How to Stake Tomatoes

Many home gardeners have been curious about our Stake And String method of supporting tomato plants. Below you can see pictures of the process. Thanks to Blue Moon Farm for teaching me this method of staking tomatoes. Whether you use the Stake And String method, tomato cages, or some other method of supporting tomato plants in your garden, it really is a good idea to keep tomato plants off the ground, because you will have healthier plants, cleaner fruits, and higher yields.

Step 1: Plant the tomatoes in a straight row. We plant our tomatoes at 18" apart. This works well for the Stake And String method. If you use tomato cages, I recommend allowing more space between the plants, as there will be less upward-only growth and more outward bushiness of the plants.

Step 2: After a few weeks when the tomato plants are 8-12" tall, pound stakes into the ground every 6 ft (every four plants). For determinate tomato varieties, 5' metal t-posts or even wooden posts will work just fine; for indeterminate varieties that may grow very tall and have high yields of heavy fruits, we use 6' metal t-posts. Take special care with the posts on the ends of the rows. They will only have inward forces acting upon them, so they should be angled outwards. Or, an extra post at the end of the row, pounded in at a 45 degree outward angle, will ensure that the soon-to-be heavy tomato plants don't outweigh their support system. This is a row of tomatoes from the WFG Milwaukee garden.



Step 3: Every week as the tomatoes grow taller, tie a heavy-duty string from post to post, supporting each side of the row, like we did below in the WFG Grafton garden. If you have a long row, the same piece of string can be used down and back on the entire row; it should be wrapped firmly at a uniform height around each post as you go. The strings should be tight but not constrictive to the plants' growth. Remember, as the plants get taller, their growing stems and branches also get thicker and will need room to expand within the strings. Generally, once a week is good enough for tying tomatoes. Each week the next string up will be 6-10" higher than the last. After securing the strings on both sides of the plants, gently tuck any outlying tomato branches under the strings, which will encourage upward growth of the plants.



Step 4: Harvesting tomatoes is a breeze with the Stake And String method. As you can see from this row of tomatoes in the WFG Grafton garden, all fruits are elevated off the ground. The tomato fruits and plants do not get muddy when it rains and the precious tomatoes that you have labored and tended to all season will be less prone to diseases and splitting. Essentially, by staking tomatoes, you can expect better yields and gorgeous, healthy fruits!