Hey everyone,

This is our first year attempting to implement a professional trellis system into our tomato greenhouse. We're training the plants up a vertical polypropylene string to a wire that's stretched horizontally across the greenhouse, with the aim of eventually lowering the plant once it reaches the horizontal wire (laying its bare bottom stalk on the ground in a coil) so as to increase yield and extend the season.

Everything's been going well so far, and the plants look very healthy. I'm concerned about the vertical string, though. We loosely tied the string to the base of each plant and have been winding the plants clockwise around the string every few days--rather than using tomato clips--and I noticed today that quite a few plants are pulling so hard on the string that it's actually cutting into their main stalks very slightly.

Should I be concerned about this? Do I need to go around and loosen each string at the top so that I can use the slack to ease the tension around each plant's stalk? Should I just switch to tomato clips?

Thanks to everyone for your input.