attack of the giant tomatoes! (help!?)

Alisha_A

4 of my tomato plants this year have gone crazy. The two that were in cages have busted them out of the ground and gone wild, and the other two that were overgrown fell over before I could figure out what to do with them. I can't even see one of the tomato cages these things are so bushy. I do NOT want to cut them back, they have fruit all over and more flowers on the outer growth. I do have stakes and twine, and I keep struggling to pick up at least part of a plant and get it staked up, with no success.

Any suggestions? This seems like a stupid question with no answer (other than be more proactive and not let it happen in the first place) but maybe I'm missing something.

leighzlou

After mine got 8 ft tall, I just gave up. If there are some low hanging branches, I just carefully pick it up and lay it across the rest of the plant to get it off the ground. Its a big tangled ugly mess, but all the tomatoes are yummy!

Stac928

So far I just keep adding stakes and trying to keep them from killing my peppers.  Unless they are killing another plant I would let them go.  I used some short fencing cut in 2 foot sections and bent to be a half moon shape to put under my zucchini to keep them off the ground, maybe put something like that under them?

 

~NB~

Give me the address; I'll be over later with a bottle of peppercorn ranch. And do you have any cucumbers to go with that?

alliapistor

Mine are completely crazy too.  Between my tomato and cukes, they have completely pulled down my corn.  My advice would be to just try to keep the actual fruit up off the ground.  It is more susceptible to pests and rotting sitting on the ground.

samfish2bcrab

it's like the little shop of horrors in my vegetable garden.   they're enormous.   i keep cutting leaves off to try to lighten them a bit and i've been through 3-4 pairs of pantyhose trying to keep them tied to stakes.

laddiebug

~NB~:

Give me the address; I'll be over later with a bottle of peppercorn ranch. And do you have any cucumbers to go with that?

Heck, I'll bring the cucumbers!

Surfinbride

Look what that gorgeous sunshine did to your tomatoes! Congratulations and yum.

My H found a wire thing at Home Depot. I'll try my best to describe it. Think of it as supporting something like a fence does. It looks like the thickness of coathanger wire. It's a grid of squares... roughly 4' tall, 2 squares wide on each panel... it unfolds into 3 panels. You stick it into the ground for support. Ours is green. HD also has single sticks for support... again, green wire. We used it to support raspberries. I think it would work well for tomatoes.