What’s your favorite way to support tomatoes? 🍅👇
Ranking tomato supports from worst to best 👇
Flimsy cages just don’t hold up 😬
Square cages are a big upgrade 💪
Cattle panels + T-posts are super solid 🔥
But arched panels? Easily my favorite 🙌
More height, better support, easier harvest 🌱
What are you using this season?
#gardeningtips #vegetablegarden #growyourown #gardenhacks #tomatoes
40 Comments
Two posts some clothes line, more clothes line twisting down the tomato and clipped on for indeterminate and Florida weave for determinates.
We use the Florida weave method.
Traditional cages NEVER fall over. I've been using them for decades. You're trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
I use about 5 bamboo sticks tie them like a teepe uptop and guide the tomatoes up. Works amazing
You can use the cage, by tying them to two garden stakes. Grow inside cage until the plant is taller.
fun fact…those cheap flimsy tomato cages work great for smaller early/pre teen cannabis plants they will grow above and threw them when you don’t need them to protect against wind anymore and are easily removed in fall after harvest
The irrigation looks awesome! Can you make my yard like yours? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Tomato cages are garbage been using cattle fencing for 8 yrs now will last forever , i use fence posts making a row and grow tomatoes on one side and pickles on the other side .
I use upright cattle panels.
I have done it multiple ways incl. the Fl weave someone else mentioned, but my favorite
by a LOTis the "trellis to make you jealous" , as seen in a Josh Sattin vlog. The problem with using the cattle panels (and basically any other type of mesh fence of which panels ARE the sturdiest) is that clean up is a huge pain. Getting the dead vines out at end of season or even if you leave til spring in a cold and windy climate, it's still a tedious job, and looks very messy if you just leave them. The FL weave method I think can be good if u have a lot of determinates – I mean, obviously it's pretty good, the pros do it. But the paste tomato I've been growing the most of is an INdeterminate as then of course are basically all of my cherry and slicers. The wonderful thing about the "Trellis to make u jealous" is that it's pretty easy all around, but esp., esp. on cleanup. I do a slip knot at the top which I loop the end back thru to safeguard it, and at the end, u just undo it and then pull up the plant with other end of twine burried beneath the roots, and toss whole thing. Viola! It's generally also not much time, imo, to keep the twine wrapped around the stem as it grows and if you get behind, it's doable to catch up without breaking the stem. It's stronger than you'd expect with the bottom just burried (like, a few extra in. in length than depth of hole, laid or coiled a bit under the root ball as yoi transplant) and even if you barely prune the plant and even with storm winds. So far for me anyway. I then cut it so as to have a little excess in case I want to "lower and lean" later, although the extra up top can look a little messy. I leave a slight slack in it so as to have flexibility to wind it with stem as it grows and to avoid pulling out of ground esp. while it's new/soil is loose etc. . The ease of cleanup at the end us SUCH a relief to me after having used the panels for them in the past. Pole beans are even worse, smaller, finer vines all stuck all over it (even one's I'd tried leaving to the weather to break down are STILL there, 2 years later…) and I'm planning on doing ANY climbing thing this way from now on, excepting maybe using branches for the beans, in a T-P style, or up trees. Not doing pole beans rn anyway, too much Japanese beetle pressure here and I learned they bother pole beans far more than bush.Easiest way is the cattle panels raised supported by T Post. I use the 18 foot long by 4 foot high then raiseraise it a foot off the ground. But that requires three Post.
I use concrete remesh to make cages, cheap, cut off bottom ring, and push six inches into the ground, and use one three foot posts to stabilize them against the wind !
This will be the first year we are ditching cages because of what we noticed last year with late blight. The only plants that didn't get late blight last year, were the ones that didn't have cages, and were just laying on the black plastic sheeting we use for our rows. It makes sense because it's much hotter, and there's more convection of air right on top of the plastic. The plants closest to the black plastic were drying out the morning dew faster than the caged plants, and I guess it made them dry enough to prevent them from getting blight, even though they were right next to blighted plants. I've been looking for a way to prevent blight for years, especially late blight, and if simply letting the plants lay on the black plastic does the trick, that's what we'll do.
Tomato supports aside – OMG! I LOVE your gardens!! 😍😍
Did not like growing tomatoes against arched cattle panel. We’ve done Florida weave, heavy gauge fence, and cages. We live the cages. Just one stake added and it holds up even with our high winds. Choose the right size cage for determinate and indeterminate. Cherry tomatoes DO love a fence.
We bought rebar mesh years ago. I think it is 5 ft x 150 ft. current price at lowes is 169.00 You cut it in 6 ft length and make a circle tower. When you cut it cut in the middle of every other wire. This is for hooks to close the tower. You can cut off the ones on one side when you go to roll it up bend the others around the basket like a hook. Makes it easy to take out the plant at end o year. We painted ours as it is Rusty when you get it. We used enamel paint and a foam roller. You can cut the bottom ring off and leave the spikes to push in the ground. We still have a bunch of wire left over.
Great idea but, the metal gets so hot in the sun they actually burn my tomato plants. I converted to plastic with great results
I was thinking I’ll use my tomato cages for bell peppers and eggplants. And I’m gonna use cattle panel and metal fence posts for my indeterminate tomatoes !! I hate tomato cages for tomatoes 😂
Tomato cages do make a lot of good pieces of heavy wire for hooks and tree stakes and whatnot, which is good as they proved collectible otherwise.
A couple t post at the end of rows and weave hay bale twine thru plants. Add twine as they grow. Great garden btw
To each is it's own. Considering what is more financially less straining.
A frame
I use cattle panels. Roll them around a 55 gal. barrel . Bend and heat them with a torch . Cut and wire the ends around each horizontal wire cut off bottom horizontal wire and then stab the finished cage into the ground. They last for ever. Not the cheapest tomato cage but last forever.
Just bought the square one last night…going for 2 more today before they are gone
Love that tip to raise the panels up. I'll start doing that.
I still use tomato cages because they provide uniform support from all sides, I got the tallest ones and I spread the pointy ends a bit for them to better grab the soil. I often would either tie them to each other or to a cattle panel running between them, but usually they don't tend to topple too often. Cattle panels are great for cherry varieties, but for bushy types you risk breaking off the branches trying to tie them to a flat panel or leaving them to hang without support on one side
Best is lower and lean using "tomahooks".
Arching Tomatos? Really?
I use an arched cattle panel tunnel for my indeterminate tomatoes and peppers. Still deciding what to do with my determinate type that I was trying out this year.
So, do you need to attach the branches to train it?
Don’t forget Erin Valenti, her last words before unaliving are chilling.
She said: “ It is a game. It is thought experiment. We are in the Matrix “.
Instead of cattle panels that can be on the expensive side. Look into the sheep/goat panels. The only sidemen is they're a little shorter and the squares are little smaller. But at least in my area, they're a much as $20 cheaper.
The cattle panels are the BEST!!!!!❤
Then push it in the ground weirdo
I like the idea of raising the up. I’m going to do this with my snap peas. 🫛
Depends on size of the tomato plants. I traditionally use 5' rebar and gridwall panels to create a shelf system. I'll have two layers of gridwall where the top shelf will be at the 42" level. Then when my plants grow above that shelf level, I'll switch to bamboo so I can custom make the additional supports. My plants are typically 5-7' tall. If the plant is an over achiever, the bamboo can facilitate plants as high as 12' without any issue.
If I am purposefully attempting to exceed 12' in height for my tomato plants, I start with construction scaffolding and use bamboo for lateral supports. World record for cherry tomato plant is 28' 7". I've attempted the record and have reached 20'.
I had some old farm fence I took and made nice 5 foot tall round cages out of. Thought about an arch like you did for cherry tomatoes.
All consumerism aside, you can make a wattle fence around the tomatoes and they are just as durable as a cattle panel and tomatoe cage. AND you can pick the sticks in the compost pile.
Tomato cages are for people who don't know how to grow tomatoes
I've used all manner of staking tomatoes 🍅. The rail and rope method is one You missed, but my new favorite for trellising all vining vegetables and fruits is the Arch system… which we can also make from fresh cut thinnish cedar or willow branches attached to thicker uprights. I've seen how beneficial and beautiful these arches are for the plants, offering shade and interest in our gardens. Great analysis. Thank You. 😊