Gardening Magazine

A New Cane-support System

By Mwillis
Regular readers will know that I have experimented with lots of different ways of supporting canes for growing tomatoes. There are a few good gadgets out there, but there are lots of poor ones!
You have seen this before, but just for the record, this is my preferred tomato-growing setup:
A new cane-support system
The key feature for me is the green wire cane-support device. In my opinion it is perfect for the job, but it doesn't seem to be available any more. There are many similar products on sale, but none of them are much good. They are mostly far too flimsy.
Anyway, the unexpected advent some more tomato plants prompted me to experiment with another method for supporting a cane. First off you need one of these:
A new cane-support system
I got them from Gardening Naturally.
That on its own is never going to support a cane big enough to hold a 5-truss tomato plant, but with the aid of a bent wire coat-hanger it just might! I drilled a hole in two opposite sides of a suitable container; cut the coat-hanger and bent it into a straight length; wound it round a bamboo cane; inserted the ends of the wire through the holes; bent them down to stop them shifting, and ended up with this:
A new cane-support system
A new cane-support system
Not ideal, but definitely worth a try!
A new cane-support system
I used the new method when potting-up one of the recent arrivals - a variety called "Crimson Crush", about which I shall write tomorrow:
A new cane-support system
If this method works well enough, I might try it on some of my other pots next year.

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