HelpfulGardener.com

Hello, I've been browsing the forums for about a year now but haven't gotten around to posting yet. I live east of Seattle in the Cascade foothills. Last summer was a pretty terrible year for my tomatoes, I'm hoping for better this time around.

I came across this tomato tower at Park's seed - has anyone tried this or a similar setup? Any luck?

https://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/6910/

My husband and I built a support using a sturdy wood beam that ran down about 5' above the tomato bed, and then strung up the plants with sturdy twine tied off to the beam and the base of the plant. It worked just fine, but isn't really movable year to year. Given what I've read about symphylans around here and just plant/tomato problems in general I'd like to have a more portable setup so I can more easily support my plants in whatever bed I have them in each year.

Thanks!

Hi Des! Glad you finally posted. I have seen this support you speak of, but I have never had actual experience with this type, I make my own" Texas tomato cage" type supports this year. I'm sure some of the other guys can give you guidance, I just wanted to welcome you.

I like that swingset idea! I think that could really work well, the only problem is we don't have a truck of any sort to transport it. Something to think on though!

The towers look to be quite expensive for what you get. Only 5 ft tall and support a single vine. 8 ft wooden stakes would be cheaper, while pruning and tieing would be little different that pruning and weaving with the towers. Stakes are temporary in that you have to pull them at the end of the season to prevent rot.


I have a system similar to your swingset, but it needs to have at least two T posts pounded into the ground (which can be pulled up at the end of the season). Taller stakes are bound onto the T-posts and then a 10 ft metal conduit pipe is placed on top of the stakes from which the lines hang down.

IMHO CRW cages are far better than those tomato supports, and they are cheaper also. You can buy 10' pieces of CRW if you don't want to invest in a whole roll. I usually make 1 tomato cage and 1 bean/cucumber/whatever tower from a 10' sheet. It's not quite big enough for 2 good size cages. Actually, I buy the 150' roll which makes quite a few (30 5'/18" diameter cages, although I use larger) depending on the size of the cage.
JMO,
Tom