[LotuSeed]

Before my seedlings are big enough to go into their beds, I need to get their support system in place. I'm curious to know how others go about supporting their tomato plants. Might be helpful to note whether you grow them in a gh, pt or out in the open as well as if you grow determinate or indeterminate varieties. Thanks in advance

[Annen]

This is the way I usually do them: the plants that are going into a permanent position are supported by strings from a horizontal wire strung above the plant and looped to the base of the stem, and I wind the tomato plant around the vertical string as it grows.  If they are in a position where I may have to move them them I use canes and plant in pots rather than soil or a growbag. Mostly indeterminate and I nip off the sideshoots and stop them at 4 trusses.  The determinate ones I grow in pots like a houseplant and just nip off straggly bits.

[LotuSeed]

How tall do your plants get?

[Annen]

I haven't the space to let them grow too high.  From bench top to top of the windows. I sometimes let a sideshoot grow to a second main stem to get more trusses but I forgot this year.

[Kristen]

I too have a cropping-wire attached to the greenhouse roof-struts, and strings handing down from that. I use nylon type string as raffia-type garden twine tends to rot and when the plants are heavy with fruit towards the end of the season they collapse!

I plant in the border, and I place the string under the rootball of the plant, by the time the plant needs support from the string the bottom is properly anchored in its rootball

These are the rings I use [to hold the support wire along the greenhouse roof], they have crop-headed bolts which slide into the aluminium glazing struts and then turn and lock into position.



Prior to planting out I use short (12"-18") slit canes when the plants are in 9cm pots, 24" split canes in 1L pots, and  then a stout, but short, bamboo when they are in 2L pots.  My plants are getting on for chest height by the time they are planted out mid to late May.

[tosca100]

Definitely grow outside. We use steel rods from the builder's merchant, two metre lengths cut in half. Standard for here, bamboo canes are very expensive. The plants are 6 varieties and the biggest grow to about 6', (pink beefsteak) and the littlest currant to about 3. We have pots with early cherry toms too.

We have a very long growing season in Bulgaria.

[Growster...]

We'll put a dozen in big pots, standing in watering trays in the greenhouse, and strung the same way as Annen. Some will also go just outside the greenhouse in long trays. They'll get to five or six trusses before they're stopped.

The rest will go down at The Patch, and twenty will grow up our daughters' old climbing frame, again on strings, and this year, we're cutting back on runner beans, so yes, you've guessed it, we'll pop another twenty in the permanent bean growing frame as well!

[Headgardener22]

I use string for the indeterminate in the greenhouse and polytunnel. If its in a growbag, I tie the string around the growbag if its in the ground I tie the string to a short length of stick which I bury at the bottom of the planting hole.

Twist the plant around the string as it grows. My plants grow to about 7ft when I stop them at the to of the polytunnel.

Determinates are in pots on the bench so they can fall down towards the floor without being prey to slugs.

Can't grow outside, too much blight

[Lardman]

Having tried most things I've settled on this from last year.

Galv wires running across the top of the GH and the bottom, with ploy twine dropped between top and bottom. Tomato clips from the ploy twine to the tomato stem.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=114309.0

[LotuSeed]

Thanks for all the replies 😊.  It's interesting to see the difference in growing techniques.
Tosca, your method sounds the most similar to the way I've done it in the past. Do you stake each plant individually or do you put a stake at the end of each row and then weave twine between the plants to keep them upright? Does that make sense? 
The one benefit of having bamboo growing in the yard is that I can cut my own poles (the ones I see for sale at garden centers are not big enough).
This year I've cut the bamboo into 7 - 8 feet lengths 1-1.5 inches in diameter, and will drive them into the ground 8-12 inches. The part I have trouble with is supporting the the horizontal growth. 
Lardman those clips would be less fiddly than tying knots in bits of twine!
Headgardener I've never grown a tomato plant in a pot without staking it. Now I kinda want to try. I get volunteers here and there, and last year I had a currant type that came up near my pond. It sprawled all over the ground setting roots and fruit wherever it pleased!
Annen, do you pinch out the top so that the plant puts its energy into ripening the fruit?
Growster, that's a lot of tomato plants!
Kristen, I use regular brown garden twine (jute?) and you're right it does start to break down before the season is finished. Does the nylon cut into the stems at all? I ask because the stuff I use is pretty soft.
Once again, thanks all!

[tosca100]

The stakes are per plant, with poly string supporting to deeper stakes at the ends. Tie in with jute, the poly string should last years. I used to use string clips in the UK when I only had a few plants, but not for fifty!

[Annen]

By the time they have made 4 good trusses, the plants are usually banging their heads on the roof and the growing season is usually over by that time, end August/Sept. (and I'm usually fed up with looking after them by then, the plants not the fruit  )I found a pic from last year

[lettice]

For many years now for outdoor tomatoes I have grown in pots.
I use the verve bamboo canes, they have lasted well and thinner than a bamboo, but much cheaper.
B&q often have them for £1 for about 20. I use my dad to get them as he gets his 10% off.
I've attached a photo, with the technique I use in one of my current international kidney potato pots, that I will reuse for my toms.
They are just under a metre tall, but I combine them with a peg or two.
The pegs sit nicely with the smaller cane diameter and allows me to drop string also from the peg to tie up a second truss or two.
For these pot grown ones, I remove the tip two leaves above the fourth truss.

In the greenhouse I have a raised bed one side of the greenhouse for the toms and I tie string vertically in the greenhouse on a couple of horizontal poles at the top of the greenhouse, but also for the heavier crops use canes.
I let these grow to seven trusses and pinch the tip two leaves above, so they bush and do not grow over the roof of the greenhouse.

[Snoop]

I grow outdoors. The plants vary in height - depends on the weather and the feeding, I guess - but they usually grow well over 6 feet in height. This year I'm growing 18 plants. I have a row of nine canes leaning inwards towards another set of nine canes. The tops of each pair of canes extend beyond the point at which they meet. Long canes are placed horizontally so that they are supported by the point at which the canes cross. These horizontals are tied to the uprights to form a single structure. A few canes are tied across the uprights lower down to provide additional bracing, as it gets very windy here.

A few years back, when I started growing tomatoes, I misunderstood the instructions I was given by my local allotment mentor. The upshot was that I picked off all the side shoots up to 20 cm or so and then tied in all the others, leaving me with a monumental problem: it was far too difficult to tie them all in to the uprights. But I had a heck of a lot of tomatoes! I know what I'm supposed to do about side shoots, but I still leave four or five to form main stems that I tie in. I know you're all going to say, yes but you're in Spain. I should point out that I don't know anyone locally who does this but I can't bring myself to break them all off!

[LotuSeed]

Tosca thanks for the pic ☺️

Snoop, Early in the season when the plants are small I pick off side shoots, but once they get going I leave them to their own devices. Sometimes I'll pop the sucker in the ground and let it root. The yellow pear and costoluto genovese turn into mutants and even though I tie them to the posts as they grow, they still need more support (horizontal rather than vertical methinks). I've never bothered with tomato cages as my plants would quickly outgrow them, though I might try them with my peppers this year.
Do you by any chance have a pic of the set up you use?  I think our growing seasons might be fairly similar (at least the summer part). We're averaging in the 60's now but once summer hits it'll 80+. My plants usually stay in the ground into October.