Tying up Tomato Plants

When I first started gardening I used tomato cages that were readily available at any garden store.  Every year they worked great for the first part of the gardening season but as the plants grew bigger and the branches got heavy with fruit, I would have a storm, strong wind or just the heavy nature of the plant would topple it over or branches would snap.  I was always disappointed. 

The next thing I tried was staking with huge stakes and although they kept the plant nice and straight and tall, I would still loose branches that were heavy with fruit.

So one year I did a lot of research and found this method of stringing them up to a support pole that runs the length of the row of plants.  It worked wonderfully and that is the way I have done it every since.  For us it just works very well. 

I take a metal pole and tie it up onto T-posts directly above my tomato plants.  I put it fairly high up because tomato plants can get very tall. 

Then I take hemp twine and cut a piece long enough to go "double" over the pole, down to the ground and be about 8 inches longer than my plant base.

I tie it just once in the exact middle of the string, on pole, directly above the plant to be tied, to keep it from slipping around at all down the road.

I double the string as the plants get really heavy as the season progresses and it gives a lot more support to use a double string. 

I then take the extra string and tie it very loosely around the base of my Tomato plant.  I leave enough room for plenty of growth.

The next thing to do is to hold onto the knot to keep it from just going around and around the plant as you wrap the string around and up the plant.  So hold the knot and wrap the string around the plant, wrapping in between the branches, vineing the tomato plant up the string.

As I am out working in my garden pinching suckers and weeding, if I notice the plant has grown I wrap the string around the new top growth till the tomato plant at the end of the season is totally supporting by wrapping the twine all the way to the top.  If there are any branches that get heavy and need support I simply tie a piece of hemp string to that branch and tie it to the pole above for support.  Works really well.

Blessings and happy gardening,
susan