Google "tomato trellis" and look at the images. It will give you tons of ideas.

I would suggest a hog or cattle panel supported by several metal posts, but that would only work if you have access to a pickup and/or trailer to haul it home.

You could do the Florida Weave. It just requires a few poles and some twine. It works if you can plant your plants all in a row.

You could purchase tomato cages. There are several kinds available at Wal-mart, Home Depot, Lowe's or any of the wonderful nurseries y'all have there in the city.

And, if you want something a little offbeat.....at the Wal-Mart in Gainesville this week, they had brightly colored cages in lollipop type colors.....yellow, purple, lime green, red, orange, etc. They would look really cute in a yard with some blooming plants around them. I don't know if every W-M has them. I think they were 4.95 each, which is more expensive than making your own from CRW or woven-wire fencing. On the other hand, cuting that wire to make your own is very hard on a lady's hands.

I don't know how large your tomato plants usually get. My average large indeterminate usually tops out at 6' to 8', so I make really tall cages. Not everyone's tomatoes get that large, especially if they have more shade (mine get sun all the whole day long) or plant significantly later than I do.

I'll link a Florida Weave page. One advantage to it is that is doesn't take up much storage space in the off-season. A disadvantage is you have to add a new layer of twine periodically, but since you spend oodles of time in the yard, I guess that wouldn't be a problem. : )

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Weave How-To

My Walmart had two different kinds of those bright colored cages. I think the one I looked at was about $7. They aren't tall but they certainly looked stronger than those el-cheap-o things they sell. I have a lot of the larger of the two (el-cheap-o) ones that they normally sell and I use them around peppers. In my garden I can push them down to the bottom ring if I want to. In southern Oklahoma clay, I had some of the smaller ones and could barely get them deep enough to stand-up straight without bending the legs in the clay.

We have a teenage boy that just moved in next door. He came out to the garden to talk to us the day we planted the tomato plants. I was digging up an area so I could build up a little raised bed around a trellis to get ready for cucumbers. He was standing there with a cup catching worms from every shovel full of soil. I thought he was getting ready to go fishing but he was trying to start his own worm farm so he would always have them for fishing. LOL He said my garden was like a big worm farm. He just moved here from El Reno and is excited that he can grab a few worms and a fishing pole and walk a block to the lake. I don't think he has caught a fish yet so thought my worms might help him out. LOL

I know everyone is worried about having peppers out with the cold coming, but that is too late for me. I have some in pots that I can put inside for a few days but I think I have about 10 or 11 already in the garden. I might try to put something around them to protect them from the wind but I can't protect all of them from the cold. I do have 5 WOW that I removed from my tomatoe plants so I guess I can protect half of them. They needed to be planted really bad so I went ahead and put them in the ground earlier this week. I can't cover them with pots because I will not be here for a few days. Oh well, if they don't produce, they don't produce. At least I have back-ups in pots and some small seedlings that can stay in the house. I enjoy the peppers almost as much as tomatoes.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas. I did see those colorful cages at Walmart yesterday and I think they are about $6.95 each - a bit high IMHO. I like your idea Dawn about making your wire cages, but I think I could use some wooden stakes (sturdy) and make either 4 cages using fencing stapled to the stakes, leaving about 1-2' of staking at the bottom to drive into the soil. Sound good?

BTW, both tomatoes I am growing are indeterminates. I am going to use that Hu-more to build up the soil because I have to put them in the same place I did last year, so I need to improve and amend the soil. Should I throw in some high phosphorous fertilizer as well?

I used to grow lots of tomatoes, but haven't done it in many years - amazing what you can forget! LOL!

I am afraid those tomatoe cages won't be tall enough for these indeterminates - what do you all think? I know Walmart had some of the plain cages, but in different sizes, including some really good tall ones, but I don't want to spend that much money. My initial outlay for some stakes and fencing will be a bit of cash, but I can use them in the future, plus you usually get a surplus of the fencing in a roll to use for other things, too.

Dawn, I saw you mention Arkansas Traveler in many of your posts. In one, you consider these "large" tomatoes, but on the Internet they consider them "medium" tomatoes. If they are large, I'll be very happy - well, I'll be happy either way. I really grow tomatoes for the hornworms, too, but I'd love to get some tomatoes for myself as well. I don't need many plants, because I think 4 will produce just enough for my own personal needs. The Arkansas Traveler is touted to be a tomatoe that tolerates heat well, while the Early Girl produces early (as the name suggests), and fall, so I hope I've got this right so I'll have tomatoes spring, summer, and fall.

I also read that once the tomatoe plants get 3' tall, to remove the bottom 1' of foliage to prevent soil splash that can cause viral and bacterial diseases. Do you do this?

Susan

I am not sure, which variety John grew here, but look at the height!!!

They are last years tomatoes, in Kansas City.

Moni

Susan, You can use stakes and fencing, but make sure you use REALLY sturdy stakes and fencing. (Moni's photo of John shows you why!)

Whether Arkansas Traveler is a large or medium tomato depends on whether you are growing in a milder climate or a hotter one. Folks who grow in milder climates (like the northeast and midwest as well as parts of the west coast and Pacific northwest) can often grow tomatoes that easily weight well in excess of 1 lb. or even 2 to 3 lbs. Those are "large" tomatoes. So, by comparison to THOSE tomatoes, Arkansas Travelers are medium tomatoes.

However, folks like us who grow in excessively hot and dry climates tend to think AT is a "large" tomato, because the plants that produce best for us all summer long tend to be those that produce only 6 to 8 oz. sized fruit. Is that really a large tomato? No. But it is about the largest you'll get here from July on, so I refer to them as "large".

Do I grow some truly "large" tomatoes in my garden? Yes, and a couple of examples are Mortgage Lifter, Marianna's Peace, Tennessee Britches, Neve's Azorean Red and Big Boy. Do I get a lot of tomatoes off those plants? No. So, I mostly grow tomatoes that may seem "large" here, but would only seem "medium" to people in other places who can grow REALLY large tomatoes that we only dream of. Size IS relative, depending on where you grow and what kind of fruit your plants can produce in those conditions. I hope that's not confusing.

Moni,

Those are tall plants and John is obviously quite an accomplished tomato grower! I have grown some about that tall before, but I don't like climbing a ladder to pick them. (I garden on a slope, so a ladder is dangerous.) I let mine get a maximum of 8 feet tall, and then I bend the branches down and tie them to the cage...so the branches can go UP for 8 feet and then back down for 8 feet.

And, the last time I checked, the world record for tomato plant height was held by Charlie Wilbur and I believe it was 53' tall. He had to stack ladders on top of scaffolding to get to the top of it. I read his book once and thoroughly enjoyed it, but have never felt compelled to try to grow 'em tall like he did. Among his practices....growing kuzu and composting it specifically for use as compost in his tomato growing beds. You couldn't pay me to plant kudzu. LOL

Dawn

Last year Tommy at Bethany Country Store had some 5' tall welded wire with 6" X 6" openings. He was putting together round cages that fit into those half whiskey barrels. I think the wire alone was like $7.00. Was real sturdy stuff.

Might try there.

Susan, Last year at Big Lots I bought some of those cheapo arches they use for weddings - the kind you have to screw together yourself - and lined them up in the back yard for my tomato plants. Since I have a small yard, I got tired of looking at the wire cages and wanted something a little more decorative. They worked very well and I am doing the same this year. I will have to replace a couple of them, since a wind storm late in the summer took a couple of them down. The arches were nice because I could pick from underneath.

So Dawn, uh, you're saying that "size doesn't really matter"? LOL!

As long as the taste is there, the size REALLY doesn't matter to me. Did I say that right? Gulp.....

Thanks, Hank, I may just run over there tomorrow a.m. and check it out.

You guys have all (especially Dawn) gotten me excited to grow tomatoes. I LOVE EM! No matter where you go shop, there is still nothing like a home grown tomatoe. I hate the supermarket ones that are bred for a longer shelf life from picking to trucking to store to consumer. Geez! They are hard as a rock and about as tasty!

Now, if I can just learn how to can some for winter.

Susan

Last year I used cattle panels as trellis for half of my tomato plants and the large cages from WalMart for the other half. The one's I used the large cages on, did grow ALOT larger. I'm not sure if they produced more tomatoes though, I didn't count, and my plants were all different varieties. But the difference in the size of all of the caged plants was enormous. The cages were not sturdy enough to hold some of them up in the end. Sheri

For about $3.50 you can make a good one. Go to Home Depot and find the rectangles of concrete reinforcing mesh. It is heavy duty wire, with squares about six inches, enough to get your hand plus a tomato through. It takes one for each cage. Bend them into a cylinder and fasten with zip ties. They are about the right size if you overlap two squares. I usually drive a t-post into the ground and tie two cages to one post.

Storage is a problem if space is limited.

If your garden is out of the wind, you might not need the t-posts. My husband doesn't use posts, he just buries the bottom of the cage about 6 inches into the ground.

Susan,

I'm not gonna touch that statement about "size doesn't matter" 'cause I'll end up in some kind of trouble...I will say that tomato flavor is more important than size. How's that?

There's a wonderful folk-type song that was recorded in the mid to late-90s called "Home Grown Tomatoes" and part of it went like this:

"Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes,
What would life be without home grown tomatoes?
There's only two things that money can't buy,
That's true love and home grown tomatoes."

Kinda says it all, doesn't it?

Dawn

I remember that song, Dawn! Heehee!

Barton - your idea sounds like a winner to me. I will soon be making a trip to Home Depot. Does the concrete mesh come in certain lengths and widths - is that what you're saying? I will also get some staking material. I do have some wire cutters, so that's one step up, huh?

You mean, storing the cages over winter? I have 2 sheds in the backyard to store them in....thank goodness.

Thanks for everyone's input!

Susan

This year, I am going to use some trunks that broke off of Crepe Myrtle trees. They are tall, smooth and the wood is really beautiful. I trimmed off all the little side limbs and will make some kind of teepee or t-trellis using them. Maybe weave some willow around them in a wattle effect. Dunno yet. I want them to also be attractive, so will see what I can come up with artistically. :)

~ sweetannie4u

Annie,

I bet they will be beautiful.

I know your crape myrtles won't sprout and grow from those trunks......but....it reminds me of a story I read in a gardening magazine once. It was one of those "My Worst Gardening Mistake Ever" type columns, and the author had actually cut and used green willow limbs as fence posts around a garden spot. Of course, those green willow limbs rooted and grew, and soon the garden had a "natural fence" of willow trees, which was not a good thing. LOL

We cut and use cedar a lot here to make tepees, fence posts and arbors and such since we have an inexhaustible supply of it.

Dawn

Susan,

You won't need wire cutters; the wire is too heavy duty for that anyway. In the concrete section of home depot, the pieces of concrete reinforcing mesh are stored flat. They are one size. It also comes in rolls but you don't want that; it would be too heavy to lift the roll and too hard to cut. I think the short dimension is about four feet and that is how tall your cages are going to be. The long side will be the top and bottom edges of your cage. To bend them, lay them flat on the ground, and step on them as you pull up one end. Keep going till you have a cylinder. Overlap the ends so your cages are the diameter you want. I overlap two squares and that seems about right for me.

If you have tomatoes like the guy in the pic earlier in this post, you are out of luck. :) For most of us mortals they are big enough. The plants will grow over the top and hang down the outside by the end of summer.

I usually tie my little tomato plants to a short stake to support them until they get big enough for their "arms" to reach the sides of the cage.

Another use: One year I bent a couple of them lenghthwise to make a half-cylinder "tunnel" about a 14" high and maybe 18 inches wide. Something like a plastic hoop frame, but cheaper and more durable. With agribon fabric over it, you have some protection to extend the growing season for small plants like greens and radishes. I will have to say, that my attempt at overwintering spinach under them did not work. The spring romaine lettuce seedlings got off to an early start though. I did not get around to doing that this year.

If you leave them flat and fasten them to t-posts with zip ties they make a great pea fence, sturdy enough for Oklahoma wind, but easy to take down. If you used green-colored posts, they would blend in well enough to use as a temporary or permanent support for ornamental vines. I don't know how many years it would last. The wire is not very visible.

I have planted Juliet tomatoes on either side of an arbour and trained them up and over it. The fruit hung down and was easy to pick and it was so beautiful. I hung a hummingbird feeder under the arch and the tomato leaves shaded it.

Would work with Super Sweet 100s or any Indeterminate tomatoes that grow 10-15 ft. vines, as long as your arbour is sturdy enough.

~ sweetannie4u