What else is in there besides tomatoes?

tj

Cherry tomatoes just grow to the top of a trellis and then spill down on the other side. They're a vine. Let them vine.

Not completely sure what kind of insects you're trying to avoid. Certainly for squash, you'd like to keep borers out. Aphids and spidermites can probably make it through most netting.

To be honest, take it off, not sure why you benefit much from this netting. Most of the "forest" bugs will not bother anymore than "city" bugs, unless there is something specific in your area that you are worried about. Some insects are beneficial.

The tomatoes look very etiolated. The spot looks quite shady and the netting is probably making it more so.

Netting or row covers is useful for certain plants with certain insect pests, mostly the cole crops (cabbages, broccoli, collards, etc) to protect them against flea beetles and the white butterfly that lays the eggs that hatch into the green "worms." You don't need netting for tomatoes, peppers, chard, lettuce, etc. Squash and other plants will need pollinating insects, so covering an entire garden with netting is just not going to work.

Well, as anyone who uses row covers or has a lack of pollinators knows, hand pollination of squash is pretty straightforward. But the issue here is what exactly the netting is for. Tomatoes are certainly vulnerable to flea beetles and leaf-footed bugs, but the question is whether their threat has actually been identified.

Before you rip out the netting; tomatoes don't get pollinated by insects. The flowers are self contained units sealed from insects. They pollinate themselves when the wind shakes the flowers, or you tap the flower stem.

Does nobody else think the tomatoes look light starved? They’re awfully spindly and don’t appear to have any flowers yet.

OP states 'in the woods', which I take to mean lots of shade from trees. It certainly looks very shady. Fruiting plants do need more sun than leafy greens for best results.

I would love to be able to do the same as shown. We have mosquitoes, tons of tiny moths, leafhoppers and fruit flies - along with leaf miners and stinging wasps - and birds, who love to peck my tomatoes and berries.

And I agree just let the vines spill over/droop down, just make sure the stems don't crack from bending too sharply.

Critters won't pick your fruits and veggies, as much, if you supply them with some water.

I dont know much about gardening but the sun comes and goes and they are in partial shade. My older plants and now about 5ft 3inch tall and I have both flowers and tomatos growing. I have an immense amount of slugs which this netting keeps out. I have diatomaceous earth on them for the flea beetles in these pictures. I dont know but I think they look pretty healthy and are thriving.

Here are more

The issue here is sunlight. That's pretty much a critical parameter in most fruiting vegetable gardening. If tomatoes get less than about six hours of direct sun per day (on a sunlit day!) they will not produce maximally. Can still call them "healthy and thriving", but you won't get as much fruit. Other vegetables, in particular leafy greens and root crops, are a lot more forgiving when it comes to sunlight.