Foliage or fruit touching the ground exposes plants to diseases. Tomatoes will be cleaner and easier to collect.
Indeterminate tomato plants make branches and foliage until the first killing frost. Determinate tomato plants have a shorter period of production and won’t require tying after their primary harvest time.
Fabric is soft and stretchable, which allows for expansion as your plants grow. Fabric needs to be collected and properly disposed of after the growing season. Depending on the material, fabric can take anywhere from a year to decades before it fully decomposes.
Sisal, hemp and cotton twine are compostable as long as they’re untreated. You’ll need to collect nylon at the end of the season. It takes decades to decompose on its own. Avoid using fishing line both because it will often cut into your plants and damage them, as well as being a threat to wildlife if you fail to remove it at the end of the growing season.
Foam ties provide cushion so that the ties are less likely to cut into the plant.
Stake and tie plants as soon as you transplant seedlings, or shortly thereafter.
This method is useful for plants bigger than three feet. As you wrap, place the tape or string at the strongest part of each branch, and wrap it around the cage wire or stake before moving upwards.
Tying a knot beneath a branch prevents downward slippage. Do this for every ten to twelve inches of growth.
Do this gently and carefully. Don’t pull the knots or the line very tight.
