How to Stake Tomatoes

The traditional tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum) is naturally a sprawling vine, which surprises some non-gardeners. But this fact will not surprise those who know the tomato is related to bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), a viny weed. Tomatoes are not like the cucumber (Cucumis sativus), a true climber with tendrils that allow the plant to grab onto objects and scale them.

Traditional tomatoes sprawl across the ground unless you take the trouble to train them onto a supporting structure. Supporting tomatoes calls for stakes or a metal cage and fasteners. Choose a fastener that will not cut into the vine. Bare wire, for example, is a poor choice for a fastener, while a strip of fabric is a great option because it is soft. You can usually recycle objects around the house to use as your fasteners; strips of old pantyhose or socks work well.

Read on to learn more details about staking tomatoes, each step, and the difference between staking "determinate" and "indeterminate" types of tomatoes.

Staking Process

To stake tomatoes, fasten the vine to a cage or stake with a loose tie about every 6 or 8 inches as it grows. Ensure the support is securely buried at least 1 foot in the ground to hold maturing plants. Make each tie 1 inch above a flowering stem so that the fastener does not cut into the stem once it becomes weighed down with fruit.

Why Stake Tomatoes

For one thing, tomato vines simply look messy when allowed to run along the ground. But the reasons for providing support for them go way beyond aesthetics:

• Letting them grow along the ground invites diseases, and the fruits may rot if they are lying on wet earth.
• Unstaked plants make the fruits more accessible to pests like groundhogs and insects that will eat them.
• A tomato plant growing vertically will be easier to care for. You will not have to worry about stepping on its vines to gain access to the fruit, and you will not have to bend over so far to prune the plant or inspect it for diseases and pests.
• Training tomato plants to grow vertically saves space in the garden.

One of the few downsides to training tomatoes to grow vertically is that the plants will need more water. Tomato vines rambling along the ground put down roots that soak up additional water, which they will not get when suspended from a support.

Before Getting Started

The first step in staking tomatoes is to find out whether you are growing a determinate type or an indeterminate type. A determinate plant grows to a predetermined size and bears all its fruit during a period of about two weeks. Read the label on the seed packet or tomato pot to find out if a particular variety is determinate or indeterminate. A number of modern hybrid tomato varieties are determinate.

You will have less work supporting a determinate kind. It should still be staked, but it will be a smaller vine, something compact enough that it could be grown in a container on a patio.

Supporting indeterminate tomato plants is more difficult because they get bigger and heavier. However, a traditional indeterminate tomato plant grows larger and produces more fruit. With proper care, it will continue to produce fruit until the first frost kills the plant.