"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
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Does anyone have some practical advice on what to use to stake up
tomatoes? Last year I used some 3 foot steel fencing, but my tomatoes
grew an easy 6-7 feet tall. It was a mess, one of the clusters fell over
lol.


Don't use stakes. Buy 5 or 6 foot high fence wire and make cages, as shown
in the pictures below. Two stakes/posts per cage. The branches grow out
the holes, and that's what supports the plants. Much of the fruit grows
inside the cages, so you have to cut a few holes to reach into for
harvesting. Other fruit may grow outside the cage and threaten to snap the
branches, so you might have to tie the branches to the cage occasionally.
I've been using these cages for 25 years. Correctly set up, they'll
withstand 60 mph winds.

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/ancientangler/?


I love that first picture, with branches sticking out all over.. That is
what mine looked like, only worse, and there was 6 plants close to each
other doing the same thing. The entire mess fell over from the weight of the
branches.

Do you prune your tomatoes, or just let the suckers grow?