Support Options for Cherry Toms.

[Locomatto]

The one year that I grew currant tomatoes, I ended up taking a weed eater to it later in the season as it was in the process of trying to take over the whole neighborhood. I didn’t realize at the time just how ridiculously large and rambling they could get. It and your cherry tomatoes will be fine if you keep them trimmed (and it might be a regular chore with your currant).

It made the most amazing tomato soup though once I harvested enough of them, though.

I wouldn’t worry too much about rusting, either. Any rust that falls into your soil will just enrich it with iron, a mineral that tomatoes are rather hungry for.

Good luck

[FarmerShawn]

Originally Posted by lapk78

Instead of t-posts, what do you guys think of using rebar? I do plan on taking down the cages at the end of the grouse season, so being able to remove the vertical supports would also be a plus. And I have a feeling removing t-post would be a difficult endeavor.

A small once-in-a-lifetime investment makes pulling posts a total breeze.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=post+pull...b_sb_ss_i_2_11
Look at the lever-based ones, with two long sticks - most of them on that page. It's what I use, and I pull a lot of T-posts and wooden stakes with it.
Shawn

[Father'sDaughter]

I use 8' bamboo stakes, but the cherry tomatoes always outgrow them and und up grown back down on themselves. I don't do much in the way of pruning, just sort of gather stems as they grow and loosely tie them to the stake. It's a bushy mess by season's end, but I get a ton of fruit off them this way.

Given the cramped quarters in the beds, if you choose to stake I suggest driving in any T posts or stakes outside the bed walls and training the plants to lean out to them as they grow. This will leave more space for airflow as they will be growing out away from each other. And if they do end up toppling over, they can sprawl on the ground outside the beds instead of on top of each other.

[Black Krim]

red currant.

The first two times I grew this in a poor sandy soil. Great flavor and small manageable plants. About 2feet tall and wide. A productive bush.

Then I moved the garden to home. With loads of compost and the soil was rich and dark. The red currant grew HUGE.

I no longer use the cone cages..... they are for the eggplants and the dwarf tomatoes.

Keeping the air moving around the plant keeps diseases risk down. Perhaps keeping each to one or two stems, tied to a tall pole would work.

For all but dwarf and determinates: I planted two feet apart last year and pruned to 2-4 stems. Each stem trained to a string tied to overhead pole. Despite weekly snapping off of new shoots, I was thrilled with the production, ease of harvesting, and lack of disease.

[QAGuy]

Here's an idea for you....PVC cages.

http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/tom_pvc/

[wormgirl]

Not necessarily for the OP, but I have been delighted to find "upside down tomato cages" at a local store. They work so much better than the top heavy designs, because they have the wide part at the base.

[lapk78]

I know it's been a while since my original post, but I thought I'd show off what I made (with the help of my brother-in-law).

I decided on cattle panels and 5/8" rebar. Using a sledge hammer, we drove the rebar through the 15 inches of raised bed (easy) plus 16" into the ground (less easy).

Trimmed the cattle panels to 44" wide to fit into the 46" (internal width) beds. That used 4 panels for the perimeter.

Additionally, I used 2 more panels to subdivide the bed into four 22"x22" square cages. We did this by cutting lengthwise through the middle of each of the two additional panels, but stopping halfway. Then feeding one half-bifurcated panel into the other.

We mounted three outter walls of the cage to the rebar and to each other (using really strong zip ties). Next, we inserted the subdivider into the structure and secured with more zip ties. Finally, we mounted and secured the fourth remaining wall.

We built two of these altogether.

I'm very happy with them. The gaps in the panels are 6"x8", which are very easy to pass my entire arm through to access the plants. They are also very sturdy. I could probably climb the things without them even flexing/bending.

Once they were fully constructed, they each stood 9.5 feet tall and kind of looked like some type of radio antennas when viewed from the front of my house. Since I live in a neighborhood with an HOA, I decided to "trim" off the top, and removed 1.5 feet, which still leaves them at 8 feet tall, but they're much less noticable from the street now. And 8 feet is still quite tall. But more importantly, they are very secure and won't get blown over in a strong storm, even when they're fully loaded with four massive, un-pruned cherry plants, each.

On a side note, my vehicle doesn't have a roof rack, so I had to improvise. I cut a pool noodle lengthwise and placed on each of the side rails that are on the roof. Worked without a problem once the cattle panels were placed on top of them. I did the same for when I went and picked up the rebar. Man, that stuff is heavy. I was luck to find a large construction materials vendor within 2 miles of my house that would cut the rebar to length at 99" each. 8 of them in total.

Thanks to everyone who kindly chimed in with their advise and experience. Now I just gotta keep these pants alive long enough to justify these two towers in my backyard.

[lapk78]

The project.
(My photos all seem to want to be in landscape orientation for some reason... oh well.)

[Whwoz]

Just keep the leaders tied to the mesh and you should do ok. May want to trim any leaders that go in that you cannot tie as they will sag under eight of the fruit and too many leaders in that internal space will restrict air flow.