5+ foot tall tomatoes...

[Ariel301]

Holy cow, those are big tomato plants. I've never seen them get more than three feet high! This will be the first year I have grown tomatoes with a growing season more than 70 days, though, so maybe mine will be monsters too? I can't imagine tomato plants as big as trees lol, I will have to cut them at the height of my fence (4 feet) so they don't hang over the top and attract the goats' attention.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Here is a photo from just over a week ago... they have now covered the lattice to the side and are folding over the top and flopping over to the back side! The lattice itself is set almost 2' off the ground.

 

[NurseNettie]

Indeterminite tomato varieties are really just vines-- they keep growing, and growing. And yes, you can pinch off the tops when they're tall enough, as well as, of course, the suckers- to encourage growth to the fruits,and not more vines.

I wish I lived in an area with a longer season, I'm in northern Maine and just now getting tomatoes outside-- and with the rain we have, it's very slow going!

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I don't know about anyone else but yellow pears are the tallest tomato plants I have every seen. My brother grew them a few years ago and I about fell over when I saw them. He has since stopped and now I am growing them. My husband and I both love them. Anyway, they will keep growing, so don't feel bad about topping them. Mine are only going to get about 4-5 feet because I am short and have no intention of gardening over my head.

 

[wifezilla]

I like 6' tall tomato plants. I am tall and i don't have to do as much bending over

My climbing tomatoes are about 4 feet tall now. They would have been taller but I planted them really deep.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Well I did hack them back a bit, chopped off some of the top and leaned some over and started winding them sideways. There are hundreds of tomatoes on them, they are lovely looking.

I also hacked away at the brandywine next to it, fantastic how many tomatoes were hiding in there! I still left some leaves to cover the fruit a bit, but I really thinned it out.

I think these are doing so well because they are in a raised bed that isn't really walked on and it's had a fantastic position in the sun as well as daily watering from my sink.

 

[obsessed]

I wonder if I am missing something. I have tall plants at least 5 ft but only a few tomatoes per plant. I tried adding some bone meal to increase bloom. We shall see if that works. I keep dreaming of odels and oodels of blooms but no not so much.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I wonder if I am missing something. I have tall plants at least 5 ft but only a few tomatoes per plant. I tried adding some bone meal to increase bloom. We shall see if that works. I keep dreaming of odels and oodels of blooms but no not so much.

This particular one is a Yellow Pear so it has hundreds of teeny tiny tomatoes on it... they look like grape bunches. The brandywine next to it has probably a dozen tomatoes that I saw... I have no idea what is normal, this is my first time planting tomatoes really, other than a token Roma in the past.. which bear fruit heavily. I did put a few organic vegetable stake/fertilizer thingys around the plants.. not nearly the recommended amount of them though.

 

[LadyBug Lane]

If you run a cable or clothesline parallel to the trellis you can just hook a length of twine wound around a bent coat hanger and use vine clips to attach the head of the plant to the twine. Then, when the plant gets too tall, you just unwind some twine, clip the stem to it, and move the hanger further away.

That's how the commercial growers do it. My plants are 11' to 14' long and I've got them in a house with 8' sidewalls.

 

[lesa]

Ladybug, would you post a pic of that? I keep reading your description, but I just can't seem to visualize it. Loved your website!