I usually use tomato cages or stakes tied with hosiery. They both do a pretty good job of supporting the plants and only require moderate adjusting and maintenance as the plant grows. No matter what you do, you'll get marks on the plant stem, but it won't be as bad as some other options. You could also use that technique where you grow them upside down. I had a friend try that and I believe it was fairly successful. No marks are left on the plant using this technique simply because nothing is supporting the plants limbs. Look at some info here: http://www.minifarmhomestead.com/gardening/tomato.htm or look around on Google. Rick 2009-04-09T13:33:01+10:00 false 9005 2092 2009-04-09T13:33:01+10:00 3707 I usually surround each tomato plant with three or four stakes that are 6 to 8 feet tall which I've tied together with twine to make a trellis/cage. 2009-04-09T13:53:45+10:00 false 9007 2092 2009-04-09T13:53:45+10:00 6290 Last year I tried 4' stakes, which were too short and flimsy. The plant kept growing up through them and pulling them out of the ground. In the end I gave up and opted for crazy tomato sprawl. This year I'm trying 6' stakes, which also are about twice the diameter of the 4' stakes so I expect them to be sturdier. But only time will tell. :) I'm also going to experiment with the crazy pruning to a single vine up the stake so there'll be less weight to pull it over. Of course, that will probably last until the first promising sucker pops up and I'll decide that maybe it can hold just one more vine... and then it will snowball and I'll be back in crazy sprawl land. 2009-04-09T13:57:55+10:00 false 9009 2092 2009-04-09T13:57:55+10:00 1237 I don't think I'll have the discipline to prune mine to a single vine, so I'll probably try the 3-stake-trellis. FarmetteReport, how much pruning do you need to keep the tomato inside? 2009-04-09T14:13:15+10:00 false 9010 2092 2009-04-09T14:13:15+10:00 1357 No pruning at all, but then I've only grown paste and small tomatoes (yellow pear) until this season. Plus, I'm too lazy to prune. I just spaced the stakes around the plant and then let it do its thing. This year, with the heirlooms that I'll be planting, I'm going to have to be more disciplined. PS - I just realized, the 8 ft. stakes are for the pole beans. I use the 6 ft. ones for the tomatoes. We'll see if that's enough for beefsteak sizes! 2009-04-09T14:21:13+10:00 false 9011 2092 2009-04-09T14:21:13+10:00 6290 Last year was my first time gardening, so I did not prune at all. And yup, I got crazy tomato sprawl like cmagnus. At the end of the season I told myself, "next year I'll nip all those suckers", but I'll probably end up with a lot of vines anyway. 2009-04-09T14:26:35+10:00 false 9012 2092 2009-04-09T14:26:35+10:00 1357 prune! better air and light penetration will reduce fungus problems, you'll get better fruit size and quality, your plants will be much easier to deal with. seriously, pruning takes about ten seconds per plant per week during peak growing season. (this is assuming indeterminate plants. I'll spare you my opinion of determinate tomatoes.) 2009-04-09T14:33:26+10:00 false 9014 2092 2009-04-09T14:33:26+10:00 3098 @ puu- I do not understand determinate versus indeterminate. What is the difference? @soleil- I have used tomato cages in the past. I am not sure how we are going to do it this year using the SFG method of gardening, but 4 foot wood stakes would probably work. I am going to go and look at some lath next month. 2009-04-09T19:49:07+10:00 false 9018 2092 2009-04-09T19:49:07+10:00 5779 Every year I tell myself I'm going to make some decent tomato supports with construction wire grids, and every year I just pull out my trusty (well, not so trusty) old tomato cages. Then I always end up having to stake them up. @TR-- determinate means they have a maximum size, like a kid or a tree. They'll grow so high and no higher. Indeterminate means they'll keep branching and growing unless you keep cutting them back (imagine if your kids did that). I am not crazy about the determinates, I always feel like they stop fruiting earlier than the others, but since I haven't grown them much it could just have been the variety (Patios, an awful awful tomato. Don't buy them). Determinates are supposedly better for pots, I guess. 2009-04-09T21:10:53+10:00 false 9020 2092 2009-04-10T04:08:13+10:00 3568 I stake mine like we did when my dad was growing them for the cannery. (5 acres of tomatoes) We used 5 ft wooden stakes (1-1.5 inch square thickness), driven into the ground at least 6 inches, in a staggered line all along the row where the tomatoes are. Think zigzag, with one stake on the right side of the row, and the next on the left. Then we tied twine along the stakes about 6 inches off the ground, then another twine about 6 inches higher. We trained the tomatoes along the twine, snipping all suckers as we did. As the plants grew, we added rows of twine, 6 inches apart, training the vines along the twine, taking care of suckers and weeding as we did. Must admit though, that now that it is not my livelihood, I sort of lose track about 2/3 of the way through the season, and it becomes a jungle out there. 2009-04-09T21:28:46+10:00 false 9022 2092 2009-04-09T21:28:46+10:00 609 TropicanaRoses- Here's a little info regarding your question: hope this helps. Indeterminate tomato plants grow tall and vine-like with lots of side shoots, although they do not have tendrils to grab onto supports. If left without support, this kind of tomato plant will sprawl all over the ground and be subject to disease and insects. Therefore, they require tall, strong supports and pruning to keep them healthy. To grow them under cover, you will need to build a structure that allows the tomato plants to grow about 6-8 feet tall. The advantage to growing indeterminate tomato plants is that they continue to produce fruit until killed by frost. Keeping them under cover will keep them producing longer--we continue to harvest from our indeterminate plants well into November. Determinate tomato plants grow bush-like and usually no taller than about three feet. A tomato cage works well for these, and they require little pruning except for some leaf removal for air circulation. Determinate tomatoes will typically produce all of their fruit at once and then die. These tomato plants work well in patio containers. The advantage to determinate tomato plants is that they require less work and tend to have more resistance to disease. 2009-04-09T23:09:23+10:00 false 9024 2092 2009-04-09T23:09:23+10:00 6214 @TR&Nax: Actually that's backwards... determinates are supposedly better for pots, and they are really designed for agricultural use so their fruit all comes up around the same time. Indeterminates will keep flowering as long as they've got new vine to grow on, which, since they keep growing, they always have. I think patios are determinates. I think if you've noticed deteriminates fruiting more, it's because they're slightly lower maintenance. As puu says, to really get an indeteriminate to play well, you have to prune it fairly aggressively. In short season areas, that means pruning it aggressively, topping it to make it stop making new fruit so it will focus on ripening the old fruit, and call it done. In areas where they are hardy, you can let new suckers start growing when the old vines have gotten too long for comfort and cut off the old vines when the new vines are ready to replace them. 2009-04-09T23:16:51+10:00 false 9025 2092 2009-04-09T23:16:51+10:00 1237 Haha, this is one of the areas where I differ with the old wisdom (for lack of a better term). I barely ever prune my tomatoes. I keep the suckers off, and I'll trim here and there if they start getting so unwieldy as to take over other plants near them, but I never top my tomatoes, and I never do anything more aggressive than the aforementioned things. I live in a relatively short season (about 150 days if I can recall). Not super short, but not really long either. I always get so many tomatoes I don't know what to do with them. Harvest has never been a problem for me. But, that being said, it's all about what works best in your area and for you. Don't follow somebody else's advice if it doesn't work and you find something else that works better. For support I use 6-8ft bamboo stakes, jammed about 12" into the ground. Seems to provide enough support, I only ever had one occurrence of a big wind taking one pole out (and that was because I hadn't originally jammed it in enough). I used to cage but I found, for some reason, it encourages way more foliage that way, and retarded growth and ripening of fruits on the plant. I have a feeling this is a problem only for tomato growers in northern climates, and even then not all the time. So I just stopped using cages all together. I tried Florida Weave as well, but I couldn't get it to work properly for the plants. The tomatoes always got so damned big that they just ended up toppling the rope, and then eventually the stakes as well. Also, it requires you to plant your tomatoes in neat little rows. I never do this, so it doesn't work for me. 2009-04-10T02:44:07+10:00 false 9033 2092 2009-04-10T02:44:07+10:00 12 This was all very good information. (And I can take all I can get);). Thanks everyone, and thanks soleil for asking a question that I had not thought to ask, leading to some very interesting and important (other) info! 2009-04-10T02:50:25+10:00 false 9034 2092 2009-04-10T02:50:25+10:00 5779 cmagnus-- you caught it just before I did! Correction made. 2009-04-10T04:08:41+10:00 false 9043 2092 2009-04-10T04:08:41+10:00 3568 I started growing tomatoes while living in Germany and they use spiral stakes, 6 ft high after being jammed in the ground. The poles are maybe an inch in diameter, pretty tough, and flexible enough to bend a little when windy or heavy instead of breaking or falling over. I trained the vines around the poles and tied them secure with twine. Last year, I pruned off the suckers and topped my tomato plants once they were taller than the poles. At peak producing time with a lot of ripening fruit on, they did start to bend over too much and I had to tie them off to a nearby fence in one direction and a picnic table in the other. This year my tomatoes will be in my new SFG beds. I will be using the spiral poles again, one per plant, plus bamboo poles at the corners of the square feet the plants occupy when neccessary. I will only be living in this location for a few years so I do not want to build anything too permanent like Mel Bartholemew suggests. 2009-04-10T04:33:59+10:00 false 9045 2092 2009-04-10T04:33:59+10:00 5767 Same here. We were talking about buying this place, but with the economy the way it is, the place that was doing a contract to hire, has decided to put that on hold for now. 2009-04-10T04:43:37+10:00 false 9046 2092 2009-04-10T04:43:37+10:00 5779 I use the tomato ladders from Gardner's Supply. They now have extensions which maybe I'll buy next year. Last summer the vines grew above the ladders 5' height and headed back to the ground. I let it hang there like a hanging vine as long as it was less than 2 1/2 foot long. I didn't get many tomatos from the hanging part and will be a better pruner this year I promise (to try, I hate pruning). One of my Grandma's tips is if your tomatos plants are full of green tomatos with no signs of ripening (late July in AR) , at the drip line, drive your shovel straight into the ground one spot only. Theory is that the plant needs reminding the purpose of fruit is reproduction and needs the little threat to get in gear. I have not tested this theory. 2009-04-11T00:03:07+10:00 false 9090 2092 2009-04-11T00:03:07+10:00 6187 Oh the same Grandma with decades of tomato success and lots of space uses round cages made of concrete rebar. 5 cages circles an old round washing machine's (round with lots of holes) filled with aged horse manured buried into the center of the circle. The cages themselves are 2 or 3 ft across. When planted she pulls the grass (by hand all up and through her 80s), mulches with newspaper and straw. When the cages are pulled in the fall, what's left of the horse manure is spread around the circle. She doesn't compost and uses miracle gro on the rest of the garden but the tomatos seem to do fine by themselves. 2009-04-11T00:14:36+10:00 false 9091 2092 2009-04-11T00:14:36+10:00 6187 I use concrete reinforcing mesh (6" x 6" square) bent into a cylinder 18" in diameter, and 5' tall. We grow only indeterminate tomato varieties, so we need them well supported. We will train the branches up the interior of the cylinder and have them fold over the top of the cage later in the season. The large mesh allows us to harvest tomatoes in the interior of the cages, even beefsteak varieties. 2009-04-20T11:17:37+10:00 false 9476 2092 2009-04-20T11:17:37+10:00 4582 I just discovered a treasure trove of stakes - the left over reeds from the pampas grass we have. It is great. Probably not permanent but I might be able to tie a few together to make it stronger and they are about 6' a piece. I also use cages (which my tomatillos promptly out grow and fell over along with the plastic stakes.) I'm trying a spiral stake this year. I'm sure I'll keep experimenting with other options, don't think I'm sold on one yet myself. 2009-04-20T11:41:57+10:00 false 9477 2092 2009-04-20T11:41:57+10:00 6210 Tumbleweed - you're a brave person for trying to control your tomatillos! I gave up on that a few years ago, I just let them sprawl all over now, and trim them back as needed. 2009-04-21T02:02:28+10:00 false 9490 2092 2009-04-21T02:02:28+10:00 12 I use heavy duty tomato cages - they are superb. http://www.suntecindustries.com.cn/Tomato%20Lattice.htm 2009-04-22T12:56:35+10:00 false 9539 2092 2009-04-22T12:56:35+10:00 7001 I have always used some sort of tomato cage. I normally use those triangular circle type, and I have both small and large. (I will use some for my squash and zucchini this year as well.) I also have some that fold down flat and make a triangle that I bought at Lowe's a few years ago. I also have some stakes I can use if necessary, but prefer not to use them unless I have to. Just personal preference on my part. My dad used to make his out of wire, not chicken wire, but a larger wire for harvesting. 2009-05-08T03:03:20+10:00 false 10060 2092 2009-05-08T03:03:20+10:00 5447 I also like cages for my tomatoes, at least the indeterminate varieties. It seems they pull down anything else. I use 4" concrete reinforcement wire put in a circle about 18-24 inches in diameter depending on the tomato type and then wired securely to rebar steaks that have been pounded at least 8 inches into the ground for stability. I read about 6" meshing wire and that would also work great. I am thinking about trying the ones I saw at http://www.tomatocages.com they look sturdy and I like that they fold up. If I try them I will let you all know how they work out. 2009-05-08T16:08:42+10:00 false 10090 2092 2009-05-08T16:08:42+10:00 7541 This might seem horrible of me but... I actually used one of those upside down tomato pots. There, I said it! I saw it and curiosity took over - I had to have it! It hangs on my patio and after about about three weeks it seems very happy. Having said that, yes, it did start to grow UP. I haven't thought of that. Of course it won't just "hang there".... It made a U turn and is no longer hanging but wondering off into all directions, but has started to bloom like crazy. It already has 4 vine full of little tomatoes and 4 more in bloom. I planted it when it was tiny. If anyone wants a bizarre addition to their tomato collection (and a good conversation starter), I recommend it. 2009-06-18T17:17:07+10:00 false 11174 2092 2009-06-18T17:17:07+10:00 8182 I have always wanted to try those upside down containers, but heard that they can tip over pretty quickly if not on a good stable stand. 2009-06-18T20:52:17+10:00 false 11176 2092 2009-06-18T20:52:17+10:00 5447 I screwed mine into a wooden awning on my patio - it's actually someone's balcony, so if it's coming down the whole building is coming down :) The trick is to find a very solid structure to hang it on... 2009-06-19T04:28:08+10:00 false 11186 2092 2009-06-19T04:28:08+10:00 8182 We use 6" fence posts, hammered into our raised beds about a foot. Then tie up with t-shirts or old rags. I love this system, the only work is remembering to tie them up while they are getting established. Our tomatoes were at least as tall as the posts last year and no risk of toppling over. We also thinned/pruned them a bit last year because we were really paranoid about blossom rot problem we had in the past, and because they were so lush, it was really shady down in there. 2009-06-23T12:10:25+10:00 false 11277 70200 2092 2009-06-23T12:10:25+10:00 4103