Florida Weave

[TomatoDon]

I'm growing more tomatoes than ever this year and I always hear about the Florida weave. I've never tried it, but think it might be faster, but not better.

I mostly grow intederminates but will be adding more determinates this year. Is the Florida Weave system of staking tomatoes just for determinates, which are smaller and don't require as much strength? It seems it would be hard to use the weave system on plants 5 feet tall.

Thanks in advance for your comments.
DS

[Old chef]

I have used the "Florida Weave" exclusively with indeterminate tomatoes for the last 7 years. Every 2nd or 3rd plant you will need a sturdy post. Works great.

[Hunt-Grow-Cook]

Originally Posted by Old chef

I have used the "Florida Weave" exclusively with indeterminate tomatoes for the last 7 years. Every 2nd or 3rd plant you will need a sturdy post. Works great.

Same here. Every 3 plants is sufficient for me, 4 and the plant load can get heavy and cause things to sag. I prefer 7 or 8 ft T-posts, driven a foot or two down. I sucker like crazy first part of the season as the plants grow more vertical, but will eventually stop suckering to allow them to branch out more.

[bower]

I used Florida weave to stabilize our indeterminate rows at the farm one year - the main stem of each plant was supported also with twine, from the greenhouse rafters. I really like this system. It made it much easier to pick and prune. I did keep some extra stems too, and the weave really helped to keep it all in the row without taking over the walkway (planted pretty tight there).


For determinates in the field, we used simple tomato cages, and that was enough for our short and cool growing season. Now that I think of it, I bet Florida Weave would work great and would not take too much support for the shorter plants.