3 Options For Supporting Tomato Vines
Supporting tomato vines will lead to healthier plants, higher yields 和 better quality fruit. Here are popular options for supporting vines, each with its advantages 和 disadvantages:
铆合
The traditional stake maximizes sunlight to the plant 和 leads to earlier yields 和 larger fruits.
Bamboo poles or 1-inch-square (or wider) stakes are used, spacing plants about 24 inches apart. Stakes are placed about 3 inches from the plants. Sisal twine or strips of cloth are used to secure the vines to the stakes.
铆合 tomatoes will expose the soil to drying, which may lead to higher incidences of blossom end rot compared to non-staked tomatoes.
罩盖
罩盖 tomatoes will lead to high yields of quality fruits. Get the strongest cages you can find.
Better yet, make your own cages using 6-inch-mesh concrete reinforcing wire. 切断6.5英尺，弯成一个圆圈. This will make a cage 2 feet across 和 5 feet high. Remove the bottom horizontal ring 和 poke the loose wires into the soil. Cages may be cut in half for determinate varieties, which grow shorter.
Tomato vines grown in cages have been reported to produce the highest yields of marketable, crack-free fruits compared to vines grown under other support systems. The fruits are well protected from sunburning.
Caged vines are reported to produce later crops compared to vines grown under other support systems.
格子
Many large-scale growers use the string-weave system. Sturdy metal stakes are pounded at the ends of the row. Wooden or metal stakes are placed between every other plant.
Weather-resistant sisal or nylon twine is tied at the end stake. The twine is then strung down to the next stake in the row 和 looped around the stake, 保持绳紧.
Stringing continues to the next stake, looped around, 和 so on to the end of the row. Then it is looped around the end stake 和 run down the other side of the row. The first twine is placed about 12 inches off the ground 和 new rows of twine are placed every 8 inches up the stakes as the vines grow.
This system receives very good, but not great ratings for all fruit quality 和 yield traits.
写的 汤姆卡尔布, 扩展 Horticulturist, North Dakota State University. 图片由 gregw, 多夫哈林顿 和 德怀特冰期. Sources of information: Cox, Bonnie. 2019. Training systems 和 pruning in organic tomato production. 俄勒冈州的蒂尔斯，科瓦利斯.
