Build a tomato trellis for staking tomatoes (2024)

FAQs

Build a tomato trellis for staking tomatoes? ›

Using scrap lumber, you build a frame over your tomato-growing area. Once your plants are in the ground, tie a piece of twine to the plant, and tie it to the framework loosely. As the plant grows upward, you can shorten the twine, thus securing the plant to the frame and helping it stay upright.

Using scrap lumber, you build a frame over your tomato-growing area. Once your plants are in the ground, tie a piece of twine to the plant, and tie it to the framework loosely. As the plant grows upward, you can shorten the twine, thus securing the plant to the frame and helping it stay upright.

The plant will always need additional support with the tomatoes grown, as they tend to grow fairly quickly. The easiest ways you can stake tomato plants that are already grown are with a bamboo trellis system, wooden stakes, an actual vertical trellis, or an obelisk structure.

A 3- to 4-foot-tall staking system works well for determinate varieties. Indeterminate tomato varieties continue to grow, flower, and set fruit until they are killed by frost in fall. A 5- to 7-foot-tall staking system is best for indeterminate types.

Try PVC Pipes for Support

Another sturdy method combines metal stakes with simple PVC pipes. Place stakes at the ends and middle of your patch and top them with PVC pipe. This creates an overhead support beam which you can run your twine from. Then, clip tomatoes to the twine as they grow for continued support.

A single bamboo post is not likely to support the weight of a mature tomato plant. Opt for heavier duty materials like steel t-posts or hard plastic garden posts. Use a post with the proper height. If you're growing determinate tomatoes, they should not get much taller than 4-5 feet.

Determinate tomatoes can do well with stakes since they stop growing at a certain height. Indeterminate varieties, in my experience, do better with cages because they can reach such heights, but your cage needs to be up to the challenge and offer support at least six feet tall.

The Classic String Trellis

Simply put, you run weatherproof garden twine between two stakes, weaving it around and back so there's twine on either side of each tomato plant. As the plant grows, you add more twine higher up the stakes.

When the plant reaches 12" in height, loosely tie the stem to the supporting stake using natural, degradable twine or upcycled strips of t-shirts or hosiery. As it grows, repeat ties every 8-12" for best results.

Stakes allow for easier pruning

Just drive a 6-foot redwood or cedar 2×2, a length of sturdy bamboo, or a metal T-post about a foot into the ground and plant your tomato about 6 inches away from the stake.

How do you stake tomatoes without cages? ›

1) Stake them

Use whatever stakes you have on hand – wooden stakes, bamboo, metal – just be sure that they're at least 4 feet high. This isn't the easiest method because you need to keep tieing the plant up over the course of the season, but it works and is cheap.

We tie lengths of soft garden twine from the bar and train the tomato plants to climb them. When a plant is 18 inches tall, we tie the bottom of a string to its stem and then twist the main stem around the string as it grows. If necessary, we use small plastic tomato clips to hold the stem and the string together.

Wire Trellis

The tops of the posts should be 5 or 6 feet high. Staple or tie concrete reinforcement wire or wire fencing with 6-inch openings to the posts. You can leave a space of about a foot from the bottom of the wire to the ground; it should be high enough that your tiller can clear underneath.

Don't wait to stake and trellis your tomatoes until they are large! It is much easier start when they are a foot tall and you can sucker as you go along. You will want to space plants 18-24 inches apart in the row and drive a stake in every other plant or every three plants.

Wire Trellis

The tops of the posts should be 5 or 6 feet high. Staple or tie concrete reinforcement wire or wire fencing with 6-inch openings to the posts. You can leave a space of about a foot from the bottom of the wire to the ground; it should be high enough that your tiller can clear underneath.

Vertical trellising is my preferred method for growing tomatoes. To hold up rows of vines from the tallest (indeterminate) varieties, you can use hanging strings to create a vertical trellis. Start by driving in sturdy 8-foot-tall wooden or steel posts at each end of the row and every 6 to 8 feet between them.

Cages should be 14-18 inches in diameter with a height of 4 feet for determinate plants and at least 6 feet for indeterminate.

Trellises keep vining plants, like tomatoes, off the ground and protect them from pests, diseases and foot traffic. They also help plants receive adequate circulation and sunlight. Which makes for a higher density tomato crop and lets you conserve space in your garden.