How do you tie up your garden tomato plants? We tried using 2 - 2x4s and a piece of electrical conduit with dental floss Tape for string. It works ok but What do you use? Pics please if you can. Mods - can you fix the spelling of tomato in the title please? Darn spell checker. Also can you fix it so we can change the title. The other sites allows us to do that.
We grow them in pots and just use the home store tomato cages. Eager to see what others come up with. Dental floss- how does it hold up in the sun?
The floss holds up just fine, fairly cheap and easy. Do you use the cages like the ones at Tractor Supply? How many plants per pot?
Hello I just found this new video that shows how to support the tomato plants with new plastic support clips!!
For outdoor tomatoes my dad used to wind them up a string, like this: How to String Train Tomatoes - New Way to Stake Tomatoes For indoor tomatoes he used to use bamboo canes stuck into the soil and supported at the top, then with short pieces of string tied to the canes and loose loops tied around the plant stems, like this: How to tie up tomato plants
I use single wooded stakes for larger tomatoes. Tie with cotton rags or twine. Plum tomatoes I gave up on tying up an let them go. They seem to do fine.
Indeterminate I grow up a vhf antenna with the green garden velcro. I've only run into a problem with this method with really big, heavy beefsteak tomatoes where the whole thing can sometimes collapse. It helps to use the antennas that are losing their gel coat and getting rough . I mostly gave up on beeefsteaks as I just don't get enough per plant to be worthwhile. Determinate variety I use a round cage made from concrete reinforcement screen. Works really well for Celebrity tomato. Plum and cherry I've been not pruning and growing on fence. Yeah, I get far too many tomatoes all at once but it's a lot less work.
I used to use the metal cages or stakes but don't like either (and I have way more tomato plants than cages). This year I'm going to try t-posts with twine and the 'Florida weave' method. Hoping to get the trellises up this week (zone 5b so only transplanted into the raised beds a few weeks ago). I'll take pictures once it's done.
Those exactly, one pre plant. We only have four plants. I'm going to try that dental floss trick, I have tons of small containers from the dentist.
Very good You have to get the floss that is marked as Tape which holds up better than the small string type.
We use a combination of things based on the variety of tomatoes. The Roma plants get the cages and if needed, fiberglass driveway marker with tomato clips to steady them until they bush out enough to fill the cage more. The Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes get really tall so we plant them under this A frame of livestock fencing panels. We snake the branches out through the squares and will use clips and stakes, if necessary, for added support.
I use this stuff along with metal fence posts. What I like about it is that it holds really well and I reuse it year after year. I'm currently on my third year and by the looks of it I'll get at least two more years.
Put up some Florida weave trellises today and am using the plastic clips with them. Not sure I really like the style as the t-posts aren't that sturdy in the stock tanks. I'll make them work for this year, but I think I may move on to cattle panels for trellises next year.
I used to tie them up to a stake. Last year I made big cages from concrete rewire and will never ever go back.
I just saw a video of someone setting up that same system. Doesn't look like that trellis material will last very long. The person on the video was trying it for the first time
Same here , I certainly don't over engineer it. I have always used strips of cloth to tie with , I was told to do so from an old timer. I guess the thought was the cloth is easier on the plant and doesn't cut into the stem. I don't have a garden like I used to , just a small one for the two of us. When the time comes I have no problem supporting the local produce guy.
The twine isn't heavy duty, so I'm only looking at getting one season out of it. It's actually sold as 'tomato plant twine'. I paid around $14.00 for a roll of 6300 feet, and already had the t-posts, so even if the twine only lasts one season it's cheap and I have plenty for years to come. I'm trying the same system with some of my cucumber plants and the twine is holding up so far (plants are almost two feet tall so far).
