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Bl*#dy Tomatoes!
Steve the Gardening Vet
Posts: 1,630
in Fruit & veg
Every year I end up with tomatoes that I am trying to train into cordons that seem to want to do nothing more than just have a bit of a lie down.
This year I've used several strings of twine to run them up and it has rotted at the base so I have ended up with a loose loop tied round the base with the string running up to an eye that is screwed into the greenhouse frame and a cane into each pot to encourage verticalness.
What do others do that is foolproof?
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I always use canes. I;ve tried the twine thing in the past, but with mixed success.
So - garden cane next to the plant. Then horizontal cane to link several together at or near the top - and if you were a Scout, you'd find the square lashing involved a doddle! It helps to stabilise the uprights, although you may want to strengthen them further with additional supports (depends on the size of GH - Monty did this technique a while back - but his GH is about as big as my garden
)
I think my error is in my pot selection, I have those plastic self watering things with a pipe down to a reservoir in the base and that means quite shallow compost so my individual stakes never seem that solid. Change of pots next year I think!
I was a bit late getting mine in cos we had a holiday at the wrong time, we have a fair amount of fruit forming tho!
If they don't do a dive...
I've done both methods, but I think the pots are the main factor Steve. I use those cheap plastic florist's buckets that you get in supermarkets for a couple of quid for 6 or something. They're nice and sturdy when full of compost
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
have you tried growing bush tomatoes?
no canes/strings/support wires needs and you still get tonnes of fruit!
I put mine in ordinary pots with canes and attach them with green clips. Then put more clips on when they get bigger and they are all very vertical
I don't know what I did before clips, great for sunflowers and training roses too.
I have a small greenhouse too so Monty is interesting but often unhelpful. I use two horizontal canes secured to two garden obelisks (past their best for the garden!) and string vertically between the canes. This takes up the whole of one side of the greenhouse but does for other stuff too, like cucumbers.
The problem then becomes too much familiarity between toms and cukes! I am also really bad at pinching out regularly so getting into the greenhouse can be dodgy. I rarely use pots though, cut compost bags in two and make 'growbags' so you can't stick canes in them either.