Garden Guide: Every tomato grower needs this ONE thing.
Tomato plants naturally want to crawl on the ground, but if you’re serious about getting fruit to eat, this is a problem.
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Sometimes plants do a little too well for their own good and that’s especially true with tomatoes. You do everything right early in the summer to get them to bloom and fruit, only to watch them topple in their own weight.
Tomato plants naturally want to crawl on the ground, but if you’re serious about getting fruit to eat, this is a problem. Plants close to the ground have less airflow and a lot more humidity which means opportunity for fungal issues. Speaking of opportunity, animals and bugs always go for the low hanging fruit. They are less likely to bother with tomato fruit that are healthy and held up high.
Tomato plants need support! Here are a few tips to keep them upright:
Tomato cages
Garden centers are fully stocked with these all summer long, and tomato seedlings might already come with one. Unfortunately they don’t always work!
Tomato cages are only meant for tomatoes with a determinate growth habit. These tomatoes grow to a certain height and then bloom and flower all at once. Some need much taller cages than others. Indeterminate tomatoes grow like a vine. These need much larger support.
Tomatoes on a Trellis
Tomatoes aren’t a vine, but they can be trained like one! This method is more hands on because the stems will need to be manipulated to grow along the support structure.
Some gardeners will simply place a large pole and tie the main stem along the pole with soft zip ties as the plant grows. You’ll have to prune stems that are growing diagonally so the plant focus on its single main stem.
At Island Harvest's farm in Brentwood, NY, they’ve had luck growing determinate and indeterminate tomatoes with a slightly different method. You may have heard of the food bank, but they are growing FRESH produce for food insecure families and also teach them how to grow their own gardens
A Trellis ... Made of String
This method involves using one main tomato structure (at least 5 feet tall) that’s long and sturdy. A row of tomatoes is planted underneath. Sturdy twine is suspended from the top of the structure above where each plant is located. Throughout the growing season, the plants are pruned to one main “leader” and wrapped around the twine as it grows.
