Tomato Supports

Has anyone ever used this type of support?
Comments?
Pros? Cons?
Thanks.

https://www.totallytomato.com/ttsite/ttsiteviewproduct.aspx?ProductID=8669

I've not used that but I don't think it would work very well unless it was really anchored strongly. It looks like that is a nylon net held up by maybe 2x2" stakes. Probably wouldn't take a serious amount of weight on it. Just my opinion FWIW

Jeff

I just called them to find out more and they said it's only the netting you're buying and you have to add your own stakes. With that said, if you had a stake for each plant, the netting would allow the suckers to be left on...??? And would that mean more tomatoes?

Looks kinda flimsy to me, but then I have high hopes for my tomatoes. My tomato support system is field fence attached to 8 foot metal fence posts, and is about 6 feet high (the posts 2 feet in the ground). The fence is at the side of my hay bale setup, so I can tie the plants to it. I'm obviously expecting tremendous plants, so we'll see what happens. I once had volunteer cherry tomatoes grow up 15 feet into trees, so it can happen...
Margo

This is the kind of tomato support I had back in the late 70s in Wisconsin. The area was somewhat protected from wind, and the netting was hung from an A-frame made of aluminum pipe. Worked beautifully. My current contraption, a 4x7' remesh fence fastened to Park Seed's tomato towers by 6' lengths of el cheapo wood trim from Home Depot, was an attempt to reproduce that A-frame with nylon netting. You could get a pair of sturdy bamboo stakes to anchor each end, and balance another bamboo pole across the top where each pair of stakes cross each other. Tie the 2 threesomes together with twine, after you thread the crossbeam pole through the netting like hanging a curtain. Then you could thread a vertical stake thru the netting at each plant, leaning it against the crossbeam. A twist tie here & there will keep the netting from creeping up the stakes. At the end of the year, you can either leave it there, or untie the twine, pull out the crossbeam, and role up the entire thing, ready to unroll and reposition next spring.

wrt suckers: they provide more tomatoes but the tomatoes of the entire plant will be smaller. If you want one slice per hamburger, take the suckers off and grow big tomatoes.

That's exactly what I was thinking, Carriee...and I've got plenty of bamboo to use too.
Thanks for the tip on the suckers....but what does "wrt" mean?

Could you use something like this for squash, cucumbers, peas or green beans? I have enough small bamboo to make this...
Thanks for your input!

http://www.gardeners.com/Bamboo-Tomato-Cage-Kit/default/StandardCatalog.OutdoorGardeningSale_Cat.35-886.cpd

Pinger -- wrt "wrt": it means "with respect to".

I've never been very happy with the round supports that you can buy at Home Depot or Lowe's garden shops and I don't want to spend money for the bigger square more sturdy ones. Last year I grew them on short trellises that I salvaged from some old large planter boxes. Those worked really well. I don't know what I am going to use this year, as I have started seeds of many different tomatoes. I need to be making up my mind.

Me too, gram...I feel like I'm way behind. I have no idea what type of supports I'm going to use with my tomatoes, squash (if any), green beans, cucumbers (if any) and peas.
I'm feeling a little flustered...almost panicky.

"short trellises that I salvaged from some old large planter boxes"...like lattice, maybe? I can't visualize what you're speaking of....

I can't take any pictures right now. Sorry. They had lived for two years in large container pots and held up vines. I did not replant those vines (been kicking myself since) and so put those trellises on the side of one of the flower beds and the tomatoes did OK on them. But......I only had a couple of tomato plants to worry about. This year I went nuts trying to find varieties that will grow in the heat and humidity here, so now I have to figure out where to put them all. I think I will end up getting those round things and just setting them up here and there among the flowers, except in the dahlias. I found a role of sturdy fencing in an old shed we just tore down (had completely forgotten it was there!), but I don't have a place to line up that many in a row, except out in the front yard someplace! LOL

Pinger,

After reading a bunch of the threads here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/479212/ on how to support tomatoes, I made cages using concrete reinforcing wire. It makes really sturdy cages. It's kind of expensive, I paid $80 for a 150' roll that made around 40 cages and it took me like 4-5 hours to get all of the cages made. Also you pretty much need bolt cutters to cut it and the cut ends are very sharp. I would come home bleeding a lot when I was making them.

If you plant the tomatoes like 4' apart and mulch them with something clean like newspaper, straw, leaves you can just let them sprawl as long as the fruit is off the ground.

Jeff

jkehl--Your tomato cages will last forever! I've worked with that stuff in the past and it was tough to handle. What are you going to use for stakes to hold up your cages? Or did you build in "feet"?

Diane

I did the 'feet' thing I think. I read on one of the forums that Indy cut the bottom wire and bent those as stakes so that's what I did. Seems to work real well.

Jeff