Methods of Training

[Sarah]

I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but does anyone have any experience training tomatoes along wire mesh or screens?
Are there any real advantages, or just more work?

[amideutch]

Sarah, are you talking about a fence line or cages made out of metal mesh. Also welcome to TVille. Glad to have you aboard. Ami

[Sarah]

Thanks Ami,
I am talking about the metal mesh cages, or something like a horizontal lattice.

[amideutch]

See If you can bring up this link. Has some good Idea's. Ami
http://forums.seedsavers.org/showthread.php?t=625

[Polar_Lace]

Ok Sarah,

I will tell you, what the law of vines and nature has taught me.

Tomato Plants are vines, ANY vine wants to climb in a counter-clock-wise position!

I once tried to trellis peas, (yes, even the pretty garden smelling ones,) cukes, etc. - Clockwise.

The end result was that every vine I tried in this manner would let go of the trellising ropes, cages, chicken wire.... etc.

If you want to try and start them to go to the edges of the metal mesh cages; tie a string to the place where you want it to head towards. Bring the untied piece over to the branch you want to start heading that way. Leave 5 inches at the end of your string. Cut String. Wrap four inches of the string (rope, twine) gently down the vine branch Clockwise this way the vines think they're going in the opposite direction. Tie the plant gently to the string with a slight tug. You should do this when they're young.
But you can still do it to older ones too.

HTH

~* Robin

[Sarah]

Thank you both very much!
Ami - the link was fantastic, exactly what I needed.
And Robin, your personal experience will definitely save me a lot of time trying to figure it out myself!
Thanks again!