I am interested to hear people’s favourite support systems for their tomatoes, and sources for recommended cages if that’s your choice, please!
I use the biggest cage I can find with a very tall (over 6 feet) sturdy bamboo stick down the middle. Would also love to hear others’ systems…mine works OK but for the really tall/large vines its a bit of a scramble keeping all the tomatoes well supported. Oh yes, and the best ties around are your old pantyhose cut into strips (if anyone even has those anymore). Flexible and soft.
This old southern farmer has the most amazing and easy way of supporting his indeterminate tomato plants. If you want to have a look at mine in use the address is 1405 Canso. You can either come to the door or just peek through the fence on the Torrence side of our property. It works great for cukes and I’m even trying it for pole beans this year.
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I have a couple from the dollar store that I use. They are sold as three poles, but I bought four packages and then use four poles to make a square support. I grow bush type tomatoes in containers, though.
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What a simple and great way to deal with vine tomatoes! I’ve used a similar method with sweet peas but never thought to use it for tomatoes…or cukes or beans for that matter. Thanks for posting!
I start with the cages but I then add a bamboo pole (6 ft) for additional support. I like beefsteak tomatoes so they require some good support. I use flagging tape to tie the plants to the pole. It is all recycled material. The bamboo poles comes from the hiking trails in Strathcona Park which are used for ski trails in the winter. There use to be lots of bamboo poles abandoned after ski season. I think they are using plastic now and are more careful in recovering them. The flagging tape is from my days working in the bush and often reads “road location”.
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Thank you very much Barb, this does look like a very effective method. I will be sure to bike by and peek at your set up. I don’t think I want a permanent frame, clever as it is.
Cheers
Barbara
I use curled metal posts that are about 7 feet long in both the greenhouse and outside for my indeterminate tomatoes. The posts have a hole drilled in the top. Because the tomatoes in the greenhouse have a longer growing season, I run a string (gill net line, which doesn’t rot) to the ceiling. If they outgrow the posts, I can twist them into the string.
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Those curled metal posts look awesome… where did you get those?
We got the metal posts at Lee Valley.
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