There are many ways to grow tomatoes. In the past I generally used tomato cages to hold up my plants. One method I’ve been trying lately in my garden is trellising. When you trellis a tomato plant you create a structure that allows the tomato to get good sunlight and airflow around the plant. This get help out immensely if fungal issues are a concern. (And in the south where it’s humid they are always a concern!) I built this A Frame style trellis in about an hour with materials I already had on hand. If you were to purchase materials for this trellis it would cost between $35-$50.
Tomato Trellis Materials
- 4 2″x4″ boards about 6 ft long
- 3″ Deck screws
- 1 10ft piece of metal electrical conduit (1″ diameter)
- Jute Twine
Building the Tomato Trellis
Putting the trellis together wasn’t hard at all but I do recommend having a second set of hands to hold the boards in place while screwing.
Essentially the trellis is two boards placed in an A frame shape and screwed into my existing raised beds. (If you are using another material for your raised beds put a 4×4 on the bottom to the boards into, drill a couple holes and hammer some rebar into the 4×4 board for extra support.)
I drilled a 1″ hole about 3.5″ from the top of each board. Then screwed the opposite end of each board to the raised bed. I used about 3 screws per board on the bottom to make sure it was secure. Initially I only put one screw in each board until I had everything aligned properly then added the additional screws to secure the boards. One board on each side was on the inside of the bed and one on the outside of the bed. This is so the two boards could cross over each other and align the holes where the conduit would go.
Then I put the conduit through the holes to make the top bar. I reinforced the boards with a couple screws under the holes where the conduit went through to make them more secure.
Stringing Up the Tomato Plants
For Trellising the tomatoes I used jute twine. I made a small loop around the base of each tomato plant and tied it off loosely so the plant would have room to grow. Then I wrapped the twine loosely up around the main stem of the tomato. This is a good time to remove the suckers from the lower portion of the plant. Generally with this method you want to train the plant to have one main stem.
Once I had the twine wrapped around the tomato plant I tied it off at the top on the conduit and made sure that the line was pretty tight. Some flexibility is fine but it needed to be able to hold the plant upright well.
As the tomato plant grows I’ll continue to wrap the twine around the main stem and allow it to climb up the trellis.
I was even considering putting a hanging basket of plants on either side of the trellis on the extra length of conduit. You could always cut the conduit to be the right length to fit your bed. This method keeps an open canopy with good air flow. I’m really excited for this years tomato crop, we already have little tomatoes forming at the beginning of June!
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