Supporting Cordon or Indeterminate tomatoes in the greenhouse.

This post applies to Cordon or Indeterminate tomatoes being grown in a greenhouse. If you are planning on growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, and you don't know the difference between indeterminate and determinate, you should research the variety you plan to grow before starting. The type mostly grown in greenhouses is indeterminate.

Actually, a recent question in the comments section regarding the wood posts in the greenhouse prompted me to do this post on how I solved the tomato support problem. My solution may not be the best, and it is certainly not the only way to solve the problem, it is however what seems to work best for my purposes.

As seen in the photo above there is a small bamboo stake inserted in the pot next to the plant. A length of poly twine is attached to the stake with a wire tie and the twine is wound clockwise abound the plant. The twine is attached to a length of 5/8" oak dowel above the plant. I fasten the twine using a simple slip knot and leave about about a foot of extra twine so that the slip knot can be loosened to allow more twine to be wrapped around the plant as it grows.

For additional support I attach a few vine clips where I think they will give the best support. The vine clips are small plastic rings that have teeth that grip the twine and the ring clips loosely around the plant providing additional support. There is a clip visible in the photo on the right side slightly above the green fruit. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it to better show the clips.

The plant in the photo is one of the expensive hybrid Trust plants. Although it seems to be a nice plant, the plain old Super Beefsteaks actually are larger plants and have many more flowers and developing tomatoes. This should prove to be an interesting experiment, however, it is much too early in the season to form an opinion one way or the other.

Again, time will tell...