The last few years Ive been growing around 100 tomatoes and doing the florida weave method which works ok what methods does every body else use

The Mennonites here use that. I use cages for the most part.

Tie to stakes with t-shirt strips.

Homemade cages made from concrete wire and then a steel fence post with the cages tied to them. When they get tall a wind will blow over just the cages by themselves. miles

Home made Cages

I found some fencing a few years ago that was cheaper than the concrete wire, I stretch it between fence post. As the plants grow I weave them in and out of the square holes. I also use the same method for my Cucumbers.

I started growing our tomatoes in 5 gallon containers. I set them near the deck and tie them to the uprights as they grow. Keeps them out of the wind and I can put up cattle panels to keep the deer off of them late in the season.

The wind always seems to blow over my "weave" methods here, so....usually use one T-stake per plant, and simply use sisal twine to tie the plant loosely toward the stake as it grows.

I do some pruning, but mostly just loop more twine around the stems as they appear.

This is what I do, wire mesh. As they grow I just keep lifting the branches up higher in the mesh. I have tried the tie-up thing and it just doesn't work for me.

And yes, I've used the wire mesh cages for cucumbers too.

I live in an area that has become the new Mennonite capitol of the world, or so it seems. They raise a lot of produce, including tomatoes. They grow them in greenhouses, high tunnels, and in the field. It is very interesting to see the methods that they use. I have seen them prune the plants back so much that about all that was there was the stem and the fruit. They are after a tomato with no flaws, as they strive to sell for the highest dollar possible. Some of these growers easily sell $20,000 an acre, or so they claim. Anyway, most that I see use the stakes and the weave to hold the plants up. They have it down to a science, and it must work pretty good. I guess when you have a lot of plants like they do, wire cages would get expensive.

Not to steal this thread, but how many prune the plants back? I usually let the plant grow, they do get tall through the cages. Is there an advantage to keeping them short?

Ive never pruned but heard of people topping tomatoes like tobacco once it gets chin high

I prune my tomatoes all the time, whenever I want. Hopefully I get after them when they are small branches, but sometimes if I don't like what it's doing, I'll just cut off a big monster branch too.

They're tough enough to take anything you want to do to them, after they are established and growing well.

A fellow told me if you top out the plant, it will force the growth to the tomatoes. I plant a dozen or so each year, so I'll try the pruning on one or two and see if there is a difference.

Only grow indeterminate, VFN resistant tomatoes, prune/remove the suckers regularly and train/tie the individual plants to a 5' redwood stake....

Yes, I prune when I have time. Friend of mine in the early 90's, a certified "nurseryman" (she weren't no man!) showed me a book by a Japanese gardener who severely pruned tomatoes. They looked like an espaliered apple tree. I can't bring myself to prune like that, but I take out suckers, cut back 25-50% of the leaf material on the inside of the plants and things along those lines.

Of course, the last few years I've been so busy at work during the tomato season, I've just mainly kept them tied up as best I can. And I still get tomatoes. Is there a lesson to be learned there?

I'm going to have to look into those weaving methods y'all are talking about. Something new to try in a few seasons when I retire.

Geno

Anyone have a picture of an example of how to tie/stake tomatoes?

I usually just put tomato cages on mine and let them grow.

As much as I like tomatoes, perhaps I'd better change my methods...

I put mine in a cage, but the commercial growers in South Arkansas use stakes and twine. Not sure exactly how they do it but the twine runs from one stake to another. Might want to be careful about the pruning. Here tomato's will sunburn in late July and August. Probably worse in South Texas. miles

No pic, Barry, but I remember the way my pop-pop done it.

He had great tomatoes. His neighbor worked for Campbell's and would bring him 10-12 left over plant from research.

We would drive lath next to the plant when it got tall enough to need it. The main stem was tied (carefully) with some slack to the lath with strips of old bedsheet so as to not cut into the plant. More ties as the plant got taller and the branches would hang.

I don't recall pruning or pulling blossoms though. hard to imagine more and bigger tomatoes either!

Don't know if that helped, but that's what I remember.

Always hammer the stakes in first and plant the tomato in a hole dug right up against the stake. Doing so serves two purposes, it eliminates damage to the roots caused by hammering a stake next to an established plant and also allows one to tie the thickest part of the main stem at the base of the plant right up against the stake making for a much neater looking, easier to train tomato plant. As for tying, use cotton ties with a little bit of 'give' or elasticity, that are placed around the stake, criss-crossed and tied securely around the stem of the tomato plant (picture a figure 8). Always draw the stem as close as possible to the stake as the plant has a tendency to get further and further away during subsequent ties as it is growing.
As for trimming suckers, I only plant indeterminate varieties which don't top out (as determinate and semi-determinate varieties do) and continue growing throughout the whole season. The trick is to train the main stem to the stake and prune (weekly, while they are small) the suckers which grow between the main stem and secondary stems while they are still small (picture a sucker as the stem that emerges at a 45 deg. angle between the 90 deg. angle formed by the main and secondary stems).
Hope this helps....

Imagine the main stem as one long vine.

Pinch off anything else that goes in any other direction as an actual second vine.

Leave the branches, prune the secondary vines off.

I make these, I take the store bought that are made from #9 wire, weld 5' pieces of 3/8 rebar to them. They won't fall over.