Dangling Tomato Plants OK?

[John McGaw]

I have only grown tomato plants one time - Sub-Arctic variety in a raised bed when I lived in Alaska. I don't think that the experience carries over very well though.

What I have now is two plants in a home-made self-watering planter. One is a Sweet 100 and the other is a German Queen and they are growing at an insane rate (over three feet and moving fast) and that is the problem or will soon be. The planter is sitting up on a brick retaining wall in the only decently sunny patch I could use on my heavily-wooded lot. I set up a couple of prefabricated wire plant supports but the plants have both topped those. Would it be safe to encourage the plants to grown over the top and back down, draping over the front of the planter and down the wall? Do tomato indeterminate tomato plants snap off under their own weight? Are the stems "brittle" or are they even a bit pliable?

I guess that I can try to jury rig some sort of other support if I need to but given that the planter is made from a Rubbermaid storage tub attaching anything to it is a real trick and if I allow the water reservoir to get even a bit empty the whole rig could become quite top-heavy.

Oh BTW: the Sweet 100 has quite a few tomatoes already even so the largest is still in the grape size range.

[Tom J]

I've had tomatoes in the past that went out the top of 6 foot tall concrete reinforcing wire cages and were back down to the ground by frost - bearing bushels of tomatoes!! Go for it!!

Tom J

[Billy]

They are pliable. My tomatoes have support for 4 feet and they will continue growing up to over six feet before gravity and leverage bring them back down, and they continue to vegetate.

[George.com]

if you have any anchor points on the wall tie a length of twine to the wall & to the bottom of each tomato lateral & gently loop the twine around the lateral until it is lifted up and clear of the ground. Continue to loosely twist the twine round the lateral until it reaches the anchor point. The looped twine will hold the lateral.

rob

[JC]

WalMart. I've made 20 of them and I'm really pleased with the results. The only problem I'm having is with the plastic I used to cover them. I guess it is too opaque and some plants just died overnight. I removed the plastic and re-planted and all is well. On all the boxes, because we are way out in the country and have many snakes, we keep an abundance of cats, I wrap them with the 3 or 4 inch mesh fence wire. It is so easy and you can lift them off for storage. So, my tomatos have surpassed them and are hanging down the outside and everything seems to be fine.

This is the only way to garden. No weeds, no work after the first year and the watering is actually a pleasure.

If anyone wonders what we're talking about just google "Do it yourself earthbox"