[tangojulie]

I grow my tomatoes in supermarket flower buckets. The ones in the greenhouse have their canes held upright by tying them to parts of the greenhouse structure. The ones outside have to take their chances.

The tomatoes are doing pretty well so far but the downside is that they're already so tall and heavy that the canes are having a hard job staying anything like upright.

Does any of you ingenious people have a fix for this? Preferably one that can be implemented now rather than when the pot is planted up....

Next year I'm thinking of trying a homemade version something like these

http://www.gardening-naturally.com/acatalog/Cane_Supports.html

Has anyone tried these and did they work?

[Annen]

I usually put two 4ft canes, one on either side of the pot and run a loop of string or old shoe lace from each cane around the stem, alternately.  Sometimes if they are determined to fall over I put a third or fourth cane in and run loops from that one as well.

[cadalot]

use 3 x 1.2m high canes one at 12 one at 4 and the other at 8 on the clock face on the edge of the bucket and pull tem together at the top, you now have something to tie your tomato too as it grows

[JayG]

I wonder whether those cane supports you've linked to would merely cause the whole lot to topple over, although that wouldn't happen if the pots themselves were buried (but if that were the case you may as well have planted them in the soil in the first place!)

Are the pots going to be standing on soil or on some sort of hard standing?

[m1ckz]

i have a few outside on the garden   the cane goes through a hole an into the ground

[AnneB]

I usually start off with one cane and add another or even a third cane, especially if the plant has heavy fruit or is a bush variety.   Following a helpful suggestion last year, can't remember if it was Mumofstig or Auntie Mogs or even someone else, I support large fruit with a pair of discarded tights cut into strips.

Your supporting canes don't have to be inside the bucket.

[tangojulie]

Wow, thanks for all the ideas so quickly.

Most of the pots are on hard standing but for the ones that aren't, it never occurred to me to put the canes in the ground *duh*

Will experiment with the other ideas - thanks!