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Old May 19, 2019   #1
TomatoDon
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Default Cages, stakes, and weave

I have always had far better production with 24" diameter X 5 foot tall CRW cages that any other method for "training" tomatoes, but I wanted to ask others who have tried all three methods of growing tomatoes -- plus I guess we should add the trellis method -- which, in your own person experience, has the best production as to plant size, fruit quantity, fruit quality, and fruit production.

The cages win in all categories for me, but I wanted other feedback. I'm growing about 2,000 more tomatoes this year, and it's getting expensive, very time consuming, and impractical to use cages on all of them, so I thought if any of you had really good results with other methods I might try another method that seems the most promising. I'll be doing my own test plots for all, but again, just wanted to see what the people here at T'ville have experienced.

Thanks in advance!
DS
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Old May 20, 2019   #2
brownrexx
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I use 5' tall cages but I only grow 15 plants.
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Old May 20, 2019   #3
taboule
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Don,

I've used hybrid approaches, a combo of cages, stakes and trellising against a chain link or other fence. To me, off-season storage of the cages is an issue, so I use the conical shaped ones which neatly stack into each other, taking up less space. They're not as sturdy as the cylindrical shape, with its wider base, so I stiffen them up with 2 or 3 solid stakes. Then if the plant outgrows the cage (most of the time) I add more stakes to help the stray branches. I usually grow less than 100 plants per season. I've also used collapsible, square shaped cages, but too flimsy for my large plants.

I would think the large number of >> 2K plants would bring its own set of challenges -like what do you do with all these cages during the off-season, collect or leave in the field? I'd think the weave solution would be cost efficient and most scalable.

Have you also considered growing determinates that wouldn't need caging? (or does no such a thing exists.)

Looking forward to others' opinions.

Regards.
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Old May 20, 2019   #4
Old chef
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I use the Florida Weave. Love it! Easy . I only grow 100 plants . For 2000?

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Old May 21, 2019   #5
peebee
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I've tried all methods but I only grow about 25 plants. To me personally, I did not think the method of supporting tomatoes factored in production very much. So whatever works for you.
I've visited farms and observed that they all used the weave unless growing indoors in hot houses. It would seem to be the obvious solution for big scale growing, as others have stated here.
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Old May 22, 2019   #6
TomatoDon
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Thank you Brownrexx, Taboule, Old Chef, and PeeBee.

One thing that concerns me is even with the weave system, you still need a lot of support stakes, and the videos showing how it works often show them wanting a very tight and strong weave. It seems this would hurt the plants -- maybe even cut into them, or saw into them when the wind blows. However, all of the big growers use the weave system, so I guess that is a bit of art in learning how to do it correctly.

I've about maxed out as far and the number of cages I want. I have a few rolls of CRW left, but when we have made cages out of all of that I will strongly consider not making anymore. My slogan is "home grown tomatoes" and that's how I did them for fun in the back yard, and I want to keep a large part of the commercial still done that way. However, you never see big tomato farms using cages.

Concerning determinates, I think that will work and I'll be trying it soon. I got a call from a friend who has a client that used to be a professional tomato grower in one of the tomato capitals of the mid-South. He used the weave, and still does on about 300 plants he still sets out. My friend says he has a glass insulator attached to both ends, which keeps the string from cutting into the PVC pipe he uses for weaving. I hope to get a picture of that soon.

As to storage, it's not a problem. The main tomato field joins an open pasture and I have acres to store cages in the off season.

Thanks again for all the replies. If you find any good videos of people using the weave system, please post. I saw some good ones on a truck page site but it was on Facebook and I can't find it.

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