Cherry tomato plants are prolific producers, but their heavy output makes them susceptible to breakage. Unmanaged vines that sprawl across the ground are prone to stem snapping under the weight of developing fruit clusters. Contact with moist soil also increases the risk of soil-borne diseases, such as blight, and creates easy access for pests like slugs. Providing a sturdy support structure elevates the fruit and foliage, ensuring air circulation, healthy growth, and a maximized harvest.
Understanding Indeterminate Growth
Most popular cherry tomato varieties are classified as indeterminate, meaning they possess a vining growth habit that continues until frost or disease kills the plant. Unlike determinate varieties, which stop growing once fruit sets, indeterminate plants continuously produce new leaves, flowers, and fruit throughout the entire season. This results in incredibly long, heavy vines that can easily exceed six to eight feet in height. Robust, tall support is mandatory for indeterminate plants, as temporary or flimsy structures will fail under the accumulated weight.
Comparing Support Systems
The three primary methods for supporting cherry tomatoes are staking, caging, and trellising, each offering different benefits. Staking involves driving a tall pole next to the plant and tying the main stem to it as it grows. This method is space-efficient and promotes a single-leader growth habit, but it requires frequent maintenance to keep the vine secured. Stakes for indeterminate plants should be at least six to eight feet tall and driven deep into the ground for stability.
Caging uses a rigid, three-dimensional structure placed around the plant to provide multi-directional support for the branches. While commercial cone-shaped cages are often too short for a full-sized cherry tomato vine, large, sturdy cages made from concrete reinforcement wire can be effective. Caging generally requires less frequent tying and pruning than staking because the plant’s branches are simply tucked inside the wire structure.
Trellising often utilizes the “Florida weave,” or basket weave, method, which is ideal for supporting long rows of plants. This technique involves sinking sturdy posts at the ends of the row and weaving twine horizontally between the posts on either side of the plants as they grow taller. Trellising is space-efficient and cost-effective for large numbers of plants, but it demands strong end posts to manage the collective weight of the entire row. Other trellising methods, such as string-trellising (or cordon training), train a single vine up a vertical string, often used in greenhouse settings.
Installation Timing and Placement
Installing the support system early prevents root damage and ensures the plant is trained correctly from the start. Support should be in place immediately after transplanting the seedling into the garden. Waiting until the plant is tall and heavy risks damaging the delicate feeder roots when driving stakes into the soil.
To prevent root injury, stakes or cages should be positioned three to five inches away from the base of the plant. Stakes must be driven deep, at least 12 to 18 inches, to withstand the lateral force and weight of the mature vine. For cages, particularly in windy areas, driving one or two sturdy stakes outside the cage and securing the cage to them provides necessary stability.
Ongoing Training and Maintenance
The maintenance required after installation depends on the support system chosen, but it always involves consistent training of the vine. When using stakes or single-leader trellising, the main stem must be secured to the support every six to eight inches of new growth. The correct tying method uses soft material, such as strips of pantyhose or fabric, formed into a loose figure-eight loop. This technique prevents the tie from constricting the stem as it widens while holding the plant securely against the support.
Regular removal of “suckers” directs the plant’s energy toward fruit production instead of excessive foliage. Suckers are the small side shoots that emerge in the “V” where a leaf stem meets the main stem. While caging allows a plant to maintain multiple stems, single-leader systems like staking or string-trellising require pinching out suckers when they are small. Removing these side shoots concentrates growth into the main vine, making the plant easier to manage and improving air circulation, which reduces the risk of disease.