Comments on: Tomato Supports in Your Small Kitchen Garden

By: Small Projects in my Small Kitchen Garden | Your Small Kitchen Garden

Small Projects in my Small Kitchen Garden | Your Small Kitchen Garden — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:54:56 +0000

[...] first wrote about how I built supports for my over-crowded tomatoes in a post titled Tomato Supports in you Small Kitchen Garden. This morning I added a cross-piece that ties together three tellises. The tops of the trellises [...]

By: admin

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:10:50 +0000

Joan: Yes, there’s a whole school of “vertical gardening thought” that involved dangling strings from overhead supports and providing tall fencing and trellises for all produce. One important trick for trellised melons, squash, and pumpkins: hang slings to support the fruits as they grow or they may overwhelm the stems holding them.

Cindy: Amazingly, my tallest plants are but 18 inches shy of the trellis crossbars already, and it’s not quite mid-July! I’m afraid I’ll have 10-foot plants before the first frost. Awesome!

TC: I hope my trellises come down more easily than stakes… I’m counting on removing 12 uprights rather than 24 stakes. Seems as though that should go quickly. Of course, there will be a lot of string to remove… but I’ve used natural fibers so I can toss them in the compost heap. You won my heart with the phrase in your comment that reads “…but I’m lazy…” The club accepts all applicants.

Matt: I’ve seen the a-frame approach. It looks very classy, especially when you use bamboo. Seems about as much work, but it does require more space and more materials. If you want it to look good, use bamboo tripods!

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:20:49 +0000

I just set something like this up on the weekend, though I used bamboo stakes, and I built a sort of A-Frame instead of a single stake for support.

By: TC

TC — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:32:41 +0000

That’s a good support system. I made one just like it in the past for my pole beans. The only drawback, for me, is taking it down at the end of the season. Stakes are much easier. And like you, I was indoctrinated into staking (and “sucker plucking”) at a very young age, and you know the cliche- old habits die hard. I save my tomato ties too, I had a bunch of strips cut from pantyhose, they stretch and are not as hard on stems as some other tying material. But I’ll have to use grass string this year because the pantyhose strips finally wore out and no one in my household wears them anymore (strips from an old t-shirt would work, but I’m lazy and cutting grass string is easier).

By: cindy day

cindy day — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:17:21 +0000

I can’t wait to see how these work for you, Dan. Eight foot tall tomatoes? I had no idea. I’m such a newbie!

By: Joan

Joan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:02:56 +0000

Great idea! I only have three tomato plants this year (heirloom), so I’m using metal cages. Say, the string from above trick would work with peas, wouldn’t it? How about cucumbers? I remember something about using a trellis for cucumbers.