Tying up tomatoes

[Jonny.D]

Hi guys,
Can anyone tell me how I can take up the slack on the string I'm using to support my tomatoes?

I saw this,




Which looks good, but the string bites into the cardboard and so loses the tension and as the tomatoes are outside the cardboard will go soggy when wet.

Thanks


JD

[Martin H]

Hi Jonny,
I've never had this problem. Outdoors I use a cane, indoors I tie to the bar at the top of the greenhouse and keep it nice and tight with no slack. Can't you just tie the string so there's no slack? What's it fastened to at the top?

[Jonny.D]

Thanks for replying Martin, would that not end up being too tight on the plants as they grow bigger?

[Martin H]

It doesn't seem to get much tighter. I guess the plant bends round the string rather than the other way round. If you're worried you could always tie with a knot that you could undo if you had to.

Last year I was using the green jute stuff and most of them broke at least once during the season. So this time I'm using wire instead.

[bario1]

This happened to me as well - a 6 foot tall Sungold came crashing down and all the unripe fruit fell off. This year I'm using the thick polyurethane string you get round bales.

[Alison]

I tie it tight to start with and it all works out really well, the stems are pliable as you wrap them around the string.

[kris1960]

Fingerknit or crochet chains and bind off.

[Jonny.D]

Fingerknit or crochet chains and bind off.

Can someone translate this please

[kris1960]

Wind string twice around finger and pop the back loop over the front, wind around finger again and pop back loop over. Carry on until tension is right. Wrap loop at the end so that if you need to slacken it off later you can. Or you could tighten end loop around a pin or a short piece of stick and be able to adjust later if necessary.
Difficult to explain crochet and finger knitting will work.
As would wrapping it around a stick and clipping it back on itself.
Sorry for the confusion, I should have explained what I meant.

[Jonny.D]

Wind string twice around finger and pop the back loop over the front, wind around finger again and pop back loop over. Carry on until tension is right. Wrap loop at the end so that if you need to slacken it off later you can. Or you could tighten end loop around a pin or a short piece of stick and be able to adjust later if necessary.
Difficult to explain crochet and finger knitting will work.
As would wrapping it around a stick and clipping it back on itself.
Sorry for the confusion, I should have explained what I meant.

Thanks Kris, didn't understand the first part the last bit makes sense to me, I'll give it a go tomorrow

[Jonny.D]

As would wrapping it around a stick and clipping it back on itself.

That worked, thanks Kris

I cut a notch in the top of a stick, wrapped it round twice, then back over the top of the stick, wrapped it round until slack taken up and then back over the top of the stick again.

Hope this makes sense.