just reading through this and wondering where bamboo is, I understand that tomato plants grow alot bigger here especially in the south, but mine on a single pole are standing up well about 4 foot tall now (okay small fry), you just train the main stem up the pole and yes you get sagging of branches but I have found in the past the lower branches tend to hold the weight of the upper ones. I have however not done what I have always done as I am working on the principle I am in a new country with different growing conditions, the plants get much bigger here, so I have also constructed some cages to see if there is any benefit in doing this, and I will live and learn. I never worry about if a growing structure is atractive or not as once the plant is filling it it will always look pretty...well to my eyes. the one thing I haven't done here which my dad always did was toms in hanging baskets, and way back in the 70's he also had them hanging upside down, no such thing as a topsy turvey then, he used the old buckets that where past there prime to do it. I haven't used this method this year as I am nervious about attaching them to our house, the outside is that plastic, that looks like wood stuff! sorry I really can't think of the name! where as most UK houses are brick so can be drilled into to, to place brackets, can you do this here? or do you use trees?? lots of them by my garden!LOL! or do you use special posts? Any info gratefully recieved.

I take a 1.25"X4' steel stake and drive it a foot or more deep and work it in a circle to enlarge the hole. Then I take my wooden 1.5"X1.5" stakes and drive them in about 6" from the plant when they are plated. I tie the plants to the stake with yarn. When the plants are about 2.5' high I start tying the stalk to the stake. You need to keep tying the stalk to the stake as the plant grows or the plants will collapse from the weight of the tomatoes later on. I had that happen last year being the newbie that I am. I would only ever use stakes but that's me. Another thing I found useful was 12" shish-kabob sticks from Walmart, 100 in a pack for about $1. I place them in the pots for support after I transfer the plants from the 12oz starting cups before the plants go into the hardening greenhouse. This works out great for planting out afterwards. I also take a bunch of the sticks and lay them out on a newspaper overlapping two of them by 4" next to each other. I take elmers glue and put a couple drops on the overlaps to bond the sticks. You end up with 20" supports. In my 6" deep pots I have 14" of support to tie to. My plants are usually 18-24" high when they are planted out to the garden. shish-kabob sticks Every week I prune, wrap and tie the plants with yarn. In 2008 we had over 150 tomatoe plants. I went through about 1200 feet of yarn. I like my plants to at least look nice for a while, not sprawlers. I get my pots from local restaurants. Just stop in and ask them to save them. These are usually mozzarella containers. I have over 150 saved now from the past two years. If you keep them out of the sunlight when not in use they will last for several years without getting too brittle. Here is a link that might be useful: Mom's Garden Pics

I read all the posts about trying to SPEND LESS MONEY on building tomato cages..even the one that wanted to built them for less than $3.00 each. There are a lot of suggestions...like buying fencing on a roll as a ONE time investment that LAST a life time. Well...to buy tomato cages or even to construct TOMATO cages for LESS than $3.00..........TRY FREE! CONSTRUCTION companies tear down a lot of old buildings, gates, fences. THEY HAVE TO PAY SOME DEBRI COMPANY TO DUMP THEM...so if you approach them for FREE MATERIAL..THEY ARE SO HAPPY to GIVE YOU ANYTHING you want that you can haul away yourself!. I built or use fulton bed Frames or mattress metal frames for trellis for cucumbers and string beans so they can climb up. IT'S FREE! For tomatoes, I found BIG HEAVY DUTY TALL tomato cages that I found in GROCERY OUTLET for $2.99 EACH that would have gone for $10.99 - $15.99 at HOME DEPOT. EVERY CITY HAS A "DUMP" day where tenants and homeowners leave out items on the sideways for pick up. YOU CAN FIND SOME REALLY NICE STUFF in them piles. One homeowner landscaped their house and left out a lot of big black empty planters holders (3 gallon - 5 gallon) which would have costs me $3.00 - $5.00 EACH if I have to buy them ..(FREE, FREE, FREE!!!) so I used them to plant all my herbs. I got fennel, dill, cilentro, parsley, oregano, basil going. AND do I HAVE TO PAY FOR THE HERBS or my VEGGIES? Heck no!. I use ROOT ALL or a ROOT HORMONE powder ($4.00 at WalMart) and CLONE all my veggies off from my friends or neighbor's garden. (Other than the $4 bucks that I have to spend for the rooting hormone).....otherwise it's FREE, FREE, FREE. What? "Buying" STRING to string up trellis? STRING is so FLIMSY!! If you go to HOME DEPOT or OSH...there are those LONG plastic "fastener"s that is WRAPPED around wooden boards. Those are cut and thrown to the ground as the boards are lifted up on to the display area. I picked them off shipping area grounds and use those PLASTIC string and string them across to the stakes for support for the tomato. They are STURDY and they are NOT FLIMSKY. (FREE, FREE, FREE). Got to go.... HOPE THIS ALL HELPS. FROM "FREE IS ME!!!"

What is the CRM? Always looking to improve my setup. As for the plants I usually just let them grow until they are able to reach one of the holes in the panel. I can pull the limbs out through the panel holes and then tuck them back inside the panels to support the plant. I'll try and take a pic when they get bigger so you understand. Sometimes if I get a plant that really wants to lay down I will tie it to a panel until it gains enough height to branch out and hold its own. I really dont have alot of problems with the plants getting to big, if they do I just pull through the top and let them grow back down on the outside. You can wrap limbs around the panel itself and the tomato holds itself up or use string. Im so jealous of they people down south showing tomatoes ready to eat!!!