I stake my tomatoes with 7 foot long rebar which will last for years. Squash rambles, so you don't need to stake it.

I'll let others who are more familiar with eggplant and peppers chime in on those topics.

You'll find all kinds of discussions, many with pictures, on various methods of caging and/or staking tomatoes over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here. CRW cages tend to be the most popular option.

The 3 ring cheapy things work great for peppers and eggplant even though they are a waste of money for tomatoes. Squash, depending on the variety, never do well in cages IME. The leaves and stems tend to snap when you try to contain them in a cage.

As to the peppers, what variety are we talking about? In ground or in containers? What feeding and how often? Over-watering them is a chronic problems for some as it causes root rot. And in your climate, keeping the roots cool/shaded/mulched can be of help.

Need more details.

Dave

PS: and welcome to the forum! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato forum

I'll try to go in order here.

I'll take a look at the CRW cages. Have to do a google search or something, but I'll take a look.

Peppers - multiple types of bell peppers (orange, purple, green), Jalape�o, Chili, Banana and a few more of the same size. All these are going in a raised bed and I usually only fertilize once. My soil was right where I wanted it when I had it tested pre-season.

Thanks for the heads up on over watering. I try not to because I know the hot peppers usually don't like a lot of water, but I'll try to keep it away from the bells as well.

How I contain tomatoes depends on the type. If they are determinate, use a tall plastic stake and maybe a cage (though I find the stake most effective.) Drive the stake at least 1-1.5 feet into the ground. Only use plastic stakes, as the plants will snap wooden ones half way through the season.

If your growing indeterminate varieties, I find a trellis to be most effective. I grow on one similar to this: http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2777/a-freestanding-tomato-trellis-improves-yields-and-keeps-the-garden-neat

And I prune them in the manner discussed here: http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/3721/video-how-to-prune-tomatoes

I find that method for indeterminates works extremely well and allows you to plant more tomatoes in a smaller space.

I let my squash sprawl out on the the ground.

Can't help you on the eggplant and peppers :-(

Good luck!

~Kelly

I'm growing indeterminate's in a raised bed. Using an idea I found on the tomato forums, I have the tomatoes all in one long row with a cattle panel on the S side and a row of staked wire garden fence on the N side. So the tomatoes are growing up between the 2 panels. In the fall, I will replace the garden fence with cattle panel, the cattle panel is just so much better. The two panels are about a foot apart. It has been really easy to maintain the tomato growth this way.

You'll find lots of ideas on the tomato forum. Oh, just in case, CRW is concrete reinforcing wire. Found at the big box hardware stores. Cattle panels are at Tractor Supply or your local feed store.

~dianne

I used to always prune and trellis toms but it is a lot of work and I'm tired of it. For the last few years I have been letting them ramble unpruned in large cages. I get the 10'x5' concrete slab mesh (I guess that is what they are calling CRW) from the lumberyard. All one has to do is roll the two ends together and hook the wire and you have a large cage of six-inch mesh heavy wire 5'high. The diameter is big enough that I just set the cage on the ground and that's it. If it will be exposed to possible high wind with a big plant on it then I put a couple stakes at the bottom to prevent flipping over.

They cost about $7 apiece around here (probably cheaper most places) and will last a long time. It also comes in 100' rolls, which may be cheaper and in my experience is a heavier gauge and is a bit difficult to deal with. You need heavy bolt-cutters to cut it and the snap-back can be dangerous. Unroll it a bit at a time on a large flat area and pin down one end with heavy weight and stand on the other end while cutting.