Professional outdoor tomato cultivation with support structure
Growing fruiting vegetables outdoors is particularly interesting for farms that only have limited greenhouse space. With the right technique and variety selection, you can expand your range of flavourful outdoor tomatoes into late summer and sometimes even beyond.
Timetable for bed preparation and planting
Early May
- Loosen the soil and prepare the beds for planting. Fertilise the individual planting holes, for example with 50 g of sheep wool pellets per hole.
Mid-May
- Plant and water the tomatoes.
End of May / Early June
- Water them depending on weather conditions.
- Hoe the plant beds again.
- Apply a layer of mulch (at least 10 cm, e.g. silage). The soil should already be warm (at least 20 °C). Goal: no further hoeing and weeding.
- Lay drip hoses on the mulch layer.
- We recommend setting up the support structure some time after planting, so you can still hoe and mound the soil with the machine without obstacles.
- Twine tomatoes up the strings, use high-density hooks to suspend strings on the wire.
Construction of the support structure
The structure should be sturdily constructed, as the total load to be carried is very high and additional forces from the wind will also affect it. Each plant can be expected to carry a fruit weight of 2 to 3 kg.
1. Corner posts
- Diameter: 8 – 10 cm; height 2.5 – 2.8 m; post height above the ground approx. 2 m.
- Drive the post in at an angle (60 – 70°).
- Fastening the post: Tension the post with strong wire to the ground anchors. Use wire tensioners for further tightening (see photos).
2. Intermediate posts
- Diameter: 6 cm; Height: 2.5 – 2.8 m; Post height above the ground approx. 2 m.
- Place the posts every 3 m along the row.
- Thinner posts are possible; in this case, the distance between posts should be reduced.
3. Wire rope
- The twining strings will be attached to the wire rope later.
- Use wire rope (4 mm diameter) instead of simple wire.
- Lay the wire rope over the posts and secure it with clamps.
- Tighten the wire rope to the ground anchors at the beginning and end of the row.
- Maintenance: Keep the wire rope continuously under tension and retighten if necessary. Install the turnbuckle so that the thread still has space to be tightened.
The corner post is secured to the ground anchor with a wire. The wire is attached to the upper third of the post.
Attachment to the ground anchor: The wire that stabilises the corner post is attached with a wire tensioner (on the right), and the wire rope for supporting the twining strings is connected via a turnbuckle (on the left). The ground anchors are positioned at the beginning and end of each row.
Durability
The structure can optionally be reused in the second year (e.g. for trellised peppers, runner beans, cantaloupe in a chrysanthemum net).
Instead of wooden posts, you can also use metal posts, as commonly seen in soft fruit and wine growing, can also be used (see photo below).
Using posts made of robinia wood can extend the durability of the support structure.
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