Support for tomatoes

[JohnWayne]

I have been searching, Trying to find the best methods for supporting tomatoes.

I tried Florida weave last year and could not make it work. I do believe my problem was the cord I used.

This year I thought about running cable overhead and dropping string down to each plant

Or-

Buying or making 6x6 inch crop netting and giving that a try.

For a few years I used bamboo teepees. 4 6 foot bamboo poles tied at the top with wire and the legs spread and lightly pushed an inch or two into the soil. Plant a tomato at each leg.

This works well for short plants but not at all with indys and longer poles really brings the cost up. There is also the problem of weeds you just can't get to in the center once your plants get to any size.

And so, here I am once again wondering how to support. If any of you have idea's for something outside the norm (IE cages) please share !

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZWBJH 12 June 2012 Tomato Support System
A few more cords were added today to support fruit laden branches. The tomatoes are absolutely free growing with no obstructions.There are 32 plants.

[defineaproblem]

I have tried fencing, bamboo, etc. to support a number of plants.
Last year I decided to recycle my deadfall. So I just put four half 55 gal tubs together with tomatoes in them together. Then started lashing deadfall together over them.
Used jute bailing line to do the lashing and to loosely support the tomato vine as they grew.
These were non-dem tomatoes and they just grew into the 10 foot tall framework.
Had to direct them a bit.
Looks interesting with lots of vines in late summer.
Took everything apart in Fall and will build again in summer.
Had a number of carpenter bees living in the wood.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by JohnWayne

I have been searching, Trying to find the best methods for supporting tomatoes.

I tried Florida weave last year and could not make it work. I do believe my problem was the cord I used.

This year I thought about running cable overhead and dropping string down to each plant

Or-

Buying or making 6x6 inch crop netting and giving that a try.

For a few years I used bamboo teepees. 4 6 foot bamboo poles tied at the top with wire and the legs spread and lightly pushed an inch or two into the soil. Plant a tomato at each leg.

This works well for short plants but not at all with indys and longer poles really brings the cost up. There is also the problem of weeds you just can't get to in the center once your plants get to any size.

And so, here I am once again wondering how to support. If any of you have idea's for something outside the norm (IE cages) please share !

Try a modified Florida weave. Top start with a wire. As the plant grows do the standard florida weave but also from the top wire run ties down on the main shoots that get out of hand.

[Cole_Robbie]

I had a recent thread on this topic with a lot of good ideas. I plan on trying Fusion Power's support idea:
http://tomatoville.com/showpost.php?...5&postcount=24

[FlyingZ]

Here is the system i used last year. Worked really well. I prune to single vine. You can use the same system and not prune by dropping more lines. The video is for Kiwi, but the trellis is the same design for tomato. I bought baling twine, 20,000 feet for about $30.

I've used just about everything except the drop lines. I would like to try those someday, but I really can't justify it. Everything I am currently using works well. I currently use round CRW wire cages, big box store tomato cages wired to steel T posts, modified Florida weave weaving the tomato plants into the rope strands instead of weaving the rope through the tomatoes, and using jute string to tie plants to an upright fence. My CRW cages are about eighteen inches in diameter. A friend uses five foot diameter CRW cages. I don't see the point because the tomatoes still sprawl on the ground inside the cages.

I think I would try the drop lines if I was just starting and searching for something to support my tomatoes. I've never really understood how the tomatoes are attached to the drop lines or since I don't prune, would I need to drop a separate line for every branch?

Ted

[Redbaron]

Love that Flying Z

[ddsack]

I think I would try the drop lines if I was just starting and searching for something to support my tomatoes. I've never really understood how the tomatoes are attached to the drop lines or since I don't prune, would I need to drop a separate line for every branch?

Now, I mostly use cattle panels repurposed from old horse fence for most of my raised bed trellis system, but I started out with a suspension system, and still use one in a few places. My beds are either 4'x12' or 4'x8'. Very simple, pound in a heavy duty steel T post, the tallest you can buy at a farm supply, and wire a 2"x4" board between the top of the posts. I don't have any pictures of the ends of the posts, but I've drilled a couple of holes through the wood to run wire through. I set the board on top of the post, and run a mish-mash of wire all around securing it to the post. Have never had one fall down yet, in 15+ years.



Ted, I tie off the original dropped twine to the plant, and later you can just intertwine and loop back in new branches for support. I find that 3 or 4 lines suffice for most plants, adding them as needed during the season. By the time I get heavier clusters of tomatoes, I can move them around to lean over an adjacent stem for support. I don't prune much, just some wayward branches.

These are some 4x8 beds, five plants per one side with peppers or eggplant in front. I used thinner top boards for these with no problems. The support posts don't need to be at the end of the board, in fact you get better support and less sag if you move them inwards. I tried using metal conduit, but it sagged badly by the end of the season. I like wood much better. If you live in a hot and humid area, you'd probably need to prune more than I do.

[RebelRidin]

I used the trellis netting with my thinwall conduit frames last year and it worked out well. I did prune to two stems with plants spaced two feet. If you go with the trellis netting watch out to avoid that cheap stuff out there. It needs to be braided nylon (no polyester junk) and UV stabilized.

Dee,

I've always used the T posts and boards across the top as you do. I even have the mismash of wire holding the boards to the posts as you do. I have always used either the modified rope Florida weave between the posts or used the posts as an anchor to wire cages to. At the end of the season, my plants have usually grown over the tops of the posts/boards and are growing down the opposite side. I've used so much wire in my garden over the years, I'm surprised AT&T hasn't been out looking for a way to connect to my system to improve communications in my area. I'm nearing the bottom of a 500' spool of stainless electric fence wire.

When you use the drop lines, do you simply loop the string around the main stem or a branch and keep pulling the string higher as the plant grows or do you keep adding drop lines which become shorter and shorter as the plant grows?

I've used drop lines for summer squash vines to keep them off the ground. They seem less attractive to squash vine borers growing upright for some reason. It also makes it easy to spot the frass from a borer hole with them growing upright.

Ted

[ddsack]

Ted, I tie fast around a stem when it begins to droop or pull the plant over to one side, tie it up on the board and leave it. Well, sometimes in the early season I may untie and re-tie from the board end few times, looping the string around to support more of that branch, or include others in the loop. I suppose the new strings would be shorter as the season goes on. By the time I have three strings, I just push or pull the various sucker stems back around other supported branches. No hard rule. Add a string as needed, or remove really troublesome suckers that won't stay put. Many of the plants do grow up and over the board eventually, though my growing season is probably shorter than yours. I like my viney wall of tomatoes, but know it's not for everyone. I like having easy access to all parts of the plant without reaching into cages. I use the sisal type hay bale twine for the suspended ties, so it's biodegradable at the end of the season when you cut the vines down. I often use sort of a "sling knot" on the vine which makes a couple of loops around the stem to spread out the pressure a bit more. I have an old industrial white 10 gallon pail that I keep my roll of baling twine in, along with a knife and old scissors and a pack of disposable latex gloves (doesn't take much vine contact to blacken your hands!) I'm out there at least two or three times a day anyway, so I can see when maintenance is needed.

[dice]

I use something made like this (gill net), out of 1/4" nylon tied
to a concrete fence top rail that is supported on recycled
concrete fence posts:
http://www.aircav.com/survival/asch08/asch08p11.html
(Use the prusik knot in the picture on the top rail; the pictured
girth hitch will slide down the pole.)

These will probably work for determinates:
http://www.tomatoville.com/attachmen...9&d=1281540957

It is some work up front to tie the net trellis, but during the season
I simply tuck in plants as they grow. Occasionally I get too much
plant growing away from the trellis to tuck in stems without
breaking them. In those cases, I simply tie a short half-loop around
an armful of stems from the trellis on one side of the plant to
the other side of the plant.

I also have some like this (although I used recycled concrete fence
posts set in concrete rather than conduit attached to a raised bed
with conduit clamps for the uprights):
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...cXNL1_h8xN5Nis

[Tapout]

I use CRM cages.

[Urbanfarmer]

We settled on cattle panels years ago and haven't found anything better for us since. From these two pics you can see we use them two ways: inline and circular. We suspend each about 2' off the ground, so we get a support height of 7'. Plenty.

They're bombproof and last forever. Difficult to roll into cages, though. But you only have to do it once.