Tomato Support On An Allotment

[Jrae85]

Hi,

I am looking to grow Tomatoes on my allotment due to lack of space in my garden, and a lack of a green house.

What is the best way to support them on an allotment? Bamboo cane a frame, wire cages etc?

Any advice would be great!

Cheers

[Guest]

Hi and welcome to the vine.

Provided they are cordon types I just tie them against a bamboo cane. If they are out in the open it might be worth considering a frame so it is more sturdy.

[Jrae85]

Thanks. They will be on my allotment so they will need some strong support. I just wondered if there was a good method?

[Penellype]

I find bamboo canes a little flimsy for big cordon tomato plants. Old broom handles or 6ft stakes work better. One method I used when I had a row of tomato plants was to put stakes either end and at about 3ft intervals and plant a plant near each stake and another in between with a cane. I then put 2 strong strings between the stakes, winding them round the canes for extra support.

My tomato plants tend to get a bit wild as I usually lose the battle with the sideshoots, but this is the general idea:



Actually this gives a better idea:

[jonny the plant pot]

This is how mine are gunna be grown on my alotment.
Although it's in a polytunnel if you look on the right hand side of the picture they will be supported by just one cane.

[Bigmallly]

If you grow determinate/bush varieties, minimum support is required.

[Spunky]

Jrae85 you can build a row of canes the same as you would for runner beans but with 4-5ft canes but leave some of the middle canes out you only need them about every 4 foot then support you're tomato canes off this

[MarkPelican]

In previous years I've grown indeterminate tomatoes as cordons at the allotment but this year, I'm going to try growing them in a cage (of some sort yet to be determined). The reason is that I want to leave them alone and not take out the sideshoots. I've seen a lot of pictures of tomatoes grown like this outdoors in the US and I want to see if its feasible in the UK.

[Bigmallly]

I've grown them outside in cages Mark but only determinate varieties.

[Jungle Jane]

In previous years I've grown indeterminate tomatoes as cordons at the allotment but this year, I'm going to try growing them in a cage (of some sort yet to be determined). The reason is that I want to leave them alone and not take out the sideshoots. I've seen a lot of pictures of tomatoes grown like this outdoors in the US and I want to see if its feasible in the UK.

Have you ever wondered why one tomato plant is growing so slowly & the others are fruiting well,then you investigate & there's a sneaky sideshoot that's been unnoticed,so it's been taking all the plants energy to produce a lot of green stem,while the other plants are growing properly. US has a different climate to us,a longer growing season would allow time for all the fruits to develop. It's good to compare one plant one way & other plants the other way at the same time so you can see what happens. Good luck!

[Penellype]

In previous years I've grown indeterminate tomatoes as cordons at the allotment but this year, I'm going to try growing them in a cage (of some sort yet to be determined). The reason is that I want to leave them alone and not take out the sideshoots. I've seen a lot of pictures of tomatoes grown like this outdoors in the US and I want to see if its feasible in the UK.

I've done this with cherry types very successfully (Sungold, Chocolate Cherry) - the plants seem able to support large numbers of small fruit. I find these varieties tend to produce forked stems rather than sideshoots anyway. The problem with the larger fruited varieties is that the sideshoots come out of the leaf joint next to the flower truss, and seem to sap the energy from the fruit.

I have had good success with greenhouse and indoor tomatoes letting the lowest sideshoots grow (the ones that are not near the trusses) so maybe try this method in your cages?

[arch01]

One of the guys on our allotment (who has excellent toms) uses heavy gauge wire run between 2 m tree stakes and runs twine off the top wire. He loops the line around the plants as they grow. Worked quite well for him last year.

As for cages, it would be a good experiment. The problem with larger toms in such a set-up is that they don't receive so much sun which is more of a concern in the UK then the states. I grew up in a hot clime and we never bothered with trimming side shoots and just caged the plants and had tons of toms. But it was a much hotter, sunnier and longer growing season.