Tomato plant help!! my husband and i have 8 plants with lots of tomatoes, and my husband says we need sticks?

to hold up the plants, is this true? is it terrible if they hang?

Tomato plant help!! my husband and i have 8 plants with lots of tomatoes, and my husband says we need sticks?
There are thousands of ways to do this but you can do it any way that works best for you. I have known people that actually hand tomato plants like a hanging plant, and then the plants grow down a string from the pot.





I have known of some that put them in tomato cages to help support.





You can also help stake them up by just taking twisty ties and a stake.





You can also have them up against the building, where you have a bracket coming off and have a wire going across and lines coming down, and kind of wrap the wires or lines around the plant, so it grows up the line.





If you have a variety such as a super bush you might not even need a stake or anything at all. If you get a lot of wind, then thats what you have to worry about. Also the thicker the stalk the less likely it will break. Super Bush tomatoes have a very thick stalk, where as an Early Girl tomato has a thin one.
Reply:stakes or cages will work and u can get them cheap from a lumber yard or furniture factories will let u have scrap wood sticks that can be used as stakes.
Reply:I use to use tomato steak to hold up the plants ...But this year I planted mine in 5 gallon buckets with a hole in the bottom. then suspended the plant in them upside down . the plant grew out of the bottom of the bucket and the bucket is up in the air on an old cloths line poles . the plants produced tons of fruit, and no stakes or sticks needed ..........
Reply:I would definately rcommend stakes or sticks to help hold the weight off the roots. They can become uprooted or their limbs can break without a little assistance.
Reply:Staking them up is a good idea but... tye them loosly using strips of cloth an inch or 2 wide not rope
Reply:In our garden, we use a tomato fence made of cattle panels and stell fence posts. It's a bit of a bugger to put up and take down each year, but it works beautifully. Each panel can support 10 closely spaced determinate plants.


For fewer plants, premade cages, supported with a stake driven in the center work well, too. I didn't originally use the support stake, but found that the plants get so top-heavy in the middle of the season that they pull down the cage if there's much rain or wind.


One friend of mine does not spend any time supporting the plants and just picks tomatoes from the top of the heap of vine. I tried this one year, but couldn't stand the waste that it generated. It is true that leaving the plants to trail along the ground will promote disease and allow more insect and fungus damage.
Reply:Depends on the type of tomato plant, but most require some sort of support as the tomatoes grow.





Just get a good sized stick, and stick it into the soil next to the base of the tomato plant 9be careful not to stick it through the roots) then tie the tomato plant to the stick in several places along the main stem.
Reply:they sell wire fences to go around the plant for the needed support if the tomatoes are too heavy and touching the ground they will rot
Reply:Yes, you need them because the weight of the tomatoes can break the plant and the tomato can fall to the soil and be spoiled.
Reply:yes they do need sticks if they stay on the ground they will rot.
Reply:Yeah, they do better when propped up either with sticks or with a tomato cage. The air circulation helps fight fungus and the tomatoes dont like having contact with the dirt and bugs.
Reply:Yes. If the plant get too heavy with tomatoes they may fall over. If they fall they could break the braches and bruise the tomatoes.


Also, if tomatoes lay on the soil they could rot. I uses tomatoe cages which support the plants on all sides.
Reply:If you don't stake them...tie them to stakes or sticks they will bend, break and you will lose the tomatoes. Also insects and bugs that are on the ground will more rapidly ruin the tomatoes as well as not having air circulation around the entire tomato. Your husband is correct.
Reply:Yes!Yes!Yes! Tomatoes grow like a vine. When they grow they begin to wrap tehmselves around the stick to grow straight so it can get proper sunlight, etc....they will grow faster and produce a lot better quality tomato
Reply:I think you mean stakes. It might be terrible to not stake the plants if they break due to the weight of the tomatoes