How do you contain tomato sprawl?
Posted on June 30th, 2008 – 9:03 AMBy Robyn Dochterman
They are suddenly everywhere — all at once. The tomatoes are taking over. While that’s a very good thing, I’m rushing to keep up with the mid-summer growth of my tomatoes. I staked some, used wire cages on some, tried some new-fangled circular things on some. But I’m still on the hunt for the best tomato support.
How do you support your tomatoes? Have you had success with conventional supports? Have you tried something new that you like? Wire? PVC? Wood stakes? (I am trying plastic stakes with bungee cords for horizontal support on some). Do you grow them upside-down so they don’t need support? Or do you let ‘em sprawl and go where they want to go?
And just as importantly, what have you tried that didn’t work?
All ideas appreciated!
21 Responses to "How do you contain tomato sprawl?"
3/8″ rebar cut into 8′ lengths and pounded in with a fence post driver. We had tried using 2×2 tomato stakes but after a year or so they would splinter and break off at the bottom,(a real pain in the hinder to dig out) and finally struck upon this a few years back. I tie the vines on with baling twine ( breaks down in the composter) about every 8″ or so ( or as needed).
Debw, thanks for sharing how you handle tomatoes. Do you have any problems with the twine either slipping or cutting into the tomato stems?
My first year, I bought cheap metal cages from Menards ($1.99). By the end of the summer, most of the welds had come loose under the weight of the plant.
My second year in the garden, I bought some heavy duty coated-wire cages from Bachman’s ($14.99). The worked well until about late August. The plants were one good storm away from falling over, so I staked the cages. They worked great after that.
Oh silly tomato, stop bullying my basil….
I have 5 cages up, three are holding strong but the other two look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I have tried twine but it amputated branches. I am looking forward to reading other suggestions because I am at a loss too!
I tried the metal cage supports many years ago but for the last several, I’ve made teepee’s from long, strong wooden dowels, tie with twine at the top and tie the plants as needed. There is a green plastic stretchy roll of stuff you can get that’s not as harsh on the vines as twine.
I made some from wire mesh used for concrete, each one is a different number of squares so I can fit them into each other at the end of the season.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete_ketcham/253920015/
You can sorta see the cage with the cherry tomato, I’ve never had any issues with the weight of the plant, although I did have to stake one down after a windstorm last year.
My favorite supports so far are similar to the ones Pete made. But it never occurred to me to make them different sizes so they’d fit together for storage. Part of my problem (okay, I have several problems) is that I have 35 tomato plants, so I’d have to build a barn to store these all in. And those metal ones like to try to poke my eyes out, too.
Robyn what happened to the plastic ones you tried last year?
http://ww3.startribune.com/blogs/greengirls/2007/06/28/cage-fan/
The love affair I had with the plastic ones is over, Jaime. By August, burly tomatoes popped off those plastic arms like they were Barbi arms and legs. Which is not to say I’m not using them again this year. I ran out of other options!
I use the heavy duty cages with rebar pounded in on one side of the cage–the cage leans on the rebar, the tomato leans on the cage and it all stays upright. Should be interesting when I need to stake my heirlooms in a whiskey barrel. I forgot to determine if there’s a hole in the bottom of the barrel before filling it with 25 pounds of soil–I assume so but will figure it out when one of the plants starts leaning.
I use wire mesh ones too. I use a little rebar and roll wire to stake them down if need be. I just stack them in the garden in the winter. A roll of it at menards is turbo cheap. Then you just need a snips and a pair of gloves to bend them into shape.
Just out of curiosity, Jeff, how much would turbo cheap be, do you suppose? And what kind of snips do I need to cut that stuff? Is that the stuff that’s all rusty when you buy it? Thanks.
Tin snips might do it, but I had to use bolt cutters on mine, it come’s pre-rusted.
lowes.com has 50′ for 42$.
I use three to four 1/2″ square wooden stakes per plant. This forces me to select 3-4 strong stems and prune. I use regular twine to tie them to the stakes. Thanks for the reminder to do this garden task! My maters are finally big enough!
This year I tried two in buckets upside down and they have been doing the best of all my tomatoes so far. I am also trying to train 4 up twine with the t-pee supports. With those they are growing well but I am unsure of how much of the suckers to break off and when do I start leaving branches to grow actual tomatoes. I am also doing three traditional ones in heavy duty cages. Last but not least one in a pot of straight up manure. That one is also doing really well but I think that I am going to have to eventualy stake it/tie it to a fence or something. Any suggestions about training up twine would be helpful. So far, I like the tomatoes in the bucket best.
My nice old lady neighbor gave me two pieces of advice about staking tomatoes: never place the plant against metal, and always use cut-up nylons instead of twine.
She has since passed away, but I am now the sheepish owner of a bag full of a variety of nylon strips in black, nude, and white. And the tomatoes have never looked better.
T think the key to what you tie them up with is that it shouldn’t be tied very tight if it doesn’t stretch ( like the nylons). I use baling twine ( comes in a HUGE spool), not the thinner twine sold in the harware store, tie a loop around the vine leaving an inch or so of expansion room and then tie off to the stake. I haven’t had any casualties as they can sway in the breezes but do not go very far.
Those WWII ladies had hundreds of uses for nylons. Some gardeners even use them to hold their melons to a trellis!
I have a 6′ wire fence on the outside of the garden. I plant the tomatoes three to four feet apart on the inside of the garden in coffee cans, then put up more T-posts and attach a 4′ wire fence on the inside of that with only 12″ between both fences. When the tomatoes start to vine, I weave them in/out of the wire daily, going up as much as possible versus vertical. I have had plants reach over the top of the 6′ outside fence (mostly cherry varieties.) When it is time to pick, I insert my hand between the wire mesh and do hand-over-hand on the 4′ side until they reach the top. I’ve had much success with keeping good airflow to keep disease at bay since the bottom leaves can be trimmed up off the ground. Also, the coffee can makes a great watering basin directly to the roots. The next year I will plant on a different fence line to keep disease in check as well. My tomatoes have always been very prolific and seem to ripen faster this way. Also, eliminates the need every year to track down more panty hose, eliminates the “leaning tower of Pisa” issues, and storage is just rolling up the inside fence and leaving right in the garden until next spring. Works for me!!
I’m strung mine up this year! I’ll be posting about it on Thursday with pictures.
I’m a cage and stake gal. I use rebar stakes surrounded by cages and use green twist-ties to pull in the plants as they grow to keep them controlled. This allows me to keep several tomato plants in one 6×8 raised bed as well. I use two of the tallest stakes for the Sweet 100 as that always gets out of control the most. This has worked wonders for me year after year, and I keep the twist-ties to re-use for next year. I may try for making my own larger cages for the Sweet 100 and larger indeterminates next year, and repurpose the purchased ones for my vertical squash plants, but otherwise my method always works great for me.
Greengirls Jaime Chismar, Connie Nelson, and Robyn Dochterman are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
You can also send your questions, ideas, tips and tricks to greengirls@startribune.com.
Subscribe to Greengirls
Learn more about RSS
Garden resources
Categories
- Apples, Plums + Tree fruits (16)
- Asparagus (2)
- Beans + Peas (6)
- Bees (9)
- Beets, Carrots + Root veggies (5)
- Berries (7)
- Books + Resources (12)
- Chickens (9)
- Compost (7)
- Container gardening (6)
- Corn (1)
- Critters + vermin (21)
- Cucumbers + Melons (14)
- Farmer's Markets (1)
- Flowers + Grasses (26)
- Garlic (5)
- Greens + Lettuces (7)
- Herbs (6)
- Lawn care (8)
- Mulch (7)
- Mystery plants (9)
- Potatoes (9)
- Preserving (6)
- Rain gardens (2)
- Seed starting (16)
- Soil care (3)
- Squashes + gourds (1)
- Succulents (2)
- Tomatoes, Peppers + Eggplant (35)
- Tools, gloves, rain barrels + more (13)
- Transplanting (1)
- Tree + shrub care (3)
- Uncategorized (97)
- Water gardens (3)
- Weather woes (25)
- Weeds (11)
- Weekend to-dos (10)