Staking tomatoes

Never saw the need before. When I did do a plant or two, no big deal. So this year I want to stake 2 rows and every other plant in 3rd row. Now the question.........

6.5' metal posts, how deep do I plant them? Better Boy tomatoes.

I have T-posts and I drove them in up to the flange on them. Dunno how deep that is, so maybe that doesn't help much. My tomatoes are about 6' tall now and over the top of the post anyway. :/

Thanks for info. Looks like mine will get about 5' of post to climb, after that they are on their own

I've staked with posts and strung clothesline between them. NEVER satisfied with this.
I read an article that suggested using your tree prunings for stakes. This March, when I pruned my fruit trees, I saved over 40 of them for this. They are each about 6 ft. in length. I'm putting them in this weekend, since I'm planting the rest of my tomatoes this weekend, too. I'm going to thoroughly saturate the ground, then shove them in as deep as possible. These beds were double dug 2 years ago to ~30" below ground, so I know it will work.
The same article suggested using old clothes, like worn out socks or t-shirts and ripping them into long strips to use for tying. They will decompose nicely for next year.
If you own an auger, you can do the same in a bed with heavy clay, like I have. I used to dig a post holes for my tomatoes, and if I did that now, I'd put in the stake at the same time. JUST like for a fence you will want about 1/4-1/3 of the stake below ground.

Ok, 2 rows are staked and tied with baling twine. Second row is every other plant. I'll see if worth it. Wasn't hard or very time consuming.

I assume everyone sees a difference? Hopefully not out of habit.

I use tomato cages just so I can get through my garden...never enough room in there, so I try to keep the tomatoes tidy by caging them...it helps me for that reason. And I do see that my tomatoes are not resting on the ground and rotting that way. I think you'll see a difference for that reason.

You may see some differences this year, Seedcorn.

I used to cage but the number of cages kept going up and these were larger, homemade affairs. They were bothersome to have around during the off-season.

Then, I caged with 3 posts and baling twine. That worked okay but staking seemed like less work. I'm not sure if it is, however.

When the tomato population went above about 50, I just let 'em sprawl! The last year I did that the slug damage was so bad it drove me crazy! So, I went back to staking.

Last year, the tomatoes had a fair amount of sunburn and splitting . . . The differences of weather and all but fruit is more exposed when you pull the plant up and continue tying it as it grows. I did a little modified French weave around my staked tomatoes just trying to not use such long posts and drive them into this rocky ground so far. It didn't work very well - altho' nothing fell over. The problem was that the plants were in a double row. Man, I had string going in all directions! It was all a little too much work. I suppose there are drawbacks to everything.

Steve

I use bamboo to stake my tomatoes. You just need to make sure in the soil nice and deep.
Sure beats tomato cages sold at some garden stores.

This year I'm growing my tomatoes in a long row, about 25ish I think, and I'm doing a Florida weave on them. First time doing it so we'll see how that works for me.

In the small garden patch I have several planted between two panels of rewire that's wired to t-posts. The rewire is about 18" apart.
First time trying this also.

i have yet to get a good system going for staking. i use welded wire cut at 5 ft length & rolled up end to end. they're about 4' tall that way. it's not tall enough. the tomatoes are already well over the top & one has tipped over into the neighbor tomato. they're packed w/tomatoes so they're not unhappy, but i want a better controlled situation. the sweet 100s are absolutely runamuck. they sprawl everywhere.