Staking provides stability and support to tomato plants.
Staking Determinate Variety
Most of determinate varieties(bushes) do not require support. If you have high yield of tomatoes, use stalking which supports the plant by preventing extra strain and damage on the stem.
It also prevents damage to the fruits. Prefer bamboo sticks as stacks to grow determinate plants.
Staking Indeterminate Variety
The indeterminate variety(vine variety) requires support all the time. Atleast, support these plants with tight string other wise they may fall and fruits may get damaged.
Support the plant within the cage or with a stick based on the container and tomato variety you have chosen.
Prefer wooden or metallic sticks as stacks to grow indeterminate plants.
Tips For Staking Tomatoes
Plants must be pruned. So, select few branches to grow tomatoes. Staking provides good support and stability to the pruned plant when compared to unpruned plants.
Don’t prune heavily because it makes direct interaction of sunlight with fruits for long periods and causes sun scald.
In seedling stage, hammer the stick into the soil. If you hammer the stick in later stages, it damages the roots of the plant.
Don’t tie the plant with stake tightly. Because this may trap the flowers between stake and the stem and make them die.
Tomato Staking Methods
Tomato Cage
Place wire cage around the plant by maintaining 12 inch radius. Tie the plant to the cage or carefully pull the branches through the cage so that plants gets support.
If tomatoes are growing in containers, wrap the cage around the container because it provides support to the cage for maintaining stability of the plant.
Staking Tomato With Bamboo
Depending on the type of plant consider the stake size because it saves lot of space and allows the plant to grow freely. It also provides stability to plant.
Consider a bamboo stick and hammer it into the soil. Now, tie the stem of plant carefully with stick. You can also consider cage system with stake and strings for the plants.
Place four sticks around the plant and wrap twine around them upto the top end of the sticks by maintaining 1 inch gap between the wraps. This helps the plant to grow inside the cage and also gives support.
If you use 3 stakes it looks like triangular cage and if you use 4 stakes it looks like square cage.
Staking Tomatoes With String
Tie one end of the string at the bottom of the plant or with small stake (hammer a small stake near the bottom of the plant). Now, wrap the plant care fully around the string. Tie another end of the string to beam, which is 4-5 feet above the ground. When plant grows it gets twirled around the string.
Trellis:
When you are growing plants in containers, place the containers near the walls where you observe full access of sunlight. Then train the branches to grow through trellis which is supported by wall with the help of strings.
Wooden Tomato Trellis
If you don’t have wall or have wall with no proper sunlight access, you can use regular upright trellis to support the plant which is generally made up of wood.
Advantages Of Staking:
Staking helps your plant to grow vertically so that your plant gets aeration leading to disease free environment.
Harvesting your tomatoes is very easy when compared to the plants that are spread out all the ground.
Staking helps the fruits to keep away from the ground pests.
