Towering Tomato Structure
Maximizes Growing Space

Vertical is Economical
It’s Tomatoes that really got me started with the concept of vertical vegetables.

Growing things up rather than along the ground. There are little wire Tomato cages at every garden centre and I use them. They are great for the small fruited types that will produce more cherry / grape Tomatoes in one cage that you can possibly use. They are simple and easy to use. Plant the little Tomato plant, stick in the prongs of the cage around it and stand back and wait.




I Want More Tomatoes
Grow a couple (or more) of good indeterminate types and learn how to stake and prune them. They need to be restricted to a single vine with all of the side branches removed and then have that vine trained upwards by means of some support system. Broken hockey sticks can work in a particularly Canadian way.

The Tomato Structure
My Tomato structure is locally famous, yet it is easy and quick to create and use. A wooden 4"x4" about 8' tall is stood upright in the garden by means of a drive in metal post holder. Using this post holder allows me to move its location each year and to rototill the whole garden without going around such objects. Two 8' - 2" x 2" cross pieces are attached in a horizontal postion on top of the 4x4 upright. Lengths of rope are tied to the cross pieces at 1' intervals and allowed to reach the ground plus a few inches. This yields 16 Tomato plant holders. The ropes are tied loosely around the bottom of the plants and the vine and rope are just wrapped around each other. About once a week, I spend less than half an hour pruning off the side shoots and looping that week’s growth around the rope.


It actually takes less time and is easier to do than it is to try and write these instructions.

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