Over 6ft tall tomato plants

[HEChicken]

Quote:
I start with a tomato cage but the cage is tied to a trellis on the wall behind it. When it grows out the top of the cage, I tie the top branches directly to the trellis. I would like to cut mine back but whenever I consider it, it seems like all the blossoms are on the only branches I could cut so I end up leaving them.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

A trellis is a good idea. We usually just use tomato cages, but our plants don't usually out grow them. We have a ton of green tomatoes on ours right now, so they should be turning red soon!

 

[floyd242]

Mine are over my head and i'm 6' tall... I use 5' tall concrete reinforcing wire to make cages.

 

[Meat Hunter]

Indeterminate type of tomatoes. Many of the commercially grown tomatoes that you buy in the store are like this and the plants that the indoor commercial growers use grow to 30' and up. Of course that's not straight up, but overall in length.

High nitrogen will boost the green and leafy aspect of your plants and should only be used at the very beginning stages. Once flowering starts, switch over to something like a 5-10-10 (NPK) numbers.
Miracle grow makes allot of money boosting claims and in some respect, it does produce larger flowers and such, but you can get so much more with the simple addition of a good compost.

 

[annageckos]

I have a black cherry tomato plant that is getting close to six feet now. I do not use Miracle Grow. The only ferts I use are from the compost, which is mostly guinea pig bedding and plant scraps.

 

[andalusn]

I turned an old horse turnout into my garden area. That ground has benefited from over 20 yrs of horse manure so its high in nitrogen. We don't apply anything other than an organic spot fertilizer to try and balance out the high nitro with other nutrients. The tomato plants are an easy 6 feet when mature and fruit is huge. We have to steak them up with metal T posts as the plants are just so heavy. The tomatillo plants do really well too. I know some people will create a grid so that cucumbers, tomatoes can grow up and make a wall of veggies.

 

[Backwoods Bntms]

Here is a picture of my tomatos early last year. They toped out at 17 feet.

This year the ones to the right are 9 feet the one to the right of the okra are about 6 feet.

I will only use natural or organic fertlizer and alot of home made compost.

 

[Mississippi Gardener]

I have the same issue each year I plant any type of tomatoe. I use really long stakes and put these stakes in before seedlings two feet deep. You probably will also notice that you have skinny stalks and blooms high up on the plant. The reason for this is not planting in direct sun light and the plants struggle to get to the light source thus growing upward. If your like me, I dont have a direct sunny area to plant so I compromise with long stakes and a little less water so mold or fungus problems do not arise. This picture is early 2009 the picture below that is today. the stakes are 6 to 7 feet tall.





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[MandyH]

My tomaotes reach ten feet every year. I plant heirloom varieties and fertilize with rabbit poop or chicken poop.

 

[Mississippi Gardener]

You must have planted in a shady area, I fertilize with 40 to 60 lbs of a low nitrogen based garden fertilizer sold at HUTTO'S garden center in Jackson MS. The fertilizer keeps grass and weeds at a minimum.