Truss support?

[b54red]

Has anyone ever used arch supports or J hooks or both to support the tomato trusses? If so which works best or what is the best way to use them? I lost a lot of fruit last year to broken trusses and badly kinked trusses. I tried tying them but found with my arthritis it was usually too difficult to accomplish successfully. I would estimate I lost over 20% of my early fruit to this problem. Any helpful experienced advice would be appreciated. One site said the arches were for trusses before fruit set and to use J hooks after fruit set. I watched a video and the guy just said use the arches placed on the truss stem while it was young but didn't mention using J hooks.

Bill

[JamesL]

Bill,
I has to look both of those up. Never heard of either one! I just run extra lines of tomato twine from the top of my cages down. Put the lines in at season start and they just hang around until I need them. Use the extra lines with the generic tomato clips to support the trusses.
Putting the lines in is a bit of a pain, but once in, the clips snap onto the line real easy.
You can get 1000 of them from Farmtek for the same price as Johnny's 500.
http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Tomato-Clips-Bag-000/dp/B00BTYOT9E/ref=sr_1_1?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230929&sr=1-1&keywords=tomato+clips

[bower]

Bill,
I don't know arches or J hooks either, but if tying is a problem you might look for a product called "foam rope". It has a wire core surrounded by thick 'foam' padding, is easily hooked or bent into custom shapes for fruit support, and has a 'gentle' quality ie no abrasions to the plant.

I have tried a lot of different truss supports in the last couple of years - various wires, ropes etcetera. The foam rope is really primo. I am on my 3rd year now re-using the same pieces - I fold them up in a bucket and add hot water, soap and bleach, weight them down to soak for five minutes then drip dry. I see no damage to the 'foam' from the treatment, and the wire has remained flexible as well for re-shaping. There was another wire I liked as well or better - rubber coated I think and thinner than the foam rope - but it could not take the bleach treatment and became brittle and flakey, also the wire was prone to break if reshaped, so not a good value for reuse although nice enough for the first season.

Both of those products are regular at the Dollarama here, although I've seen them in other stores at three times the price.

Just looked online, found it as "Luster Leaf Foam Wire" on Amazon. The rubber coated wire is also their product and listed there too. Possibly Dollarama is selling a smaller package of it, but still a better deal afaict.
http://www.amazon.com/Luster-Leaf-Ra.../dp/B0026WGDYW

[b54red]

Bower I think I will order a roll or two and see how it works. Thanks.

Bill

[bower]

To secure any free end or make a loop it is just a squeeze to embed the free wire core end into the foam. I have a lot of trouble with smaller string myself and either takes forever or some days can't do it at all.

Hope it works out for you.

[ddsack]

Bower, somehow I have it in my mind that you do most of your growing inside in a greenhouse? I would like to try the foam rope, but I grow outside, and get a lot of wind and thunderstorms which is tough on wet tomato branches, especially when heavy with large fruit. Do you think the foam rope will hold it's shape well with repeated pulling and shaking in strong wind? Currently I am tying using the green baling twine which I buy at the local farm coop. A big spool for around $30 lasts me a couple of years, but the foam sounds quicker.

[bower]

Dee, The core of it is a wire, so it holds shape as well as wire does. The foam is plastic, so rain will run off it. It is very gentle on the plants, as long as you don't leave free ends of wire poking out. I find it best for supporting fruit, not sure how it would work for securing plants against severe weather. It tends to have some gentle curves in it rather than being taut like a rope, the way I use it. I use rope for the actual plant support - some fairly thick and soft rope is my favourite for that. The 'foam rope' is actually a bit too thick and clumsy for training up a plant, the total flexibility of rope makes it easier for that IMO. As regards supporting fruit with it during a storm, I would expect it to hold up well enough if you design the support with those forces in mind. You can shape it around a fruit cluster and then loop back and secure it as tightly as needed. I also sometimes just weave it across the trellis at the level where fruit have formed, and let them rest on it - if you were using a trellis or similar support a tighter weave could also do the trick for storms... I hope!

[ddsack]

Thanks for the added info! I mostly grow on cattle panel trellises, so just using the foam wire to help shore up fruit clusters sounds reasonable. Some tomato varieties are very flexible and can be woven through the wire squares with no added tying, while stiffer branched varieties need serious intervention to keep suckers climbing the panel instead of escaping into the pathway. I do still have a few beds that I trellis on twine suspended from a 2x4 overhead. Will give the foam rope a go.

[b54red]

Bower I found that foam wire on Sears website for only 4.75 plus shipping and tax but since I ordered 4 cans it was a big savings. Thanks for the suggestion. I read the reviews from people and they were overwhelmingly positive.

Bill

[bower]

Dee, it should work great for securing against the cattle panel - all you'll need is pieces long enough for a short loop.
I'm having to rethink using my 'second little pig' bamboo trellis again - just cleaning and inspecting this morning and it seems there's white rot on all the bottoms.

Bill, nice to know other people found it good too, and I'm glad you found a better price - the Amazon one was crazy expensive. At 2 or 3 bucks a roll here, it works out to be great value for me, especially since it can be cleaned and reused.

[b54red]

Bower I will have to check at some of the dollar stores around here and see if any of them carry it at a better price. If I could get it cheap enough I think I would use it for more than just truss support since it would save me trying to tie so much.

I also ordered some J hooks and some arch supports to see how they work and if they work for me. I'll let you know how they do. Thanks for the info on the foam covered wire.

Bill

[tnkrer]

Bill,
After using all three kinds, which do you prefer? Would recommend?

[Spartanburg123]

I use Velcro green tape from Home Depot. It's next to the Vigoro tomato stakes. Just cut out the length you need, and support the truss from your tomato basket or other foundation. See pic below of my supported Brandywines:

[b54red]

I love the J hooks on most of the large trusses; but some of them needed the foam wire because they were too far from my drop lines. The J hooks are really easy to use but you do need lines to hook them to. I would love it if they made a J hook that had the J on both ends so you could hook it to another limb for support if a line wasn't nearby. The foam wire works really good on those trusses that stand up and are far from the main stem. It is much easier to use and holds them more securely than tying the trusses with twine. The arches help a lot with those smaller trusses that have a shorter stem on them but you need to put them on early before the stem gets more rigid. All they do is give the stem a nice supported bend so when the weight of the fruit starts pulling it down they don't kink as often.

Bill