How do you support your tomato plants?

[Macky]

Originally Posted by Delaney

OK. I think I have interderteminates. They are heirloom at least. Last year I tried to stake them up, but there were so many branches it was difficult. This year I would like to try to prune them to produce more fruit and keep the branches under control. Since they are so viney, would a trellis like support (something like you would support cucumbers with) work, or do you think a cage is better. I just looked at peony supports, and they look really short. Did you mean those are good for the bushy plants?

ps. this is only my second year gardening

Don't assume that because they're heirloom that their automatically indeterminates. What variety of tomato did you buy (what was the name on the tag)? Exactly how tall did they get last year (assuming you bought the same variety)?

Pruning doesn't increase yield, by the way. (If you prune a determinate, it will decrease yield.) It keeps the plant under control (if you live in a climate where they go wild) and hastens ripening, but it doens't give you more tomatoes. The only way you get more tomatoes is more flowers. Once you "top" a vine (cut the growing tip), no new flowers will grow on that branch. Pruning will trigger more branches to grow from the tipped branch and those will have flowers, but if you're pruning to get fewer branches, then it's counterproductive (pruning will get you more branches that you'll then need to prune again).

Yes, any sort of cage is just for determinates. You can tie determinates to stakes, but you can't cage an indeterminate.

Think of it this way... a determinate tomato grows to a height that's pre-determined by the genes of the plant; these are the bushy ones.

The height an indeterminate tomato can grow is undetermined by genes because it's limited only by the length of your growing season; these are the tall vines.

[magpiedpiper]

Mine got 6 ft tall last year. So I bought more of these this year and will get more next year too as budget allows. I really like them! I only did two per plant last year and had to do creative staking once they got too tall. They really needed three per plant.

Best pic I could find, but early on in the season -

[Delaney]

OK. I am growing cherokee purple, violet jasper, and a white cherry that I don't have the seed package for any more. They are all heirloom, and they don't say on the package which kind they are. When I have more time I will have to look them up. I did not grow these kinds last year.

[Macky]

Here's a good link – with picture. Scroll down to the diagrams.

---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 PM ----------

So now you just type those names into a search engine and click on links that take you to seed companies. Most of the time the description will tell you determinate or indeterminate because it's a very important thing for growers (especially commercial or market-garden growers) to know.

[itzj]

Originally Posted by Delaney

How tall is that? It looks only a couple of feet. Do you grow bushy plants, or do the viney ones grow through and then lay on top? I think I like it.

That would never be high enough for ours. Our indeterminates probably grew to 10ft last year when all was said and done. DH is 6'1 and had to use a ladder to pick them. We've done some crazy stuff to keep them going, so hopefully they work out this year and we don't go crazy.

[PDX Mommy]

Originally Posted by itzj

This year we built a wooden tunnel frame and stapled trellis netting to it. So they can grow up and over and we can still reach it all. I am not into pruning so we just let them go and do a lot of plants. I'll try to take a pic later today to post.

Would love to see a pic of this, too!

[twoplustwo]

Stake. (no picture because they are not tall enough to need the stake yet).

[Sonata]

Re: pruning -- I pinch off the shoots that grow up from the base of the plant, because those tend to produce a lot of vegetative growth and not many flowers, in our mid-length summer.

Re: staking -- I used 6-foot stakes and tied them on in previous summers. I've found wire tomato cages to be kind of a joke, and no way can I pay for fancy cages for the number of plants I have! But last year my mom and I erected this great structure: 2 big lumber X's at either side of the raised bed with a cross piece at top (like a double telephone pole), strung heavy-duty string between the cross-bars, and tied a little string hanging down to each plant. Then I tied the string to the base of the plant, and just wrapped the plant around the string as it grew. It was so easy and excellent!

This year I'm going to use it for peas. And I just realized I'll have to build another one as I rotate the tomatoes.