vertical-string-method-discussion

stringing-vs-staking-tomato-plants debate

Yes, I do this with cherry and smaller tomatoes. But not for plants can't hold up the fruit by itself.

I do it for large tomatoes and have had great success with it (I've heard it called "The Dropline Technique). It allows me to grow a lot of varieties within a small area. For cherries, I do trellising as I don't think the quality/size of the fruit is dramatically altered when comparing single stem to no pruning. If you're going for shear quantity, single stem is not the way to go, but if your going for maximal variety or have a small gardening space, the dropline technique is great.

You can read more about how I do dropline at this post on houzz.

smithmal

That is how they do it in commercial greenhouses.

As the vine keeps growing, they loosen up the string ( from a feed spool )and let the lower part bend/ sit on the ground and tie it. I have seen it how they do it. here is picture.

Of course, in a GH or high tunnel there are no wind.

Yes I have done this, and to be honest, you will probably get more tomatoes from one plant not pruned nearly as heavily then you will from 2-3 that only have one stem. Unless you only have room for one single stemmed vine, I would go a different route.

I do it and I don't prune! Using hemp, I string all the suckers up and it looks like a forest in mid-summer!

Interestingly, it's not necessary to tie off the bottom of the string, just wind it around the plant and, magically, it stays put!

It is quite time-consuming keeping on top of all the wrapping and adding of new strings, but as summer wears on, the new suckers can be tucked in to the existing ones.

Linda

Cant go wrong with the roller hooks. Roller Hooks

Ate those roller hooks weather resistant? I seen videos of them inside greenhouses but not sure if they would last outdoors.

Yes, the consist of a metal heavy gauge wire frame and a plastic spool. I'd bet you could get 10+ years out of them by just replacing the twine on the spool

RI-Mike, what's the benefit of a roller hook vs. just tying some twine to your support for a backyard gardener. I can see this being helpful in large commercial greenhouses, but not sure if dropping $75 is worth it when you could buy UV resistant twine at HD for $5.

For me, the benefit is being able to lower the plant and have it keep growing and producing. If you use twine, tie one end to a fixed point, once the plant grows past that point, your kind of stuck managing it. In my greenhouse, tomatoes reach the ceiling by early July, so lowering them is key to getting the biggest harvest.

There is no right or wrong way to trellis tomatoes. For me, this makes the most sense, most efficient use of my time, and wouldn't grow without them.

I grow with vertical strings. I just wrap the twine around the top horizontal support five times and then as as the slack goes away over the season, I use the extra twine that is wrapped around the top horizontal to loosen the twine as needed. There is no need to spend money on the feed spool.

All great points. I can say that I for one have not been tying off my strings to my support with appreciable extra string length. I definitely see the advantage of doing so now. My support is about 7' high. I tend to see my indeterminants reach the support height by end of August. I usually get maybe another 1.5 - 2 months more of the growing season until the frost hits. How many extra feet of string would you suggest to add at the support?

My only concerns with dropping the vine once it reaches the support height is that you could have leaves touching the soil surface with could promote an plant infection.

Another option is to allow the plant to droop over the support and then run another string that you can have the plant grow back down toward the ground and or tack it to the existing string that is already there using tomato clips.

Nobody mentioned the tomahook, about 1/10th the price of roller hooks and they are durable and last a lifetime. I use over 1000 of them every year in my high tunnels. When I lower stems it just seems easier on the plants to unwrap twine from the tomahook (visually 2-2 1/2' at a time) and then rehang the tomahook 2 to 3' horizontal on the same row. The stems tend to keep within the row by doing so.

But Malcolm you raised an important question. I always allow for the varieties by wrapping extra twine on different categories of plants. Although I only plant indet. varieties in my high Tunnels, cherry and grape varieties usually need 12' extra wrapped onto the tomahook.For some cherry varieties that isn't enough and I don't like picking from a ladder in November. For most large fruited varieties 3' extra wrapped onto the tomahook is adequate.

Finished building my tomato scaffolding over the weekend. It is 15' long and approximately 8' tall. Materials are as follows:

2" x 2" x 8' weathershield boards (9x)

Box of 2" weather resistant screws

Scrap wood to make cross supports

You can see from the pictures below that I used two anchor points to keep the scaffolding in place (4' long piece of 2" x 2" board hammered into the ground and attached to the lower scaffolding cross support). It probably would be a good idea to have three supports instead of two since there is a support available to accommodate the anchor. You can easily have this built in about an hour.

I have one just like this in another area of my yard. I keep it up all year long (although it would be easy to dismantle it if desired) and it has held up now through 4 growing seasons.

Pic #1

Pic #2

I have to mention that "tomato vine" is NOT a climber and thus cannot be trained. They are naturally sprawler. You just keep tying it to whatever your support system is.

Sey

I tie string to the cross beam in the greenhouse for half a dozen indoors plants (and train melons using a similar system on the other side of the greenhouse) but outside I build tomato frames - 2 rows of long cross pieces across 4 uprights (3x3 fence posts). The cross beams are around 6m long but don't need a middle support because all the tomato poles are fixed into place with wire and holds the whole edifice rigidly. Each scaffolding set holds 32 plants (I have 3 sets in long beds which are rotated between other veg). This is more or less the main method on my allotment plot after years of trial and error using bamboo, cages, string lines and so on. The timber is dismantled every year and bolted back together in May. As I am cutting back on all veggies apart from potatoes, am thinking maybe another section but then I have to ask if I really, really need 128 tomato cordons (that is a lot of work nipping sideshoots and tying in).

Campanula, can you provide a pic or the tomato frames that you use?

This was an early prototype - will search on hard-drive for better, more recent version...but the principle is much the same.

in winter

it is a pretty rough and ready system but as most of us only grow single stem cordons, this has proved the most stable set-up. The bamboo (or hazel) stakes are simply poked into the soil and the whole edifice holds itself well against our east anglian winds and, of course, any old timber bits can be used and re-used if tanalised.

Here is my set up for t

raining my tomatoes to three stems...