Trellising GH Tomatoes Down

9 years ago

Our Indeterminate tomato plants have reached the top of our trellis with no where to go - the fan blades whack off the tops if we let them grow any higher. We would like to train some of the vines to grow back down the trellis - has anyone had success doing this - photos would be great!? I did an internet search and find nothing that helped. We have been able to train the vine to go lateral a short distance and head the plant downward but the plant is constantly making a U turn up to the sun at the point where we tie the vine - any suggestions?

Here are a couple of photos to show our situation. The horizontal pipe is the top of our trellis.

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Comments (5)

karin_mt
9 years ago
I've done that with cucumber vines and it worked ok, but I haven't tried it with tomatoes. Most plants have a built-in urge to grow upwards (geotropism, my 7th grade science fair project, fyi) so it might be a hard sell to convince the tomato plants to grow downward.
hudson___wy
Original Author
9 years ago
That was a great idea for a science fair project Karin - you had an interest in plants way back then (maybe not so way back - haha)!

The Topsy Turvy tomato plant growing method got me thinking about sending the vine back down the trellis (?) - it is probably a dumb idea but it is so hard to top off a perfectly healthy vine this early in the season and one that wants to produce if I can just figure out a way to let it. I'll have to experiment with some not so great ideas - that might lead to a better idea?
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While I'll agree with Cuestaroble that stringlines are the best use of the gh framework to support tomatoes, you seldom need to lower plants more than 10 feet in any year. I usually figure 10 extra feet oif wraped twine on the tomahooks for cherry types, 6 feet for all others. I will say that in my experiences the stems never lower in a straight row as intended. Often other clips or tying methods are needed to keep rows open enough to pick. Most importantly. you'll need to devote time to this task or plant growth will get out of hand and plants will break over from upper fruit weight. I often have spent 2 hours per week suckering & clipping 750 plants. Yep, it's worth it but I still will not go more than 9 months growing season(March thru Nov.). Winter growing causes a whole new set of tasks.
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Sorry that I'm late to the game, but I use a drop-line technique using a 8' 1"x1" horizontal post support be two "A" frames on either end. Then from the horizontal post, I drop lines down every 18" (purchase clothes hanging type synthetic cord which has good weather resistance from Home Depot). The bottom of each line is tied loosely to the base of the plant and the tomatoes are manually wound up the line every week or so. This allows me to get a lot of varieties in a small space with a lot of good circulation (which helps to abate fungus/mildew). The link below will provide you with a pic I drew of my drop-line technique. Like many I started with the store bought tomato cages and after seeing them topple over more than once decided to try out different support systems. The drop-line technique works well for your heavy thick beefsteak indeterminants. For the cherry indeterminants, rather than hanging line, your could attach some garden netting to the horizontal bar. You can keep extending your support by adding a new horizontal bar and an additional A frame (I usually make 16' supports with an A frame on either side and in the middle. In terms of cost, for the wood you're looking at about $15-$20 and 100' of line would be another $6-10. Basically you'd have a good 16' of support for around $30 which can be used each season (I leave my framing up and only remove my lines during the winter time). With drop-line techniques it's important to prune as this technique primarily supports the main trunk and nothing else (I typically get rid of the suckers and grow only 3 to 4 stems per plant).. You can support additional stems by purchasing some garden twine or tomato clips. smithmal Here is a link that might be useful: This post was edited by smithmal on Fri, Jan 17, 14 at 15:06
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szut, I can give you my experiences from Z5 in the Rockies, but that at best might be a bit similar to your locale. The short answer is yes, I would get some tomatoes now (some larger plants from a nursery/store would get you going faster than starting seeds at this point). Assuming you picked up some decent sized plants, you might be getting ripe tomatoes in 5-6 weeks. However I say this from the POV of I manage summer temps in my GH and keep it going all winter, so if you have no plans along these lines, then maybe it would not make sense to start now. However if you put the tomatoes in large pots, then they could stay outside until fall and migrate into the GH, which should give you a few more weeks to a month of season extension, even without supplemental GH heat (at least I can get that here most years). I typically leave one or two tomato plants from my summer production in the GH over the winter. They typically produce well up to Thanksgiving, and sometimes longer, although everything slows down in Dec and Jan (I add heat but do not add light so the shorter days hurt). I do have a heat storage system which helps keep the temps up without outrageous fuel bills. And my climate is typically quite sunny, which helps too. It has been too many years since I lived in the NE for me to have a good feel for how much of my experience here would be applicable to you. As Hudson says, check with some local GH folks and see what they do. But I will say that conditioning a GH for the summer is relatively cheap and easy compared to doing the same for the winter. Some fans and vents, possibly shade cloth, and water misting will do quite a bit to keep summer temps down. Good luck.
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oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)
9 years ago
In commercial greenhouses, tomatoes are grown up a string. Once they get to the top, the bottom leaves are removed, and the plant is lowered down and over about a foot or two. This allows for up to 10 months of production, before the stem just gets too long to manage.
billala
9 years ago
I've been fighting this battle for years, especially with yellow pear and black cherry. The best I've come up with is lateral poles, and tie them down every few days. I grow mine in containers under a screen (squirrels and jay birds), so can't do the lowering cuestaroble suggests. However my Dad, a flower grower in Indiana '20s-'60s, used to grow free-range (unstaked, untied) tomatoes for personal use in a field on the property, and when they started to look like they had bloomed out, he would just shovel dirt over about 2/3 of the plant, and it would take off again. In the fall just before the first freeze, he would cut off the stem of a few, about a foot into the dirt, gather them up, and string them up in the end of a greenhouse, and we would have tomatoes for another month or so.
hudson___wy
Original Author
9 years ago
Some of those old techniques are some of the best! My GH is to small for Cuestaroble's method - although a great GH solution. I think the lateral idea on my cattle panels is probably the best option I have - I agree that the weight of the tomatoes at a later date will help keep the vine where we want it - if I can get the vine to that stage! I need to plan better for it - I didn't leave much room to tie the vine on it's way down - and it should have more sun - I will have to plan better for next year. I think I will experiment with one or two vines this year to see how they do. Thanks for sharing GW members!

Trellising GH Tomatoes Down

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Trellising GH Tomatoes Down

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