3 DIY Tomato Trellis Ideas, Perfect for ANY Budget 🍅

There are almost as many ways to trellis tomatoes as there are TOMATOES, but here are three tried-and-true methods that work for me. The Florida Weave is the most budget option at about $20-30 bucks for 4-6 tomato plants, then the conduit kit is a little pricier but better for huge indeterminates, and finally the lower and lean trellis works well if you want to keep the same tomatoes growing for the entire season and get a huge yield. Finally, some options for you with container tomato trellises.

0:00 - Intro
0:47 - Overall Plan
1:06 - Florida Weave
3:02 - Planting Tomatoes
4:59 - Tying Florida Weave
6:15 - Conduit Trellis
8:18 - Tying String on Conduit
8:53 - Using Tomato Clips
10:53 - Lower and Lean
12:51 - Container Trellis Options
13:58 - Final Thoughts

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[epicgardening]

What 🍅 vids do you wanna see this year? Lemme know below...I'm growing A TON 😂😅😂

[barbaraadams]

I watched my Albanian neighbors plant tomatoes. Two stakes in the ground 10 feet apart. One heavy duty string tied to both stakes about 3' off the ground. They trained the tomatoes to climb horizontally along the string. Clever

[vilieto]

I put a wooden stick (2x2cm) in the pot/ground, then tie the tomato plant to it as it grows up. That's pretty much universal from around Europe from the places I've visited. If the tomato grows really big and heavy, you just use a bigger stick and stronger twine. Doesn't get more simple than that.

[daviddurbano]

My Italian grandfather used hockey sticks, broom sticks, wood and then tied it to that. It worked

[kristinparish]

I used fallen bamboo I found on the side of the road. Working great!

[synnveskaaheim]

I'm a small space growbag/bucket gardener and I simply used found sticks and leftover twine to build a cylindrical "cage" for my determinate tomato, and a small pallet (leaned against a corner for safety) for my indeterminate! It happily climbed between the pallet steps, I was so surprised of how well it worked! xx

[Arkyncrest]

Whoa...I was JUST searching "Epic Gardening tomato trellis" last night.
Serendipitous!

[melissasullivan]

I would love to see regular updates on which method is helping produce the best and which method has caused more work for less results. If you’re feeling generous with your time. 😉

[kimzachris]

My balcony has hooks in the ceiling, probably originally to put up roll-down shades. I use them to hold up a metal rod from which I hang sturdy strings that I twist the tomato stem around, and keep twisting as the tomato grows, about once every two or three leaves. Works very well, as long as you give the string some slack from the start so it doesn’t get too taut with the winding. My tomato plants dance in the wind, but they don’t fall and don’t break.

[pattyclarkson]

I used a cattle panel lifted up off the ground, attached to t-posts with zip ties. Works very well and easy to put up with 2 people. I grew 9 plants along it last year (16 ft. panel). I think it's about 6 feet high. Use something to tie the tomato plants to it as they grow. This is the 3rd year using the cattle panels. I never take it down. :)

[kimokahikolekalihi]

Last summer I grew 7 ft tall tomatoes using the string method with the conduit. Worked really well. I didn't use clips or stakes. Just tied twine to the conduit at the top and ran it down the the base of the tomato. From there all you need to do is wrap it around the stem from the base up and as it grows, you just keep wrapping the twine around the stem. It grips the tomato quite well so it supports the weight easily. Had an amazing crop for months. Huge tomato plants. Also used it on cucumbers and peas and tomatillos. The best part is, it makes it very easy to get in and prune or harvest or water your plants vs a tomatoes cage or even the Florida weave.

[ohio_gardener]

I made 18" square tomato cages out of cattle panels. They are easy to set up, easy to tend the tomatoes through the 6"x8" squares, and very durable.

[chaosengine]

if you use a bit thicker, biodegradable string for the tomato hooks, you just wind the plant around the string and can compost everything in autumn without the need to figgle all those plastic clips out (+ they might break after a summer of sun and you have plastic parts all over your garden).

[Toodle.Pipp]

I put cherry plum tomatoes in hanging baskets with a nasturtium and marigold. Great for verandas and small gardens.

[lvs]

It’ll be interesting to see which one does best. The conduit one definitely caught my eye; a sleeker, taller “Trellis to Make You Jealous”

[gfysmiley]

I have a lot of bamboo as a natural fence on my property lines. I just as I cut it back annually keep some stalks ~10-12 feet tall and tie a string to the top of each one then to a landscape staple at the bottom. Wind around the tomato as it gets bigger

[rachelanderson]

I kind of did the conduit method. But I used some old t-posts with some fencing wire tied across the top (I had it on hand from some chicken projects. It'sprobably not actually fencing wire, but it's thick amd that's what I used it for, so that's what I'm calling it) and cotton twine coming down. I buried the twine when I planted the tomatoes. The whole set up is about an inch above my eyebrows, and I keep smacking into it, lol. But the tomatoes are doing great!
I also planted a line of pole beans about 2 feet out from the toms, and I'm going to run lines from my tomato trellis to the beans for them to climb. Now to figure out what low maintenence plant to put in the soon to be shaded area under the beans :)
I'm really enjoying my free trellis with scrounged materials from the garage that my husband said I'd never use.

[laartje]

8:50 That is such a useful knot to learn for any time you need to connect something to a pole. I learned it under the Dutch name "mastworp"

[Malekith]

I use to tie the string to a rock and just hang it over and twirl the other end the plant. As it grows the rock will just slide slowly down and keep the stem straight.

[sillyjellyfish]

Meanwhile there's me just taking home whatever sticks my dog happened to find on our walk that were long and straight enough and just tying my tomatoes to those with lose bows using a cotton string :D