To understand why, you need to know that a tomato plant's needs and your needs as a tomato-eater are not the same The plant “needs” to grow to maturity, set fruit and reproduce via the seeds of fallen, decayed fruit. All these things can be achieved without any support structure.
No matter where you garden, if you don't stake or cage your tomato plants, you'll end up with tomatoes on the ground, where they may rot or be eaten by small animals. Plus, an unsupported tomato plant that's allowed to sprawl can take up lots of space in a garden.
A good alternative is cattle panels. I get them from Tractor Supply. They cost about twenty dollars, but they are quite sturdy and they last for years.
Apart from some very low-growing dwarf or bush varieties, almost all tomato varieties will need some form of support sooner or later. Most varieties are vining tomatoes, which grow indefinitely and can reach a height of over 250 cm.
Tomato plants grow quite well when the seeds are planted directly into the ground, but appear to take a little longer to mature as opposed to those grown in a seed tray which is left in a warmer place to encourage germination.
Garden soil from planting beds tends to be too heavy for containers — it will over-compact — and may contain disease organisms. Tomatoes are susceptible to diseases (such as blight) and pests (like nematodes) that can hang out in soil, and one advantage of growing in pots is that doing so can reduce outbreaks.
If you're someone who likes to leave the suckers on your tomato plant, a wooden or metal trellis may be a better option for you. Using a panel trellis is a great option if you like your plants to branch out, and an arch trellis gives tomato vines all the vertical space they need to grow.
1) Stake them
Use whatever stakes you have on hand – wooden stakes, bamboo, metal – just be sure that they're at least 4 feet high. This isn't the easiest method because you need to keep tieing the plant up over the course of the season, but it works and is cheap.
Tomatoes love the sunshine. A position in full sun (that means an average of at least eight hours a day) gives the best results in most areas, though if you're in a hot climate you can get away with dappled shade.
Most determinate varieties need a cage, but there are some very stocky varieties, such as Better Bush, that have a very sturdy main stems; they don't need much support, just a stake to keep them from toppling in wind and rain.
To build the trellis, sink poles or 4-inch wooden posts into the ground about 10 feet apart. Be sure that they are deep enough and properly anchored to support the weight of all the tomatoes when laden with fruit. The tops of the posts should be 5 or 6 feet high.
Do You Want Bigger Tomatoes or More Tomatoes? Here's the deal: If you prune the suckers, you'll get bigger tomatoes. If you don't prune the suckers, you'll get smaller tomatoes—but a lot of them.
If you haven't got a lot of space, try a determinate or semi-determinate variety like Roma or Tatura Dwarf. These produce small bushes that need minimal staking and have 'determinate' growth, meaning that after a while they stop getting bigger, phew! They are also referred to as 'bush' tomatoes.
Yellow leaves and brown spots on tomato plants are most commonly caused by early tomato blight. Once found, early blight can be managed by regularly removing affected foliage from your garden.
Both determinate and indeterminate container tomato plants will benefit from a support structure. For indeterminate tomato plants, the structure is necessary to support the vining behavior and the weight of the fruit. The support system should be added to the container when planting each tomato.
Items like saplings, branches, bamboo, old pipes, recycled pool cues, and broken brooms can all be "upcycled" into garden stakes for your lawn. Some gardeners prefer to add a touch of weather-resistant paint to these items to give them a more finished look.
Tomato Cage Cons
These trellises cause a bit of extra labor for you too, and pruning and thinning will become your constant task as you battle with a plant that feels a bit confined in its corset. I'm all about equipment that can multitask throughout the seasons and take up minimum space during any storage downtime.
Tomato cages, seedling starters, seeds, and more. Here are just a few gardening supplies at Dollar Tree, but many of these things are also available to buy (mostly in bulk) on their website. They allow free pick up at their stores if you order online.
Tomatoes thrive in loamy soils with good drainage and high organic matter content. Adding composted coffee grounds to planting beds is a great way to build healthy soil for tomato planting but won't provide all the required nutrients.
Water correctly: Do not overwater. The first week tomato plants are in the ground, they need water every day, but back off watering after the first week, slowly weaning the plants down to 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week.
Choosing the best soil
Tomatoes like well-draining, nitrogen-rich soil. This means extra compost, blood-meal or crushed eggshells will make them happy. You want to make sure they have a steady source of calcium carbonate throughout the growing season, which is exactly what eggshells are made up of!