the plant grew close to the top cable, they unwound enough string to cause the plant to sag and then slid the top of the string off to the side along the cable. This way the plant would be growing sort of sideways instead of caving down on itself.

Since yours are supported by strings and in pots, maybe you could you use a similar technique except move the pots sideways as you drop the tops?

It's amazing how out of control some cherry plants get. I usually only grow one cherry plant and it's typically the first one to overgrow its stake and topple over completely! It would still keep growing and producing sprawled all over the ground. With the heavy duty 8' bamboo stakes I switched to last year the stake held, but the cherry plant quickly outgrew it and folded down on itself. It was still one of the last plants producing toward the end of the season. They're pretty tough!

Thanks for jumping in and offering some advice. I appreciate it.

No secret code. I just followed advice from all the folks here as to what they did and now I have a jungle. Wish I would have found TV years ago. I grew a Black Cherry last year and it didn't do so hot here, but then I was still reading TV posts and learning. Growing all these cherries sure isn't like growing say a Beefsteak or a Cherokee Purple for sure.
I think I kinda get what your saying. I'm gonna give it a try. My soil is so sandy and under the sand is that nasty solid grey clay that you just can't dig through. I wonder if I put up poles and put some cement around the bottom of the poles if they would hold the plants up?

I tried bamboo poles one year and never again. With our heat and humidity the poles turned all black with mold and the plants caught it too.

Thanks again!

[AlittleSalt]

A lot of cherry tomato plants can easily grow 8' tall.

Other than the idea you already have, I cannot think of a cheaper way of supporting them. Building something like I built earlier this year would work, but it's a lot of work and the materials cost would be higher than your idea. I'll go ahead and post a couple pictures - maybe they'll give you an idea?

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

A lot of cherry tomato plants can easily grow 8' tall.

Other than the idea you already have, I cannot think of a cheaper way of supporting them. Building something like I built earlier this year would work, but it's a lot of work and the materials cost would be higher than your idea. I'll go ahead and post a couple pictures - maybe they'll give you an idea?

These look very nice Salt! Is there a thread somewhere with even better pictures of these? I love the red with white paint idea as well.

[AKmark]

Just trim up the bottom and coil the vine/ vines,as you lower the plant. I will lower each plant in my greenhouses about 5-6 times a season. At the end of the season the vines are over 20 feet but the top is never higher than I can reach. This is not only good for convenience, but also keep production steady.

[bower]

Since you asked about topping, yes the suckers will set fruits too if you want to manage them as a bush. It takes 5-7 leaves before they start setting flower clusters, so for a bush strategy I like to keep suckers from the middle of the plant. I pinch any sucker above my shoulder height because it will be too high for me to pick. Suckers from the bottom foot or two are often weak and thin for me, and more likely to pick up a stem rot because of being near the soil, so I take those out too.
Trellis works well for cherries, you can let them grow long instead of topping just keep training them down to the height where you can pick em. If you have enough room there's so many ways to do it...

The advantage of coiling them down like Mark does, you don't have to wait for those 5-7 leaves before the clusters start on side shoots. They just keep repeating every 3 leaves, on indeterminates anyway.

I found bamboo cages easy to work with in the greenhouse, but I hear you on the mold, it can be an issue. I don't want to re-use my old ones because they got white rot on the bottom too. Also they weren't great outdoors, we have it windy as well. I'm thinking some light lumber would make a better setup - 1 by 2 is light but for sure stronger than the bamboo.

[twillis2252]

Hi Ella,
Good problem to have. You surely have a great deal of cherry tomatoes on the way. Keep us posted on how you solve your dilemma!

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

A lot of cherry tomato plants can easily grow 8' tall.

Other than the idea you already have, I cannot think of a cheaper way of supporting them. Building something like I built earlier this year would work, but it's a lot of work and the materials cost would be higher than your idea. I'll go ahead and post a couple pictures - maybe they'll give you an idea?

Salt... How nice looking your garden is. Thanks for sharing the pics. You know you could take yours down, box it up and ship it to me. It does give me an idea for next year though. I'd be able to put some shade cloth easily over the top too.

Originally Posted by AKmark

Just trim up the bottom and coil the vine/ vines,as you lower the plant. I will lower each plant in my greenhouses about 5-6 times a season. At the end of the season the vines are over 20 feet but the top is never higher than I can reach. This is not only good for convenience, but also keep production steady.

Thank you Mark! I'll give that a try. I've never tried lowering vines before probably because I never had plants get so tall before and full. I'm so excited. I've been growing tomatoes for many years, and had plants and tomatoes, but nothing to really write about, especially after seeing folks plants on here. I am still amazed at what advice and help given here on TV has produced and I'm still learning.

Originally Posted by bower

Since you asked about topping, yes the suckers will set fruits too if you want to manage them as a bush. It takes 5-7 leaves before they start setting flower clusters, so for a bush strategy I like to keep suckers from the middle of the plant. I pinch any sucker above my shoulder height because it will be too high for me to pick. Suckers from the bottom foot or two are often weak and thin for me, and more likely to pick up a stem rot because of being near the soil, so I take those out too.
Trellis works well for cherries, you can let them grow long instead of topping just keep training them down to the height where you can pick em. If you have enough room there's so many ways to do it...

The advantage of coiling them down like Mark does, you don't have to wait for those 5-7 leaves before the clusters start on side shoots. They just keep repeating every 3 leaves, on indeterminates anyway.

I found bamboo cages easy to work with in the greenhouse, but I hear you on the mold, it can be an issue. I don't want to re-use my old ones because they got white rot on the bottom too. Also they weren't great outdoors, we have it windy as well. I'm thinking some light lumber would make a better setup - 1 by 2 is light but for sure stronger than the bamboo.

Awesome! Learned two new things today. Lowering plants and now which suckers to keep and which to remove. Thank you so much! I had thought about maybe some 2" x 2". One year I tried some 1" x 2" and I think with them being so thin they molded fast and bad and cracked on me. Of course I probably didn't build the set up I had at the time right.

Originally Posted by twillis2252

Hi Ella,
Good problem to have. You surely have a great deal of cherry tomatoes on the way. Keep us posted on how you solve your dilemma!

Thanks Twillis! I'll save bunches of seed for this years swap and for sharing on here, will taste a few for me and see if I find a few I like to eat and the rest of the maters will go to help feed some folks.

[AlittleSalt]

Star, I have no idea why I didn't think of this yesterday... 10 foot tall T Posts http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-3-in-...172A/202023993 lol, maybe I had to do it myself before thinking of it

Have someone drive them into the soil 2' into that clay. The post will be there for decades if you want them there - and it costs less than boards and concrete. Just use nylon or any other type of strong sting = 8' tall tomato supports.

Mine are not pretty or 8' tall, but here's the basic idea.

[Starlight]

Thanks Salt! That is something definitely to think about for either fall crop or for next year. For those I have out there now, I'm going to try the drop string method since they all tied up and spaced right now.

Took me staring and staring, but had finally figured out how to do the drop line method. Appreciate the help.