In this video I show you the one tomato hack that actually works. It has worked for me for ten years now.
Are you tired of tomato chaos? Yellowing leaves, tangled branches, pest problems, and sad harvests? I’ve been there. In this video, I walk you through the one tomato trick that actually works—trellising tomatoes, string training and single stemming—and why it completely transformed my tomato harvests.
Perfect for gardeners growing in raised beds, containers, or small spaces. Whether you’re a beginner or just ready to level up, this method is a game-changer!
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DIGITAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
00:00 – Intro
03:11 – How this method works
05:01 – How a SMALL TWEAK in Zones 6-11 can increase your harvest by 30%
11:15 – Why this method works
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Hey Guys, I’m Brian from Next Level Gardening
Welcome to our online community! A place to be educated, inspired and hopefully entertained at the same time! A place where you can learn to grow your own food and become a better organic gardener. At the same time, a place to grow the beauty around you and stretch that imagination (that sometimes lies dormant, deep inside) through gardening.
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22 Comments
🌿 This is the ONLY tomato trick that’s worked for me year after year!
✅ String training + single stemming = more fruit, less chaos.
👇 What’s your tomato-growing style? Cage? Stake? Jungle chaos?
Let’s talk below—and tell me what tomato varieties you’re growing this year! 🍅✨
I'm doing the string trellis for the first time. My husband built me a trellis. So pray it works for me. ❤
This is my second year gardening so I am still a newbie but i learned so much from last year after staking tomatos and not pruning suckers. These tomato plants turned into huge trees with branches all over the place. I built “A Trellis To Make You Jealous” by Josh Satin and it was the easiest method for me (a girl). I used the same exact tomato hook as you used and are growing all my tomato plants in grow bags right now. They are looking good. The only thing i still need to do is prune those suckers before they get out of control. So thanks for the reminder. I love the fact that i can unravel the hook as the tomato gets taller than the 6 foot tpost. Love your videos.
Thank you. I recently decided to do just one stem because of poor out put the last couple of years
Great video Brian! I always love to know the why!
I set up cattle panels last season and kept them to one stem. The problem I found with that was the branches had a difficult time getting through the back of the panels. I would like to try your string method next year. I’ll need to round up some muscles for the job since I’m a Senior!!!
I actually found out that double stems works better, you sacrifice a bit in terms of the size of tomatoes but you get more fruits.
I'm a novice with this stuff, thanks for the hints and tips
Brian, would you please share some of the photos that your viewers have shared with you. If I ask my husband for one more garden project, this year, I may become part of the compost pile!!!! 😂 😮 😂
No reason why this wouldn't work for small cucumber?
Looks great. But my problem is daily growing season high temps get well over 100 degrees every single day for several weeks. I understand high temps over 94 each day will cause fruiting to stop with tomatoes.
Then, we have the GRASSHOPPERS to deal with.
Central North TX
Great info 😊
This will be my first time using a single vine method but I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to do it.
I can’t put a permanent structure because I may need to move it.
My whole garden is designed so things can be moved ( with the exception of my raised bed, that would require a lot of unpacking, but it’s doable if needed).
I won’t have any headspace because I’m using an existing fence as part of my fencing so my height is limited because I have to use shade cloth. We have temps between 90 and 100 all summer and sometimes higher during a heat wave. So I will sacrifice height for health of my plants. It’s all an experiment to see what works in my temporary garden here in north county SD.
Thanks for this awesome idea! Due to space, I need to plant my tomato plant in a pot. What is the height I should have the structure for the string to attach to? Would I need a R and a L post for the horizontal structure to attach it to?
I was wondering if pvc pipes would be a good option?
Thanks in advance, Brian!
It’s fascinating how much variations in methods for growing tomatoes are out there. Most of them equally valid. Over at The Millennial Gardner there was a discussion about NOT pruning tomatoes, at Epic Gardening they busted the myth of planting young tomatoes deep (it made no difference in yield how deep or shallow you plant them). Where I live there’s this tradition of always putting some kind of “roof” over tomatoes so they don’t get wet when it’s raining (never did that myself and so far had no real mildew problems) I remember seeing a photograph of a gigantic Japanese tomato plant : it was already a few years old and kept on growing and expanding fanwise horizontally at about 2 meters height.
Hooks are okay… but the rollers to me are so much more effective. You give them a pinch and it's so easy to let them lean down slowly. This totally transforms your toms tho. Totally. One square foot is all you need for each plant.
Now I know what to do with all the tomatoes I started and the frame from my old gazebo! 😅 Thank you for this detailed video. Much appreciated.👏🌱🍅
This so awesome Brian.
Wish I'd known it when I had a garden and even when my mom had hers.
What money time & stress it saves with an actual harvest in the end. I've forwarded this to anyone who may be gardening
Your geraniums behind you at the end of your video are stunning!
Too much trouble.
I would need to do the coil method but I do have 1 concern. Part of the caution of watering your tomatoes by hand is splash back onto your plants. The splash back could transfer desease or pest from your soil. Coiling the plant, which would touch your soil, wouldn't you be at a higher risk for desease/pest transfer?
I currently use the Florida weave.
Last year was the first year I built a trellis and I had amazing tomato plants with great yields. Should be planting in North West Michigan at the end of the month! Happy planting everyone and thanks for all the info!
This is great for most indeterminant binding type tomatoes, but Romas, especially the determinant kind want to be a bush. You have to be careful with your varieties of tomatoes because pruning them will stunt them. If they are not the right type of tomato you have to be careful not ultimatum want to climb the structure and certainly with cherry tomatoes it will work, but some varieties don’t like to be pruned and they don’t put out many leaves at all so be careful with which variety of tomato you’re doing this with.