Tomatoes

[L3650]

Does anybody have a good way to stake up tomatoe plants? Everything seems to collapse, even the wire frames. Looking for a better idea.

 

[Molerj]

I've seen this discussed before. I think some guys use the heavy wire mesh. I gave up on the wooden stakes a few years back. I bought 1/2 rebar. Bought the 20' lengths & split it up into 3 pieces. It should last me as long as I will be planting tomatoes!

 

[s1120]

I had read somewere,[I don't remember where] about someone making cages out of rebar. Take two long lenghts, bend them into an upsidedown U. Wire them together at the top. [the U part of the U /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif] Then take more rebar and make a circle, and put them over the upside down U's. You would want two, or three circles on each set of U's[do you get it? hard to explane with out a picture /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif]When you are done, you will have some REAL heavy duty tomatoe cages. They had talked about tying them with wire, but when I make mine I plan to weld them.

 

[fivestring]

I use the 8 ft. heavy duty green fence posts. I bury 2 ft. in the ground and tie the cages to the post. As the 'mater plant grows, I use my wife's old panty hose to tie the plants off with. Don't tell her, though! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif She's always asking where they went and I just shrug. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Chuck52]

Concrete reinforcing mesh. Roll a cage from that and it won't collapse unless you have some Brobdignagian tomatoes.

Chuck

 

[brooster]

Just like Chuck said. I bought a roll of remesh (used for concrete reinforcement) and made my own cages. The stuff I used comes in 6' widths and I bought a 50' roll (that's a lot of weight to rassle into the back of the truck!). I unroll and cut in lengths at 6' also, and then fastened the ends into a round cage (very easy to measure since the mesh squares are 6"). This makes a decent sized cage that is also 6' tall. I then anchor them over the tomato plant by fastening to a T-post. Every 4-5 days or so I will check the plants and pull the new growth back inside the cage. And yes, by the end of the summer the plants are growing out the tops of the cages! Very nice because you can reach right in the squares and grab the tomatos when they are ripe.

A helpful hint, I ended up buying a smaller set of bolt cutters to cut the sections of the remesh. This stuff isn't the easiest to get cut, and I found that a hacksaw was not fun to use.

 

[OkieG]

The last few years, the EarlyGirls would sprawl over the top of the 4' cages and bend back almost to the ground. The weight of the long branches will cause them to bend in two over the cages, kinking themselves, sometimes dying beyond the kink. Lots of energy into making greenery and not enough fruit. This year I'm pruning the tops once they get a few inches above the cage tops. It seems like trimming the tops has slowed/stopped vertical growth. The tomatoes look pretty good this year, but don't know if it's from the pruning.

OkieG

 

[OkieG]

<font color="blue"> Everything seems to collapse, even the wire frames. </font>
The weight of the tomato branches bending over the cages always caused my cages to tip. This year, besides trimming the plants when they reach a little above the cages, I'm using 6' lengths of 1/2" rebar as garden stakes. I pound 'em in next to the cage, and tie the top rung of the cage to the rebar. I don't expect the cages to tip this year. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Fingers are crossed.

OkieG

 

[OkieG]

This is a rooky's observation/question:

To try and lengthen the harvest season, this year I staggered EarlyGirl planting by a month. First three plants planted the first of April, next three the first of May.
The harvest from the second set of plants will be later than the first, but not by a month. The fruit set quickly while the plants were smaller. Seems like there will be plenty of fruit, but the plants don't seem to want to grow as big as the ones planted early.
I don't see that the May plants will be sprawling and overgrowing their cages like the April plants. Maybe that's a good thing. The later planting might help limit plant growth, but doesn't seem to limit the nuimber of tomatoes on the vine. Is there a "best" time to be planting?

OkieG

 

[JerryG]

We use hog panels and t-posts. Drive the t-posts to about 5' height and tie the hog panel at the top. As the tomatos grow, tie the plants to them. Normally, if your plants have to much foliage, it is because there is to much fertilizer.