Growing tomatoes up strings

[Scarlet]

I prefer canes but canes get expensive when you plant a lot of toms.

[kathyd]

Ack! See what happens when your computer keeps breaking down and you can't keep up with the responses! Lol . So much information! Which is wonderful, thank you all. OK... well 5ft ish canes seem to cost almost £2 for 3 in our local diy/garden centre, which is quite a lot really if you want a few. I'll try to cut something ready for next year but need something ready-made this year, 'cos my toms is growin' really fast at the moment (fingers crossed). Hence the interest in string. Having said that, I've bought a ball of green jute string which is labelled as garden string, and looks like normal UK brown garden string, so it probably won't be strong enough so I'll try to find something else before disaster strikes. I've already tied the string around the stem near the base of the plant, so I'm hoping it won't hurt it ... bit late at this stage to put the string in the bottom of the pot, but a good tip for next year . I'm not sure how else I'd 'fix' it at the base - I'm growing in pots in a glass 'conseravtory' (read ugly glass box) on the front of the house, and the frame is aluminium, although OH has fixed an overhead wire to wood he's screwed to the top. So hopefully this year we'll avoid blight, the strings will hold and we might even get a crop . Next year might be better planned though .

[Snadger]

The main advantage of using strings is that you don't need to tie the plant to a cane as it grows, you just twist it around the string! You also can't poke your eye out on a string.........

[wizzbang]

I'm always poking myself in the eye with stuff in the garden.
Lynne x

[Bigmallly]

Go to £land, pick up 10 metres of speaker wire fo a squid, split it down the middle..........20 metres should go a fair way me thinks............

[veggiechicken]

^^^^^ Genius! I've been wondering what to do with all those reels of assorted wire in the shed - speaker, phone.......etc etc.

[bearded bloke]

Our after you prune your Autumn fruiting raspberries next spring,you could keep the long canes & use instead of bamboo maybe ??

[veggiechicken]

They go brittle BB - but I do have a clump of bamboo and hazels to coppice
The wire is annoying me though - I know it must be useful for something (apart from wiring!!)

[hollychap]

why string not canes ?

[RedThorn]

Simples, I'm tight

[Bigmallly]

^^^^^ Genius! I've been wondering what to do with all those reels of assorted wire in the shed - speaker, phone.......etc etc.

You could use some of it to mark out that SFG bed you wasn't planning on making..........

[veggiechicken]

You mean this one :- http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1123698

[Vince G]

Another method is to make a ball of string and bury it under the plant before you plant it out then just run the string up along side the plant to what ever you are securing the string to at the top.I've always grown my toms up canes is there any advantage in growing up strings???

Definitely the best method. Mine are grown in a polytunnel so I tie the string to a cropbar, then make a loop at ground level, bung the tom on top and the roots grow through the loop and pin the string in the ground. After a couple of weeks to let the plant get esablished, gently wind the stem around the string.

Never use canes in a polytunnel. Yanking them out of the ground is tough after 6 months or so in the ground, and once you've heard the sickening pop of a polytunnel cover, you never bring canes inside again!!

[Bigmallly]

You mean this one :- http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1123698

That's the one, I knew you wasn't planning one somewhere.