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Supporting Tomato Plants With Stakes, Cages, Ladders and Spiral Stakes

© Keith Muraoka

Tomato plants commonly sprawl all over the vegetable garden and threaten to take over the flower bed. The smart gardener stakes tomato plants when they are young, or places a wire cage over them, to keep their growth under control.

Tomato Stakes and Cages

Good support keeps the vines growing vertically instead of sprawling all over the ground. Plants not only take up less space, but are less susceptible to pests and diseases since the fruits are usually off the ground.

The easy route is to hammer a stake into the ground next to the plant and use ties to bind up the main stems. If plants are bounding out of control, it may be neccessary to hammer three stakes around each individual plant and use lots of string, ties or plastic netting.

But there are numerous tomato supports on the market - from the traditional galvanized metal tomato cages to bamboo trellises, tomato spirals and even tomato ladders. The larger supports can be inconveneint to store over the winter. The flimsy standard galvanized metal cages are especially impossible to store safely out of season.

However, there are collapsible cages made of galvanized metal that fold flat for easy storage. These are heavy-duty circular cages with the same diameter all the way up that fold flat for storage, but they cost many times more than the traditional metal cages at around $20 apiece.

Ladders and Spiral Stakes

Besides local garden centers, a search on the Internet for "tomato cages" brought up numerous companies that sell a wide variety of contraptions. Tomato ladders look intriguing: plants grow right up the ladder-like devices with a little help from twine during the early stages. Because they are ladders, fruit is easy to see and easy to pick. Lastly, the ladders are stackable and won't take up too much space in storage.

Tomato spiral stakes are very popular today. They are easy to use, but some pruning will be necessary so plants don't sprawl. If you like your tomato plants to get really bushy, the spirals may not be your best choice.

Keeping fruits off the ground by supporting plants will aid in your success. Of course, if you have tomatoes coming out of your ears, you can also afford for a few to rot on the ground.

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