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"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?


I let them grow. I'd probably have better results if I pruned, but I never
seem to get around to it. And, the branches sticking out provide support.
Last summer, the deer pruned the branches and one of the plants collapsed
completely into the cage.