Tomato plants growing sideways.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-17-2009, 09:47 PM

I have 44 inch cages for the plants but they far exceeded that height a long time ago. It's so bad that the cages are leaning either backwards towards the house or sideways and with that, the plants are growing in those directions.

It's too late for me to move the cages or to add support to the plant. How in the world do I get these things to actually stand straight up?

**mauimagic** · 08-17-2009, 09:49 PM

I have absolutely no idea, but I was hoping for pictures. What are you feeding these plants?

**Durgan** · 08-17-2009, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by MomToTwoBoys

I have 44 inch cages for the plants but they far exceeded that height a long time ago. It's so bad that the cages are leaning either backwards towards the house or sideways and with that, the plants are growing in those directions.

It's too late for me to move the cages or to add support to the plant. How in the world do I get these things to actually stand straight up?

Buy an eight foot rebar and support the cage with plastic ties. Sort of tie the remainingg plant with strings to the upright rebar. I always use a rebar when initially installing the cages, when used. Also it is getting late in the tomato growing season so the top headers can be cut to stop more fruit formation and the energy will go into the remaining fruit. Hard to do, but the later fruit is usually of little value.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-17-2009, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by mauimagic

I have absolutely no idea, but I was hoping for pictures. What are you feeding these plants?

Miracle Gro

I'll post another pic but this thing is a monster.

I'll try the rebar thing with string but it's like this thing grew twice its size over the last three days. I've been going through the plant and pulling the branches in the center of the thicker ones to help too. I'll go ahead and see what I can snip from the top as well.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-17-2009, 10:46 PM

So yeah, the larger branches above the 44 inch cage support are actually bending over from all of the weight. No matter how much I try to prop these up, they won't stay. They were standing just fine a couple of days ago and now, I can't get it to work. Here's a couple of pictures:

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4063/dsc01072mqw.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/97/dsc01070n.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1544/dsc01071t.jpg

I don't think that even putting a tall stake and tying them to the stake will help at all.