Trellising GH Tomatoes Down

9 years ago

Our Indeterminate tomato plants have reached the top of our trellis with no where to go - the fan blades whack off the tops if we let them grow any higher. We would like to train some of the vines to grow back down the trellis - has anyone had success doing this - photos would be great!? I did an internet search and find nothing that helped. We have been able to train the vine to go lateral a short distance and head the plant downward but the plant is constantly making a U turn up to the sun at the point where we tie the vine - any suggestions?

Here are a couple of photos to show our situation. The horizontal pipe is the top of our trellis.

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Comments (5)

karin_mt
9 years ago
I've done that with cucumber vines and it worked ok, but I haven't tried it with tomatoes. Most plants have a built-in urge to grow upwards (geotropism, my 7th grade science fair project, fyi) so it might be a hard sell to convince the tomato plants to grow downward.
hudson___wy
Original Author
9 years ago
That was a great idea for a science fair project Karin - you had an interest in plants way back then (maybe not so way back - haha)!

The Topsy Turvy tomato plant growing method got me thinking about sending the vine back down the trellis (?) - it is probably a dumb idea but it is so hard to top off a perfectly healthy vine this early in the season and one that wants to produce if I can just figure out a way to let it. I'll have to experiment with some not so great ideas - that might lead to a better idea?
oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)
9 years ago
In commercial greenhouses, tomatoes are grown up a string. Once they get to the top, the bottom leaves are removed, and the plant is lowered down and over about a foot or two. This allows for up to 10 months of production, before the stem just gets too long to manage.
billala
9 years ago
I've been fighting this battle for years, especially with yellow pear and black cherry. The best I've come up with is lateral poles, and tie them down every few days. I grow mine in containers under a screen (squirrels and jay birds), so can't do the lowering cuestaroble suggests. However my Dad, a flower grower in Indiana '20s-'60s, used to grow free-range (unstaked, untied) tomatoes for personal use in a field on the property, and when they started to look like they had bloomed out, he would just shovel dirt over about 2/3 of the plant, and it would take off again. In the fall just before the first freeze, he would cut off the stem of a few, about a foot into the dirt, gather them up, and string them up in the end of a greenhouse, and we would have tomatoes for another month or so.
hudson___wy
Original Author
9 years ago
Some of those old techniques are some of the best! My GH is to small for Cuestaroble's method - although a great GH solution. I think the lateral idea on my cattle panels is probably the best option I have - I agree that the weight of the tomatoes at a later date will help keep the vine where we want it - if I can get the vine to that stage! I need to plan better for it - I didn't leave much room to tie the vine on it's way down - and it should have more sun - I will have to plan better for next year. I think I will experiment with one or two vines this year to see how they do. Thanks for sharing GW members!