Do it once a season … and for the most part, you’re done.Ĭaging is one of the least time-consuming ways to stake tomatoes. (Check out different tomato cages to find the right ones for you and your garden: stackable garden cages at Gardener’s Supply the Ultimate Garden Cage at and Burpee’s popular XL Pro Tomato Cage.Tomato trellis: wires or rope dropped from a line between posts which provide support.Like stakes, tomato trellises need some manual tying and guiding to train tomato plants upward.Tomato spirals : heavy gauge steel wire that provides support through an upward twisted coil. (Gardener's Supply offers reasonable, sturdy, and colorful tomato spirals ). Which Tomato Varieties Are the Most Disease Resistant? Spirals are wider than regular stakes but not as big as cages, so they take a middling amount of time to use in the staking process. One reader asked how she could find out which tomato varieties were the most disease-resistant. The trick is that the answer depends on where you live. How can you know which tomato varieties are most resistant in your area so you can grow them? Take three steps to find out which tomatoes to plant – the most disease resistant tomatoes in your area that will thrive best where you live.Understand your region’s vulnerabilities.Find out which tomato diseases are most common in your area. Letters after a tomato variety name indicate the diseases to which it is resistant.Understand and use a tomato disease resistance table.Look in an information bank like Cornell University’s Vegetable MD Online, which lists tomato diseases and corresponding tomato varieties that are resistant to those diseases. Review: Tomato Cages from Gardener’s Supplyįor many, it's not too late to buy tomato plants Heirloom and OP (open-pollinated) Tomato Varieties Get more information about how to choose the best disease resistant tomatoes for your garden. Tomato Dirt recommends TomatoFest, which offers over 600 varieties.įor hybrid tomato seeds, we recommend Burpee, a leading home gardening and seed company since 1881. As long as the material you use is soft and will not cause any damage to the tomato stems, you can certainly get creative.Shop for Tomatoes That’s it for now.Tomatoes are happy to grow every which way, rightside up, upside down, left and right. Even using old pieces of cut-up tights or fabric will work, but these tend to get moldy and retain disease over time. The velcro strips are very nice because they can be cleaned and reused over and over, and there isn't the hassle of trying to make knots like with the ribbon style. Another option is a velcro strip, also sold in rolls. However, these will only last for one use. There are many options out there, including soft plastic ribbon-type ties sold in a roll, and you can cut pieces to use to tie around the stem and support. To attach the main stem to the support, use something soft like fabric, nylon, or plant ties. Do this while the plant is still fairly young so no damage is done to the roots when inserting it in the soil. Make sure that about a foot of your support is inserted below the soil near the base of the main stem. Using a single pole or stake to support the main stem is the best way to keep these plants upright, maintain airflow, and allow for easy access when harvesting.Ī piece of rebar, a metal stake, or a strong pole will work as vertical support. Let's look more at the two different types of growth of tomatoes, before exploring other techniques to support your tomatoes so that you can have a successful harvest, all without bringing one tomato cage into the garden space!īut What About Determinate Tomato Varieties?įocusing support to the main stem of the tomato plant is also important for shorter and bushier types of tomatoes. And to that, I say good luck! Cherry tomatoes like to grow tall and long, and tomato cages just aren't tall enough to support this growth habit. You might think, Okay, then I'll only grow cherry tomatoes in tomato cages. The circular style of tomato cages may help to support smaller fruits, but if you're growing anything larger than cherry tomatoes, the weight of the fruit will pull down on the flimsy, collapsible tomato cages and drag them down, leaning and bending the plant to the ground in the process. Not only are they unpleasant to look at, they do not provide the proper support your tomatoes need. As it turns out, tomato cages are actually terrible! There are several reasons why tomato cages are actually terrible. Instead of those tomato cages being an eyesore in the garden, they're collecting dust in my garage, where they belong. As you look out over your garden, ugly metal cages mar the view of the lush plants below and clutter up the garden space. Every season is the same: tomatoes are planted out, and about a month later, the tomato cages go in.
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