What do you use as a tomato trellis?

[rafiki]

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[momofkhm]

Growing up, my mom just used fence stakes and then old panty hose to tie the tomatoes to the fence stakes. Something like this.

 

The year I grew tomatoes, they were right next to ds's basketball backboard and I tied the tomatoes to that. :001_smile:

[Paintedlady]

For our SFG boxes we used 2x4's bolted into the boxes with conduit pipes running horizontally between them. We were able to find the trellis netting at Menard's in their garden section and that's worked very well. Maybe as the weather gets warmer it will be easier to find? Here's a picture to give you an idea of what it looked like. Not sure how clear it is though.

 

By the way, we looked into doing an all conduit trellis as suggested in the SFG book, but found the price to be too much for our budget. Each elbow was like $12-15 and we needed 6 of them for our 3 trellised boxes. :001_huh: The 2x4's with conduit were way less expensive.

 

[Beth in OH]

Here was my creative solution to your problems :001_smile: :

 

I bought 2 of those green metal fence posts/stakes (the kind you might use to make a chicken wire enclosure)--less than $5.00 apiece. I pounded those into the ground at the corners. Then, we used plumbing PVC pipe to make the overhead structure. We bought a width that would slip over the fence stakes, and used elbow connectors at the top corners. It was sturdy, easy to cut to length with an ordinary saw, and the 4' posts held it upright with no problems. I used it for at least 4 years before we moved from that house, left it out year round, and I never had to reset or replace anything. I think they also sell gray and maybe black pvc if color is an issue.

 

For the trellis, I used bird netting from HD/Lowes. It's the stuff they use to keep birds away from berry bushes. Very strong.

[*Jessica*]

Cattle panel trellising! With four of those green metal stakes pounded into the ground all you have to do is bend the flexible metal panel into an arch and attch it to the posts. Easy! The only hard part was that it required a truck to get the panel home in.

 

 

And here is a photo once the tomatoes have started climbing. I don't think I have one of them farther along in the season.

 

ETA ~ This thing is so strong that you could trellis watermelons on the thing!

[Paintedlady]

Cattle panel trellising! With four of those green metal stakes pounded into the ground all you have to do is bend the flexible metal panel into an arch and attch it to the posts. Easy! The only hard part was that it required a truck to get the panel home in.

 

 

And here is a photo once the tomatoes have started climbing. I don't think I have one of them farther along in the season.

 

ETA ~ This thing is so strong that you could trellis watermelons on the thing!

 

I've seen this before & love it! If I had my boxes sitting on dirt/grass this is exactly what I would do. Don't know if I could make it work on concrete though. Good job! :thumbup1:

[mommyoftwinboys]

Jessica-

What did you use to attach the cattle fencing to the green posts?

[*Jessica*]

Jessica-

What did you use to attach the cattle fencing to the green posts?

The green t-posts come with galvanized metal clips. We used pliers to bend them around the cattle panel.

[mamakimberly]

We had to get creative with ours because we are renting and plan to buy a house in another area in the fall/winter.

 

So, we have all of our vegetables (eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers) in containers, some hydroponic. It is all lined up in a row on the deck of the pool, under the screen, so yay, no critters! Because of hurricanes and tornadoes, we have the 4-ring tomato rings on top and then they are tied twice, horizontally with long strips of twine that connect all of the plants and rings together and to further stabilize them in the wind. I intend to run the cucumbers and squash up the twine as they grow. Not sure if you can see the twine here or not, but it runs just above the first ring and just below the top ring of the metal rings in the tomato plants.

 

This photo is from a week or so ago... we're growing pretty well so far!

 

 

I sat and looked at different people's gardens online and tried to figure out what would work for us... this finally popped into my head. Obviously this may not be YOUR solution, but the point is that there must be some perfect creative solution out there for you! I just knew that the rings alone would not work for us and I had no way to support a trellis. And I couldn't dig up a yard that isn't mine ;).

Edited April 11, 2011 by mamakimberly

[Nestof3]

I want that!

 

I've seen this before & love it! If I had my boxes sitting on dirt/grass this is exactly what I would do. Don't know if I could make it work on concrete though. Good job! :thumbup1:

[frankcassiesmom]

We just use t-posts and rolled fencing wire (the one with bigger holes for cattle fencing, etc.) Just unroll it as long as you need, cut and tie to t-posts. Weave the tomatoes through it as you pinch off the side shoots. We also grow cucumbers the same way. Few things are as much of a pain as growing cukes on the ground. Ick.

[Jesi4891]

These are brilliant. You all have awesome gardens! I think I will try the cattle fencing! Great idea!

[kathkath]

if you pm me your email I will snap a picture of ours. DH made a net out of conduit and string that looks kind of like a soccer rebound goal.

[Lady Florida.]

Our square foot boxes are raised, and I just got a wooden trellis and had dh attach it to the box. Most of our tomatoes are in topsy turvy containers. :blush5:

That's embarrassing to admit, but they actually worked well for us last year. Anyway, here's a picture of my trellis. I don't have any pictures when the tomatoes are actually growing. The first picture is from last month, the other 2 were taken this morning. (I really need to dig the lettuces out - they've bolted.)

 

March 2011 by mamakat9397, on Flickr

 

April 2011 by mamakat9397, on Flickr

 

Apr. 2011 by mamakat9397, on Flickr

[Paintedlady]

I'm sitting here green with envy that some of you have gardens already in full swing and I'm counting off another month before I can put in any warm weather plants. The best I can do at this point is cool weather stuff. :nopity:

[WIS0320]

I use bamboo stakes and I "tie" up the tomatoes with this:

 

http://www.gardeners.com/Re-Usable-Plant-Ties/33-978,default,pd.html

 

I don't just use one stake per plant, I stick them in everywhere the plants specifically needs support.

 

I also have to add that I think Mel of SFG is crazy and he promotes way too close spacing for tomato plants in his book, with too shallow boxes. I've been gardening a long time and I mistakenly decided to give his spacing a try one year and it was by far the worst for fruit productivity that I've ever had. I also think sticking tomatoes that close together is just asking for blight to come in and kill them all since they don't get enough air circulation. JMO! He's very forceful and... dare I say arrogant in his book about his method which is quite convincing, but don't be swayed! Tomatoes need a lot of room, especially indeterminate varieties!

[mama2cntrykids]

Great ideas! I'm going to show these to my dh. We're having problems coming up with a good trellis!

[ElizabethB]

The year we had some, I tied them to sticks from the backyard at first. When they got bigger, I tied them to the tree they were next to. We only had 3 plants, and we move often, so I did not want to spend money on fancy tomato cages. It looked a bit weird, but it worked.

[ChrisB]

Nylon trellis netting

 

We bought our electrical conduit at Menard's, like a Lowe's, and they cut the longer lengths down to the size we wanted, free of charge.

 

GL!

[In The Great White North]

Jessica,

 

How does that do with deer? Is it too high for them to reach in the middle?