Tomato String for Lean and Lower

[Rajun Gardener]

Guys, don't over think this. We're not building a structure to hold a 1000 pounds. You can go to any big box store and find a T-post that fits in a top rail pole for chain link fence. Drive a few T-post and slide the top rail over it, you'll have to cut it to the height you want and will probably have some waste. Use a saw saw or an angle grinder and cut a notch(cut the notch to make tabs on both sides) for the top rail to fit in on the vertical and just lay the top rail across it and screw it together. Another option is to drive the a T-post, slide a top rail and then use wire but make sure you secure the ends.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Thanks Bill. I'm excited about using the system this coming year. I grew about half a dozen single-stem tomatoes on string this past year and really enjoyed it. Just getting the mechanicals down.

I will definitely take your advice and start to leaning the tomatoes from the start. That would have helped this last year.

I'm kinda slow sometimes because it took me three years before I realized this.

It takes a bit longer stringing the initial lines at a diagonal but it saves so much work later because the plants are already leaning the way you want. Another plus is it increases the length of the drop line so that lowering the plants is delayed allowing more of the lower clusters to ripen before you are forced to lower them.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

In my sandy soil, I imagine even a 4 by 4 post might not hold if you rum wire at tension from one to another. The native soil is pure fine sand (like play sand ) with some accumulation of loam/silt over the years. There no stone or rocks anywhere. Concrete mix is the solution. Another option that I think of is to bury a cinder block the place a conduit in one of its cells and fill just that cell with concrete. But then it would be something permanent.

Or you could just buy some conduit and zip ties.

Bill

[mikemansker]

This is what I'm going with. It's 1 inch PVC and the legs sit in 1 1/4 inch "sleeves" that are about 12 inches. I have extensions for each of the legs that brings the support bar to about 6 feet.

My theory is that I can easily cover this structure with plastic in the early spring and then add the extensions when I'm ready to tie up the tomatoes. We'll see how it goes.

[Sydney Grower]

Nice work. 2 Birds, one stone. Good thinking

[Gardeneer]

Nice structure. I can sure be very handy early spring over SW MO. I used to live in Joplin.

[Rajun Gardener]

OK, I'm busting on this.

That looks like it was made to act as a low tunnel in a small bed. How many tomatoes are you growing in there even if you raise the height or is this just the design you're gonna use?

I'm just curious because a 10' bed with pvc will sag. That's a great design if you use chain link fencing fittings.

Just saying, not judging.

[mikemansker]

Hi Rajun,

I'm going to grow 6 plants per bed, 12 total. The beds are 3 x 6. I believe that the structure will hold the weight, though. The side supports are 16" apart and the PVC is 1". I watched a YouTube video of a structure without the side supports and they were growing 4 plants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pImTZKiGPEw&t=322s

This shows the structure with tomatoes. There is another one that goes through the materials.

If this works, it will be great. If it fails, it won't be my first gardening failure.

[Rajun Gardener]

The structure in the vid should work, I was worried about that top bar in the above pic sagging. Good Luck and keep up posted.

[mikemansker]

I can understand what you are saying. When I designed it, I wanted something that I could use as a low tunnel in the spring and cover the plants. The weight of the tomatoes would be supported on the outside and nothing would be attached to the center. It's just there to allow a little extra height when I put on the plastic.

[Nattybo!]

Wait, what? 6 tomato plants per 3x6 bed? What variety?

[mikemansker]

6 different varieties per bed. Last year I grew George Detsikas, Cherokee Purple, Mozark, Early Girl, Bush Big Boy, Celebrity in one bed. I know that seems crowded, but they did fine and produced a good number of tomatoes. The only issue was that when they reached the top of the 6' trellis (one per side), the vines went everywhere. That's why I want to do the lean and lower and keep each plant to one stem so I can manage them better.

[Salsacharley]

You can run a 3/4" conduit pipe inside the top bar to strengthen it.

[elight]

Thank you for that video, Mike! I saw a similar system during a recent trip to Epcot at Disney World (theirs was much larger and more complex, as you could imagine), and have been thinking about doing it myself - that video shows exactly how the solution can work for a home gardener. Only think is I think I'll probably use metal conduit for added strength instead of PVC.

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[mikemansker]

I think that the PVC will carry the load and I wanted something that I could convert to a low tunnel and easily cover to maybe get me a couple of weeks earlier start. Adding the legs takes about 10 minutes per bed.