Basically any of the Indeterminate varieties can be trellised easily. Some require a little more effort than others because of vigorous growth habit. I find that the small fruited varieties (cherry, grape or pear) to be faster growing and taller in overall plant growth. Don't be surprised if these outgrow a smaller trellis.

aOk. Another tomato question: I have heard about single-stem toms and cordon toms. I'm not sure if these are useful to me, but I have been thinking of using a trellis for some of the plants I will grow next year. Square Foot style trellising only works for some kinds of tomatos.
What varieties might work best for trellising?

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You say that sq foot style trellising only works for some kinds of tomatoes. I'm not sure what you mean unless you mean that one normally uses what's called an indeterminate variety, that is, one with long vines.

Cordon is a term often used in England and other places in Europe that indicates an indeterminate variety.

Single stem tomatoes are ones where the grower has pruned the plants so that they only have one stem and it's a technique usually used when staking tomatoes or trellising them.

So, there's indeterminate varieties with long vines and you can prune them to grow with only 1-2 stems if you wish. The other major plant habit are those varieties that are called determinate and they're more bushy, more compact and don't have long vines.

There are other differences between those two types of plant habit that I don't think need be discussed now, but for trellising you'd be best using any indeterminate varieties you wanted to and then pruning them to 1-2 stems.

When selecting varieties from most catalogs/websites, the plant habit of a variety usually is indicated as being indeterminate or determinate in the variety description.

Carolyn

Can I ask what sort of 'trellis' we are talking about? You are using Sq. Ft. gardening, correct? If so, then likely determinate varieties would work best given the alloted space. You could also consider using tomato cages - not the 3 ring things they call tomato cages - but real 5-6 foot tall tomato cages made from CRW.

Just a thought.

Dave

I was thinking of a cattle panel strapped to a long raised bed (8').
I read in a book about using single-stemmed tomatos for trellises and beds and sprawling for garden plots. The author seemed to use these two terms alongside of determinate and indeterminate. I'll look for the reference once I remember which book.
I just need something that will allow other things to grow in the bed. I keep imagining a monster and two little bean plants being all that I could fit.

A cattle panel works quite well as a trellis. You'll need heavy duty stakes at both ends and a couple spaced along the length to hold the weight of the plants. With it you can use either determinate or indeterminate varieties tho the indet. plants will get quite a bit taller than the det. ones. In an 8' bed you could plant 4 tomato plants along the panel - maybe 5 with aggressive pruning - and tie them to it as they grow. The width of your bed will determine what else you can grow in it.

As Carolyn already said, there is really no such thing as a single-stemmed tomato unless you aggressively prune it to be that way so I'm not sure how he meant the label.

Indeterminate varieties (aka vine tomatoes) may be side-shoot pruned to a single or double stem if you wish to control them - many gardeners do - but it will reduce your fruit production somewhat. They require some sort of support - cage, stake, trellis.

Determinate varieties (aka bush tomatoes) should not be pruned as it eliminates far too much of your fruit production. Some type of support can be helpful for them but many let them just sprawl on the ground.

There is a FAQ here linked at the top of the forum page on the two different forms - determinate and indeterminate - with additional info. And if you Google 'how to grow tomatoes in the home garden' you will find many, many great info sites.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your garden.;)

Dave

Thank you SO much! I'm nervous about starting my tiny garden next year, so I'm trying to get a grip on terms and planning right now. This information will help a great deal.

If you are talking about the 16 foot cattle panels made of very heavy rod type wire, they are pretty much self supporting with just a steel post set in a few feet from each end. You'll need heavy duty bolt cutters to cut to 8 foot lengths.

I grow in either 12x4 or 8x4 raised beds, and use cattle panels in many of them. I don't use a strict square foot garden spacing, but I do cram as much as I can into each bed.

I grow 7 plants along one side of a 12' bed, and 5 plants in an 8' bed. I plant along one edge of the bed, so that I can grow a row of beans, broccoli or something else on the other side.

I remove very few suckers, just a few along the bottom of the plant that want to grow into the pathways. The rest are wound into the wire support panel, or tied to it, if they are too big and brittle to bend. I have been using this method for quite a few years, and would not go back to cages.

Another method I used (and still do if I run out of the cattle panels) is to wire a board to two heavy duty very tall steel posts, and tie up all suckers as needed. I guess you could call it trellising, but I keep adding strings throughout the season, instead of removing branches and using only one or two strings per plant. There is no one correct method, and you can thin your branches to whatever is aesthetically pleasing to you.

Great looking gardens, ddsack. It's fun to get ideas from everyone here.

I have my eye on some used cattle panels I can probably get for free if I drag them out of the wilds. And yes, I do have permission to remove things from these wilds :) I didn't know they were called cattle panels, just knew that the things I saw looked like great supports to use with tomatoes. How tall are yours. The ones I'm hoping to get look to be about 4 feet tall. Yours look taller, but I think 4 feet would usually be enough for what I grow.

Menards has some that are 4x8. I'm not sure that they are the same thing. They also have rusted rolls of fencing used for cementing into concrete for buildings. Think I'll steer clear of that.
There is a Tractor Supply Co. that is nearby. I haven't gotten there yet, but I've heard good things about them.

I have the full 8' for trellising. It faces the sun all the time. I've been debating planting the heavy indeterminate toms there and strapping them to the trellis, planting the determinates there, or just using the trellis for peas and beans (every few inches) and growing the toms in 5-gallon buckets near another cattle panel that I will use for a small patio privacy/snacking fence.

Thank you for telling me how you handle the tom plants. I grew a few store-bought ones since July just to see how they grow. I'll know the space requirements better for next spring. I have heard however that the Indets. turn into Monsters.
I was going to grow onions, carrots, peppers, a cucumber, and a zuccini, and lettuce in the bed, too. So I need to figure out what would work best with the toms.

I've been thinking of Azoychka, Black from Tula, maybe a few dwarf toms for the raised bed itself. The big ones for the other trellis.

I have heard however that the Indets. turn into Monsters.

*****

Some do, some don't, most don't

There's much variation in plant size. The ultimate size of indet, as well as det, depends first on the genes that they have, and then throw in all sorts of factors as to soil, amendments used, how they're grown, the weather in any given season, how crowded they are, and on an on.

So I don't think that it's good to think of all indets as reaching monster size b/c it isn't true. ( smile)

Carolyn

That is a Beautiful set-up, ddsack. I would love to have a garden like that. I'll would have the toms at the back of the bed and other stuff in front of it. Several people have mentioned growing as many as 5 along the row. That sounds like it might work. I'm not sure that the SFG method is completely sound, but people swear by it. I think I'll try variations as I go along.

You are the first to put the trellis in the middle of the bed, though. I'm thinking that I like that better than the trellis at the back. I was going to grow pole and runner beans and peas there and the toms in front of them but I didn't know if that would work.

Your set-up is extremely close. I have been trying to work out spacing requirements from the backs of the packages and have been going slowly mad from the effort. Maybe it doesn't matter as much as I thought? One tom every 1' and a half in each direction? With a few marigolds and nasturtiums below?

Shilohyn, if you find your plant varieties are "monsters" and need more than 1.5 feet of space you can always pull some out or trim them back alot. A friend who gardened near me this summer found she had everything way too close together. She could not stand to "kill" any of her plants so she asked me to "play GOD." (Her words, and I didn't appreciate them) I pulled out about half of her plants and then everything grew great. Remember, you CAN get rid of a plant at any time....you don't have to wait til it dies from frost or disease.