Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote:

In article ,
(Frank Miles) wrote:

In article , hawk wrote:
Every time I have staked tomatoes, the weight of the tomatoes causes the
plant to slide down the stake and the result has been the same as no stake.

Regards, hawk

On 8 Sep 2003 08:11:50 -0700, James wrote:

I grew a few tomatoes without stake or cage this year. Seems like
it's a better method. You get a lot more tomatoes because the stems
root themselves on the ground and multi-stems also increases the
number of fruits.

So is the one stem on a stake method just a waste of time?

I've _always_ staked, and never had this sliding problem. Maybe it's my
choice of stake -- I rip 2x4's into 2x2's, and there's plenty of roughness.
Just tie around the stake before tying the plants. Only problem is when
plants get 6' tall and up, and loaded with tomatoes, they can really stress
the stake. Sometimes I've had to guy the stakes to relieve the stress.
Using other materials could cause sliding difficulties if they have slick
exteriors.

We use the same kind of stakes but clip the tomatoes at the top when
they become a problem. I like cages (the heavy gauge, farm-grade,
stackable ones, not those dippy things that bend) for certain tomato
varieties, especially ones that have a tendency to produce huge
tomatoes. I like some of my tomatoes not so huge lol and caging them
accomplishes that. But we stake three times as many as we cage.

I like the sound of the farm-grade cages. Where would a person find such a thing?

I've done caging and staking, and now do a combo-variation. I put cages over the
plants in the spring. They grow in a single row in a slightly curved bed. When they
start to spill over their cages, I build a bamboo/plastic tie seal uber-cage around
the whole row. As the season grows on I can add more horizonals and diagonals as
needed. Very sturdy and lightweight. I sometimes build them for my English Roses as
well. It's hard to describe, but I have pictures of the tomatoes in their uber-cage
throughout the season on my Edibles page:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/great/tempee.html

For the past few years I've visually documented my garden. Each month I add
pictures of some of the highlights. There are links to the flower garden from the
Edibles page if anyone is interested.

EV