Growing Tomatoes in Wind

[Stvrob]

My best spot for tomatoes as far as sun exposure goes is very exposed to wind from the south, southeast and east, with about 800 acres of fetch over a lake. Will tomatoes become accustomed to the wind? Are there any trellising techniques that will help?

[Cole_Robbie]

I've had good luck wrapping a cheap tomato cage in shrink wrap, leaving the top open.

[saltmarsh]

You might try modified dry ice shippers. This year I'm going to try leaving them in place. I'm making a support from 1/2 inch hardware cloth which attaches to two of the boxes (36 inches X 48" before the edges are rolled for rigidity). Hopefully this will let the tomatoes sprawl 12 inches off the ground. The galvanized hardware cloth is a pain to work with, but once they're made they should last for years and be easy to put in place and store at the end of the season. If the flu doesn't kill me, I'll try to post a picture when I get them in place. Claud

[b54red]

I use a trellis in a windy place and have found it much less trouble than cages which when full of foliage tend to be easily toppled over in high winds unless very well staked. The big weakness with trellising is that it takes a little more time because you must keep the branches tied to the trellis or wrapped in it so if you allow a few branches to grow too long without support the wind can break them. If the trellis is tall and the vines are well maintained and pruned it allows for good air flow and thus less wind resistance. My trellis is three horizontal bars with the lowest one about waist high, the next one chest high and the top one 7 feet off the ground. I use metal conduit held together with zip ties that I get when on sale at Harbor Freight.

[Stvrob]

thanks guys. I'll have to give this some thought as to whether this will be the bets place for tomatoes. In the spring we get hot dry southeast winds that sometimes blow for a week or more.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Stvrob

thanks guys. I'll have to give this some thought as to whether this will be the bets place for tomatoes. In the spring we get hot dry southeast winds that sometimes blow for a week or more.

I'm in the TX Coastal Bend and very close to the Gulf of Mexico with high winds prevailing all the time. The wind is actually a good thing here because it keeps the humidity from causing as many problems as it would without the wind. I have my tomatoes in Earthboxes and a gurney pea fence attached to them. I do have to anchor the Earthboxes to keep them from toppling but I don't have any problems with it. My planting space is the same as yours so I would say you can plant without any problems just make sure you use good strong cages or trellis.

[ddsack]

I have mostly open exposure from the east, so I get that, plus especially strong storm winds from the NE and SE. I don't think tomatoes are that bothered by wind. Once in the ground, they will adapt, and get used to it as they grow and can flex back and forth in the wind. I trellis on stock panels, not for wind - but I can't recall ever having any wind broken branches on my big indets. I've had wind flatten my sweet corn to the ground, and the tomatoes are fine.

The only tomatoes that have been affected are the dwarf project varieties, which may kink down if I've neglected to tie them up when they are heavy with tomatoes. The branches are normally thick and rigid with little flexibility.

I'm thinking the heat and drought brought by the winds, will be more of a problem for you than the wind force itself.

[Redbaron]

I personally think wind is great for tomatoes. As long as it doesn't include tornadoes.

My garden typically sees some really high spring winds and the tomatoes seem to thrive in it if they have some support like cages or trellis. I've always appreciated the spring wind storms. I can't prove it scientifically, but I believe the wind helps pollination of the tomato blooms by buffeting them around. I may get an occasional broken branch or something, but I've never had long term damage from the wind. I do hope for no hail storms or tornadoes. The wind also seems to blow some insects away while blowing aphids, spiders, and fungal spores in.

Ted

[bower]

Recently reading about cold and stress tolerance genetics (in a brain hurtin kind of a way), where I read that only one of three stress response pathways in tomatoes was activated by exposure to cold, but (one or both of) the other pathways was activated in response to "mechanical stress".

It may be that windy spring weather activates some important genes that help the tomatoes to resist stresses all season.

Last year I had some tomato plants that went through Hurricane Leslie without losing their fruit or anything. Only one tomato plant was harmed when it blew over, meanwhile numerous trees were snapped in two or uprooted out of the ground.

[Cole_Robbie]

Does nylon trellis netting cut into tomato vines in a strong wind?

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Does nylon trellis netting cut into tomato vines in a strong wind?

I've used nylon rope and just about everything else to support tomatoes. While they rub against it in the wind, it only seems to create some scar tissue on the vine with no long term harm.

One thing the wind does do that possibly isn't so good is it may cause a lot of cross pollination between plants if they are close enough. I've seen little puffs of yellow pollen escaping tomato blooms in high winds. I sometimes see the same thing when I am using an electric tooth brush to aid pollination but it seems to settle on the plant I was pollinating.

Ted

[z_willus_d]

We've been having a wind-storm the past couple days here in Sacramento valley, CA. Besides several plants that have been flattened (right off their stakes), I've had a few completely uprooted, and many broken branches and lost leaves. Every plant looks like it's had a hammer taken to it's leaves, as most leaves just look like they've been crushed from the buffeting they've received. I'm having a hard time envisioning how this wind could be a good thing for the plants. I know that plants will change their growth patterns and become more rigid, sinewy, and also grow smaller leaves in these conditions.

All and all, I'm pretty sure these plants (and especially my peppers) would be happier with a nice 5-6 mph gusting to 10mph winding instead of the 25-35 gusting to 50+ mph we've been having.

I'm holding out hope that the vines can hold out until this dies down. I think most will, but I also think they'll all be set back from the leaf and branch damage.
-naysen

[Crandrew]

Naysen, what did we get hit with man. I had the same weather. 20-30 constant with gusts into the 40's. I thought my pea trellis was going be to uprooted and fly off like mary poppins. Sorry to hear about the damage

[Rockporter]

Sorry to hear about your wind problems, this is exactly what we experience near the texas coast and the same reason that building a simple cold tunnel will just get damaged. Wind will begin again tonight and through tomorrow here making it a cross your fingers kind of time.