Friday, October 18, 2013

Tomato Support


In a post I wrote last spring, I mentioned that I was going to try growing tomatoes on a grid this summer. If I remember well, I got the idea from Fine Gardening. I did put up such a grid and found out it had several advantages, but also a few drawbacks. Here is my assessment of this technique.




The grid element is made up of pieces of heavy gauge wire sold as a reinforcement for concrete. I simply nailed these 4'x8' sections on posts and planted the tomatoes at the base. The main drawback is the work involved as you have to dig up holes to put in the posts and nail up the grids to then. There is also the expense involved in buying the material, but that was not much.


As far as the convenience of this kind of support for growing tomatoes, it was very convenient. I wove the plants in the wire support as they grew, and they stayed up. The tomatoes were never lying on the ground where they get muddy and can be attacked by slugs. They were also less shaded than when you use  tomato "cages" and so ripened well.




Another advantage is that I was able to tie labels with the names of the different varieties at the top of the grid where they were obvious and easy to read. I did not have to rummage in the ground around the plants to find the labels, and they did not get lost. I left them on the grid and will be able to use them again next year as they are aluminum labels (See my previous post entitled "Blind Labels").




However, leaving that set up in place for next year means no crop rotation for the tomatoes, and moving it will be a fair bit of work. I had thought I might use the supports for pole beans next year, but they are not tall enough. I expect I can get away with growing tomatoes in the same spot two years in a row. I put most of the compost I took out of planters (see previous post) where the tomatoes were, which added at least 10 cm of new, rich soil. I also covered the rows with a thick layer of leaf mould which means that the bed is ready to receive the new tomato plants next year.







11 comments:

  1. Seems like once you managed to put these grids in place, it worked out as a good idea Alain and it looks quite nice as they grow. I'm sure you're pleased that it helped to cut out some of that back bending work too.

    You mentioned about 'getting away' with planting the tomatoes in the same spot for 2 years in a row. Is there some rule about this? Or is it something to do with the soil etc?

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    1. I don't think there is a "rule", but ideally you should not grow the same kind of plants in the same spot as it encourages diseases and might deplete some nutrients.

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  2. That's an interesting idea! An alternative to posts at the end might be to use metal T rails. You can get them 8 feet long and they're very sturdy. This might make it possible to make the supports tall enough for beans too. If it is very rocky, they might be hard to set in place. In our sandy soil here, they are a snap to hammer in and remove if you want to move them. Thanks for the info. Sheri

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    1. That is a possibility. In the garden proper the soil is not rocky but mostly clay-loam (most of it was brought in from the field). I will look into it for other years.

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  3. Could you use the grids to support peas?

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    1. That is a good idea as they would be the right size (and it would increase nitrogen). However, for the next year, now that I have added compost and prepared the bed for tomatoes, I am too lazy to change plan! I grow peas but our climate is not as good for them as Britain's. It gets too hot too soon for peas here (this is very good for tomatoes though!).

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  4. These grids also look like a more efficient use of space than one gets with regular tomato cages.

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  5. Great post to get this gardener's mind a clicking. How deep did you put in your posts? I've seen big metal spikes that fir around a 4X4". Don't know how reliable they are. Have to put in a trellis next year, myself. Nice blog. Visit at patricksgarden.com.

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    1. Thank you for your visit. The posts are not that deep (perhaps a foot). This is why I also put a board at the top of each section. When I have to move them, perhaps 2 people can lift a whole section and move the posts into new holes rather than take it all apart and rebuild it.

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  6. Alain, good to meet you and thanks for stopping by today.
    What a good idea/plan to grow tomatoes. When we grew them a few years back when we had direct sunlight in the garden, we used the cages but found the support that these offer was minimal at best. Your system looks much more organized and more efficient.
    I miss growing/eating tomatoes but unlike your garden we have plenty of soil and the trees/shrubs we planted 20 years ago are mature and very tall now.......so our garden has evolved into something much different from what we started with.
    Have a great day.

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  7. Hmmm, I like this idea a lot. It would be good to figure out a way to move it easily for crop rotation. Your tomatoes looked great.

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