the weave

[majorcatfish]

was wondering if anyone has ever been a florida weave on their tomatoes plants before?
over the years have staked them, caged them, but never grown them on a trellis system. looks like a very interesting idea. seems like a very healthy and productive way of growing them.
heres a quick article about it.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/florida-weave-tomato-plants-53850.html

thinking about giving it a try this year..

 

[w_r_ranch]

I've read about it in the past, however I've never tried it. I have always used stakes because it is how I was taught by my grandad. Not that staking is a perfect support system... some years the plants are so heavy that they 'collapse' & sag down the pole into a heap.

I, for one, would be interested in the results of your 'field trial' if you decide to give it a shot..

 

[majorcatfish]

just don't know what to expect with this years weather, last year we had a great season to start with then we had 60 days and 60 nights of rain anything in the nightshade family except the eggplant decided to comedown with rot,wilt,blight. but all in all the tomatoes fared ok till there was the endless rain.
6-16-13


for years been growing howard german, but with my set back been wanting to try san marzano so have 30 of them going inside. plus having cases of green beans in the pantry as well moving the cucumbers out of the main garden will have space to give the weave a try.
"never now till you try"

 

[Mr_Yan]

I have trellised my tomatoes with an informal weave - though I saw it first as California weave.

Anyway I have strung galvanized wires between fence posts and topped the fence with a 6" square wire fencing. I then held the tomato vines to the wires with these clips . These clips work really nicely and last about 4 years in the northern IL sun before they're too brittle to work.

The down side is the horizontal wires that you string out. Man if you run into any of those with some speed it will drop you in your tracks.

One year I tried it with U posts as the linked article mentions. Standard garden U-posts are not strong enough for tomatoes. That one only had four plants of celebrity short vine tomatoes and it collapsed. I can't image if I were to do it with something like brandywine or cherokee purples I normally grow. If you want to use U-posts look for ones that commonly hold stop signs.