Ways to garter tomatoes in the open field

What a garter gives

Tomato garter is not a tribute to garden traditions, but a "production necessity". This simple procedure brings a lot of benefits for your future harvest, namely:

• The stem will not bend and break as it grows and under the weight of the fruit, so its vitality will not go into the struggle for survival, but will be focused only on a good harvest.
• With the vertical arrangement of the tomato bush, it will be as open as possible to sunlight and fresh air, therefore it will develop sufficiently, because the plant loves the sun and will give an excellent harvest.
• The inevitable rain and showers will not damage the tomato outdoors if it is securely attached to an additional support.
• Tied tomatoes are easier to spray, and the effectiveness of the procedure will be higher, so such bushes will be less susceptible to diseases that are typical for growing these vegetables.
• It is also much easier to carry out other procedures for the care of seedlings in the open field: mulching, hilling, weeding, pinching
• The garter of the tomato stem will simplify watering, because, based on the correct cultivation technology, the vegetable does not too welcome the ingress of excess moisture on the leaves, so any water procedures are best done near the root.
• Tying the stem will remove the fruit some distance from the ground, so your crop will not be a dining room for slugs or mice.
• Excessive moisture in the soil will not harm the ripening of the fruits if they are not located on the ground, thus, the garter will keep the vegetables from rotting on the branches.

It is, based on the above positive aspects of garter tomatoes, experienced gardeners never forget about this stage of growing a vegetable.

The construction of garters should begin 2 or 3 weeks after planting seedlings in open ground. In total, you need to strengthen the stem 3-6 times per season, tying it to a support. The amount will depend on the height of the variety you choose to grow.

The ways

With the development of truck farming, the breeding of new crops by breeders and the invention of modern materials, several ways of tying tomatoes when grown in the open field appeared and took root in vegetable growing. Each of them has proven its effectiveness in practice, so you can safely choose any one that is convenient for you and your summer cottage. You may even be able to invent something of your own based on them, so we will consider in detail each option, how to tie up tomatoes correctly.


To begin with, we note that any of the methods listed below uses materials that do not harm the plant, so follow the tips and you will never have problems growing tomatoes. The twine, which you will use as an improvised means in order to tie up tomato bushes, should not be tightened tightly so that it does not cut into the stem of the plant. Any fabric torn into strips, twine, or any other type of rope will work for bindings. Wire or fishing line will not work at all, because it can cut deep into the stem and irreparably destroy it.

Natural fabrics are good, but they are not entirely acceptable for open ground. can rotate and fall off, but even worse - become an incubator for a pathogenic infection. Therefore, we will choose something synthetic, but not too thin to tie up the stem. By the way, you can use materials for garter grapes. In any case, the rule applies: the garter material is chosen by you for one year, and then thrown away so as not to transfer a possible infection or disease to new seedlings of the next year.

Stakes

The first and also the most common method for open ground is to use tall pegs. Stakes can be metal or wooden, their material does not matter, the main thing is to use them on time and correctly. The height of each peg should correspond to the "growth" of the tomato bush.

For low and medium-sized varieties, you can choose materials 20-30 cm higher than the seedlings, but tall ones will require longer stakes - up to 2-2.5 m.

Each of the pegs should be strengthened in the ground so that it is firmly held, usually buried by 20-25 cm, stepping back from the tomato stem by about 10 cm, so that the root system is not inadvertently damaged by you. You need to tie the tomato loosely, it will be correct to first fix the string on a peg, then wrap the stem and tie it. As the vegetable grows, we perform this process several times.

On the trellis

If you have a tomato plantation, it would be more rational to use a different method of garter. For him, you will need a thin bar or strong pegs, and their number is much less than in the method described above. We drive in the racks at the beginning and end of the tomato garden, pull the wire between them. With this method, you will need to tie the tomato stem to a stretched wire. You can tie a plant like this if you have planted a tall tomato variety, and using a stretched wire is available in several versions:

1. pull a strong wire on a high bar at a level of about 2 m - then the strings for the garter should be long enough to reach both the support (wire) and the stem. Tomato lashes will twine around these ropes as they grow;
2. stretch several rows of wire, securing them to the bar. Then each bush will need to be tied up separately several times to the formed stretch or pass the stem as it grows through horizontal stripes so that the braid comes out of the tomato.

In any case, do not forget to tie correctly - do not tighten the rope tightly on the stem. By the way, in this way you can also tie up separately the brushes with fruits, which often turn out to be very weighty.

If the bed is long, then it will be necessary to strengthen the structure by driving in additional intermediate stakes, then no wind will be terrible for your garter. And if you plant 2 beds parallel to each other at a short distance, then the structure will come in handy for tying tomatoes from both at once: you will get a kind of tomato hut.

Cells

If you try a little, then you can design entire garter structures that will last you a year. These will be a kind of cells for vegetables. They are built separately for each bush. First, several circles of the same diameter are made of dense reinforcing wire, then they are fixed on the insistence of each other on vertical posts made of the same wire.It turns out a cylindrical wire cage, which is also installed at the same time as the pegs, and then as the bush grows, you only need to tie up the stem in time.

If you cannot find the wire, then you can build a similar frame made of wood, fastening the stakes together like a stool, only without a seat. If you make such a cage wide enough, then it is able to cover 4 tomato bushes - for each "leg" of the structure. This is much more reliable than driving in individual pegs.

Caps

Unusual designs and comfortable designs of a different kind - caps. They are suitable for tying not only a tomato. The bottom line is that you need to build a tall narrow "wigwam" or pyramid from available tools. It can be wire, vine or stakes at the base with a cross-knit in the form of a cage. Such caps are installed along with the planting of seedlings, and they will come in handy for tying several bushes at once. Such pyramids must be located at some distance from each other so that there is no crowding of plants, usually it is 1 meter or a little more, if the site allows.

Video "Garter tomatoes"

A note on how easy it is to tie up tomatoes with a thick thread without harming the plant.