Waz200 I like it!!!!! Good old fashioned canes, you can re-use, not expensive, and plastic support rings, also re-usable cheap and cheerfull. Taking of, never tried copper for slugs, it is expensive, visited Tesco, last week, they had the old fashioned copper plant labels, 10 for £2, very cute, was going to label plants with them (YES, really!!) but have desided might try them as anti-slug device. it is very windy where we are, near Sea and South Downs, this time last year, greenhouse toms, suffered blossom end rot, cold at night and very hot in the day, ones in veg plot did well. The others, I put in pots in between shed and greenhouse, so they did not blow over.
Mine are indoors, but I was finding it a bear continually moving ties up the canes last year until someone on this site suggested using string and wrapping the stems carefully around as they grow. I switched to strings mid-season last year (supported from the blind wires in the conservatory) and it was really easy, so this year I built a pergola inside the conservatory to support the top end of all the strings (and I can run them across the top if they grow taller) which is working well and gives me somewhere to hang baskets that aren't ready to go outside yet.
Anchoring the bottom of the strings is more of a challenge - I do grow on staging so last year I tied a loop of string around the girth of my growbags and staging, and then tied the bottom of the vertical strings to that. This year I wanted to be neater so used fleece/netting pegs for the bottom of the string when planting out, which I then buried with soil to make sure they wouldn't pull out, problem is I used natural fibre string not plastic which rotted through quite quickly so I have had to either dig out the pegs or put new pegs in so the heads are above soil level which should stop the string rotting - using plastic string would have been better!
I think something like that could work well with raised beds like you describe - 4 corner posts and some top beams to make a sturdy open frame (maybe add a couple of diagonal braces between the top beams row to row) attached to the raised beds for moment support at the base (sorry for technical terms, I do structural design). You could perhaps tie the bottoms of strings to screws or eyes in the raised bed itself, and in case they grow too tall you have an extra 3 feet across the top to train them if necessary.
Watery - heres a clip that shows you how - ignore the bit on pruning at the beginning, and just watch what he does with the main stem of the plant and the string. Normally you do it as they grow a little bit at a time
Couldn't resist my previous comment, i will probably grow up eventually. Anyway i just use canes, ties and halo pots, seems to work okay for me, I do need to keep on top of adjusting the ties though as we all know how quick tomato plants grow, i reckon if you stood still next to one for long enough you would probably see it growing.
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Waz200 I like it!!!!! Good old fashioned canes, you can re-use, not expensive, and plastic support rings, also re-usable cheap and cheerfull. Taking of, never tried copper for slugs, it is expensive, visited Tesco, last week, they had the old fashioned copper plant labels, 10 for £2, very cute, was going to label plants with them (YES, really!!) but have desided might try them as anti-slug device. it is very windy where we are, near Sea and South Downs, this time last year, greenhouse toms, suffered blossom end rot, cold at night and very hot in the day, ones in veg plot did well. The others, I put in pots in between shed and greenhouse, so they did not blow over.
Mine are indoors, but I was finding it a bear continually moving ties up the canes last year until someone on this site suggested using string and wrapping the stems carefully around as they grow. I switched to strings mid-season last year (supported from the blind wires in the conservatory) and it was really easy, so this year I built a pergola inside the conservatory to support the top end of all the strings (and I can run them across the top if they grow taller) which is working well and gives me somewhere to hang baskets that aren't ready to go outside yet.
Anchoring the bottom of the strings is more of a challenge - I do grow on staging so last year I tied a loop of string around the girth of my growbags and staging, and then tied the bottom of the vertical strings to that. This year I wanted to be neater so used fleece/netting pegs for the bottom of the string when planting out, which I then buried with soil to make sure they wouldn't pull out, problem is I used natural fibre string not plastic which rotted through quite quickly so I have had to either dig out the pegs or put new pegs in so the heads are above soil level which should stop the string rotting - using plastic string would have been better!
I think something like that could work well with raised beds like you describe - 4 corner posts and some top beams to make a sturdy open frame (maybe add a couple of diagonal braces between the top beams row to row) attached to the raised beds for moment support at the base (sorry for technical terms, I do structural design). You could perhaps tie the bottoms of strings to screws or eyes in the raised bed itself, and in case they grow too tall you have an extra 3 feet across the top to train them if necessary.
I can't form a mental image of what you do with the strings. Does anyone have a photo?
Waz, I'm sure they appreciate it.
I am using bent canes and I tie them from the top down and support the sides as well.
Watery - heres a clip that shows you how - ignore the bit on pruning at the beginning, and just watch what he does with the main stem of the plant and the string. Normally you do it as they grow a little bit at a time
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gw3zFBJB8I
Yes that how I do it. Except not so brutally.