Many of us are just entering our gardening season. We are deciding what to grow, buying vegetable plants, starting seeds indoors and various other preseason activities. Well I want to remind you that especially with tomatoes you need to plan ahead. You need to ask yourself these questions
- How many plants do you have room for?
- Will you grow determinate or indeterminate plants?
- What varieties and sizes will you grow?
- Will you stick with red tomatoes, or grow a tomato rainbow?
- Do you want hybrids or heirlooms?
- How will you keep your tomato plants off the ground?
That last question is probably the most overlooked. Most of the time we plant small tomato plants and sometimes think we have plenty of time before they will need to be caged or staked, so we put it off. Then before we know it, the plants have fallen over and are sprawling on the ground. Then its too to late to give them a support. Have you ever done that? I know I have.
Its very important to put your supports up at planting time. That way you can't forget and won't disturb the roots by driving stakes in the ground after the plant has matured.
But do you really need to support tomato plants? Can't you just let them vine on the ground?
You can let the plants sprawl on the ground if you don't care about picking good tomatoes. I mean, the plant will grow fine but the tomato fruit will likely be shaded too much and rot from being in contact with wet ground. Also, the tomatoes will be low enough for ground animals to eat them. turtles for instance love tomatoes!
It doesn't really matter how you support you tomato plants as long as you
keep those tomatoes off the ground. There are so many different types of support. You could use old fashioned stakes or cages or get more creative with Tomato Ladders, trellises, teepees, stake and weave, wooden cages, tomato towers, topless tables and more. I wrote a post a few years ago showing three or four different and creative ways that I support my tomatoes called How Do You Support Your Tomato Plants?
This year I plan to use all of these methods and more. I want to be able to show you as many different kinds as I can and then determine which tomato support method is the best.
For now my main message to you is you must do something to keep your tomatoes off the ground and implement it at planting time. Have fun with it and be creative, or just jam a stake in the ground and tie the plant to it, but give those precious tomato plants something to grow on. Come harvest time, you'll be glad you did!
Happy Tomato Tuesday!
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