Topic: Overweight tomato trusses

[Garden Manager]

Does anyone have any tips for supporting overladen tomato trusses, to stop them bending and breaking?

My 'Shirley's in particularl have gone mad with fruit this year and the fruit has become too heavy for the trusses to suport them. I have tried tying them up with twine but in many cases theres nothing strong enough to tie them too.

Advice please

[Roy Bham UK]

Save those pieces of nylon netting the supermarkets use to hold oranges and other fruits, cut them into baby hammocks put then under the trusses and tie them up to the main stem. :)

[the wizards sleeve]

aye cracking bit of info that like

[weedin project]

Roy's got a point - netting is one way to support them, but I think tomatoes are too prolific for that.  Last year at West Dean Tomato Festival I bought a packet of plastic "truss supports" (but I have to confess I haven't used them this year), which might help.
The problem is probably exacerbated by wind movement - my San Marzanos in the greenhouse are hugely overladen and have just got on with it without any problem (yet); my other toms in the open have really suffered, especially in the wind and rain over the past week.  A sudden blast of blight hasn't helped them either :'(.  Next year I am going to get some serious support into my outdoor toms to see if it helps - sadly a bamboo cane and a bit of twine doesn't seem to be the answer :(.

[Garden Manager]

Nice idea about the netting for the trusses. Now, if i could only find a way to stop the combined weight of ALL the trusses  pulling the whole plant over (despite bamboo canes and lots of twine), then i'll be laughing!

No seriously, any thing stronger than bamboo canes to be recomended anyone? I they just weren't quite enough this year.  ::) Better system to be had than individual staking perhaps?

[weedin project]

GC
as hinted in my earlier post, I'm looking at a more substantial support system next year - a framework made of copper water pipes soldered together is favourite.  My dear old dad is an ex-soldering lecturer (yes, it is a serious subject when you are trying to build satellites for the European Space Agency and you want their electrics to work!) and it's great that he's offered to help me out (whilst spending my inheritance :o).
It'll be expensive in pipe and joints, but it might be the answer.  I'm hoping for a frame I can shove into the ground and then bind the canes to.

[Roy Bham UK]

No seriously, any thing stronger than bamboo canes to be recomended anyone? I they just weren't quite enough this year.  ::) Better system to be had than individual staking perhaps?

If you can't trust Bamboo to hold things up then your stumped ;D

http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us/3316

[Garden Manager]

No seriously, any thing stronger than bamboo canes to be recomended anyone? I they just weren't quite enough this year.  ::) Better system to be had than individual staking perhaps?

If you can't trust Bamboo to hold things up then your stumped ;D

http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us/3316

Hmmm..... Interesting Roy. I really meant , what alternatives are there to individual staking in general, not to bamboo AS stakes. Particularly for inside aliuminium greenhouses. Thanks

[Amazin]

Rather than individual vertical bamboo canes, what about an overlapping diagonal grouping in a trellis effect?

[tilts]

I have seen tights used as hammocks, not only for tomatoes within a teepee type of frame (like some runner beans), but also for melons in a greenhouse. :)

[tim]

You lucky people with all those tomatoes!!

[bananagirl]

I tried making a framework thingy out of bamboo for my tomatoes last year, and just ended up with the whole lot toppling over. This year I have gone for individual stakes made from a broken up baby cot. Working a treat. Don't have so many plants this year though. Next year I may actually bang together a solid support system. At the lottie round the corner, they seem to favour the pipe work trellis. It's used for everything from beans to melons.

[Garden Manager]

Hmmm... Plenty of ideas there. Food for thought. Thanks