Tomato trellis

Tomato trellis

There are scads of ways to configure a tomato trellis to keep your tomato plants off ground. You do know that doing so eliminates much of the rot and disease that tomatoes suffer if properly staked, we hope.

You can ask your garden center where you buy your tomatoes if they don't agree that using a good tomato trellis is highly recommended. But let us also say that whether you are interested in a healthy crop or not, it saves time and effort during the pruning and harvesting chores to have a great tomato trellis.

There are several good tomato trellis styles. The simple wooden stakes placed by each plant don't really qualify as a trellis. But if you're looking for an inexpensive way to manage a row of tomato plants, then you could consider linking the stakes together with a lightweight plastic cord. This gives the tomato suckers a place to run along and provides additional stability between plants.

Some county cooperative centers suggest that you plant the tomatoes first and only put up the tomato trellis after the plants reach 8-10 inches in height. Some longtime growers insist that you disturb the plants if you do this. They recommend that you 'plant' the stake first, then plant the tomato seedlings. And they have great success doing it this way to bolster their method's validity. However you choose to do the 'stake planting', everyone agrees that if you use the stakes from one year to the next, you should disinfect them.

You can use the standard metal style cage so commonly found at local plant centers. The two or three lateral-ringed cages do provide decent support if you have the kind of tomato that does not run 50 feet long--or high! The different kinds of tomato species--determinate, semi-determinate and indeterminate--will determine which kind of tomato trellis to use.

Indeterminate plants grow from the git-go to first frost. Those are the ones that some people in Europe plant in a huge tub on their front steps and train on a tomato trellis to reach the second story! Most of the plants available in local U.S. nurseries are determinate or semi-determinate. These won't grow so long, but they also may quit bearing before first frost.

One way to make your own tomato trellis out of stakes and plastic cord is to plant the 1-inch square stakes in a row, at least a foot deep, spacing them two feet apart. You will need one more stake than the number of tomato seedlings you intend to plant. Plant each seedling halfway between the stakes.

As soon as the plants start to bend over from their own weight, attach your plastic cord to the first stake. Wrap it around the second stake, continuing to the last stake in your row. The first line of cord should come at a level below the first blossom. As the plants grow, you will make additional lines of cord between the stakes, creating your tomato trellis as the season progresses. The stalks can be fixed to the horizontal cord with plant wire or strips of cloth.

There is an interesting newcomer to the tomato trellis market. It is called a veggie cage and may be used for any garden plant that needs support, vegetable or flower. It is a continuous looped coil of green polypropylene that clamps to a stake at the top and is fastened by a peg into the soil at the bottom. Expandable to 7 feet high, they can be used for anything that 'runs' and needs support. If you can't find info on it, give us an e-yodel. We're not 'selling' it--just telling it!