This year's support system

[harleysilo]

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=5058

[Worth1]

Ok here is a picture of what I did to one of the tomatoes that shows basically what I do.
Of course you have to treat very plant as an individual and adjust your method to fit its needs.

You must also know that when I first strung the bailing twine it was tight but it will stretch and become lose.
Further more I plan on adding extensions to the posts and maybe more support along the lines as needed.
I have had some good winds here and no loss to this method and the vines are a lot bigger now.
The picture of the Kellogs Breakfast shows it small now it is about 3 inches across.
Attachment 446



Worth

[Dennishorlick]

This looks great. I'll take a cue from you and lets see how the season goes. I think, no matter what system you use, the key with tomatoes is always to be flexible. Especially because of the way certain varieties spread. One year I had so many stakes around each plant that it was getting ridiculous. Every time I thought I had a plant contained, along came another shoot which couldn't be bent to an existing stake without breaking. So, in went another stake. The grower tells me that you have to be a little "heartless" and prune to just so many canes so you get better sized fruit. He said the worlds largest tomato weighed over 7 pounds and thats because the lady that grew it left nothing but one fruit on the entire plant! I hope this method gives me a chance to control the plants a little more.

Dennis

[Worth1]

I have some in the back that are staked with this method instead of trying to pull up the vines close to the plant I put a loop around the whole thing and support a few vines at a time. I have also used homemade long hooks from tie wire and hooked one end to the tomato vine and the other one to the main stake.
This is labor intensive and the tomatoes don’t look as pretty as they do in a cage but it works for me.
The goal is to keep the tomato fruit off of the ground. So it does not rot.
I like just letting them sprawl but here where I live I lose too many tomatoes.

Worth

[tomatoguy]

"
The blocks are cool. Be glad the previous owners shelled out the $$$ for them and not you--they probably cost a small fortune apiece.
__________________
--Ruth"

They probably cost somebody a small fortune but I doubt it was the previous owners. The guy who lived here before me was a brickmason. He built the house, did all the custom decorative brickwork, the brick driveway and the brick fence and gateway. I would guess he picked them up surplus. Between his blocks and my surplus road sign posts I guess I got lucky on cost. The most expensive thing was the topsoil mix. I still have a pile stored up on the hill (maybe 6 CY) but the 60% topsoil, 20% coarse sand, 20% compost in the garden itself cost about 300 bucks delivered.

mater

[moulman]

I trellis. My beds are 6' wide, so each trellis supports 2 plants.
My trellis consists of a 2"x2"x8' pine stake driven 2ft into the soil at each end. Starting 12" from the ground, I attach a 1"x2"x6' pine board from stake to stake with galv. screws every 12" (5 total) Then I tie heavy jute cord between the 1x2's vertically 18" apart (3 total).

I plant one plant approx. 18" from each end (so they are 3 ft apart.) As the plants grow, I loop cord from one vertical cord to the other, looping around the plant. When they are tall enough, they are weaved over the next 1x2, then again to the opposite side of the next one above - so they grow in a mild serpentine fashion. Works great, and they are quite stable. I never have problems with mildew and such - they get a lot of air movement around the foliage.

Matt

[bigbubbacain]

I bought a 5' x 16' stock panel and supported it with T-posts. The plants seem to be taking to it so far with little help from me. Only thing is, I'm not sure if I should be tucking in the suckers or snapping them off. What do you all do with the suckers when growing in any of your other methods?

[ddsack]

I use stock fence panels for some of my raised beds, and I tuck in or tie up most of the suckers.

Some tomato varieties have very flexible branches, but others tend to be thick and stiff and will snap off if you try to bend them back into the squares, so I tie those. I only remove a few of the bottom ones that tend to snake into the aisles at tripping level , partly to get a little better ventilation for the base of the plant.

Yes, they will eventually entangle and you get a wall of tomatoes. Some people don't like that and have complaints about not being able to figure out branches from adjacent plants. If you plant alternating various color, leaf, fruit shape or size difference in each row, it's easy to tell what's what when fruit ripens. Might be a problem if all you want to grow are large red tomatoes.

If saving seeds, you might want to consider bagging blossoms because of the close proximity.

I've tried every other way of growing, and this is my favorite in terms of ease and looks.

[bigbubbacain]

I'm not particular about the way the plants look, nor about whether they cross pollinate due to close proximity. I'm more concerned about the health of the plants in general. Round cages don't do much to contribute to proper air circulation. I'm in south Texas, we always seem to have an issue with humidity. I feel quite reassured that this is your method of choice. Frankly, I just like the way it looks and I've had to do very little to get the plants to adapt to this. Thanks for responding!