How do you support your tomatoes?

[Sylvan]

It's a bit soon to be thinking about it, but we'll only get busier as the year goes on, so...

Indeterminate tomatoes can get a bit unwieldy (even in our short, cool summers). How do you support yours?

[simmo 66]

Good old fashioned canes... tied in as the plant grows.. Last year grew Red Alert which are a bush variety & excellent cropper which saves you the trouble of having to bother to support them..

[Two_Sheds]

I grow them up taut string, pegged into the soil at ground level and tied to the eaves of the gh at the top end

[Sylvan]

Aye, I used to tie the string to the bars along the top of the polytunnel.
Do you grow any outside? I've been using canes but they're never really long enough. I was wondering about some sort of frame.

[Two_Sheds]

Do you grow any outside?

Not any more: they always get blight

[piskieinboots]

I grow them up taut string, pegged into the soil at ground level and tied to the eaves of the gh at the top end

Same here .....

[Sylvan]

Not any more: they always get blight

I suppose that's one of the advantages of living in the middle of nowhere.

(I'm not going to tempt fate by saying anything more on the subject!)

[simmo 66]

You shoul try Red Alert.. Great cropper,great flavour and i had red toms before a lot of other people who were growing in a GH... Lost some lovely big San Marzano toms to blight though... so shall try to nurse them this year in a blow away.

[Florence Fennel]

Canes here too Sylvan, but I had big problems last year, the wind kept blowing them over. This year I plan to put four together with a couple of horizontal canes tied to make a frame, hopefully to keep them upright in any strong gusts!

[binley100]

.by giving them lots of love and encouragement and by making sure they're kept well fed and watered , apart from that I use canes

[Sylvan]

I'm thinking of trying Red Alert next year - I've got quite a few varieties on the go already this year. San Marzano is one of them.

[Sylvan]

I have terrible problems with wind too Florence. Growing them in pots doesn't help - they get top heavy!

Aah, binley, you're such a sweetie. Your toms must be happy, well-balanced individuals...

[King Carrot]

Tomato cages made of the 4 inch animal wire netting as used on farms , goes around the pant when you transplant it in the ground and bang a stake in to hold it - its possible to wrap plastic/bubblewrap around the cage for added protection early on. I am going to try this with some bush toms this year to keep them under control so I'll just use 2ft cages - lots of info on net

[Sylvan]

I was thinking about making cylinders out of pig netting KC.
How tall do you make them for indeterminate varieties?
If we roll them so that the circumference is the short end we could make them as tall as we like, but that would give them a diameter of just under a foot. Is that enough space for a full sized plant?

The plastic/bubblewrap would be a wonderful bonus.

[Bigmallly]

Taught wire from one end of GH to the other to which is tied weighted string. When finished, the string is then slid to the end of the wire till needed again.