Stringing Tomatoes

This year we were gifted four heirloom tomato plants, two Orange Banana Heirloom paste tomatoes, which we have in the front yard, and on the side yard we have a Cherokee Purple Heirloom and a Black Brandywine Heirloom.  We've grown these types in the past and are fully aware of how uncontrollably massive one tomato plant can get.  So this year we decided to string three to four main stems off one plant and diligently prune all other suckers.  Theoretically this will keep the plant size "manageable" for the space we have, support the tomatoes, train the tomatoes to grow vertically, and produce better tasting tomatoes.  I got so excited learning about this technique that I went out and purchased a San Marzano paste tomato plant, which now lives in between the two Orange Banana Heirlooms in the front yard, and a Yellow Brandywine Heirloom which I'm experimenting growing in a container on the side yard. 

Stringing Tomatoes: You basically tie loosely a ring around the main stem with garden vinyl tie tape ... this stretchy tape will allow room for the main stem to grow without harming it.  Then tie a the string to the tape, wrap the string around a main stem and secure the string on some kind of support "bar" above the tomatoes as you can see in the pictures.  Each main stem you keep gets its own string!  

When we planted the tomatoes we planted them their stem deep into the ground with our compost from the garden and sprinkled the top soil with some organic tomato food.  About 2 weeks ago i fed them lightly with kelp and fish emulsion and plan to continue to do so every 2 weeks while they grow.  As they grew bigger I started pruning the suckers and trimming the bottom leaves, just enough so that the leaves where not lying on the top soil, i do this to prevent disease.

Updates will come!