How to Grow Vertical Tomatoes

Vertical tomato plants will produce vines.

Tomatoes come in two main types: indeterminate and determinate. Determinate varieties grow in a bush formation, spreading out across the ground. Indeterminate species can be trained to grow straight up, with fruit-producing vine offshoots. To grow vertical tomatoes, you need to buy indeterminate tomato varieties. Vertical tomato plants can produce healthy, heavy crops of juicy tomatoes every season.

Things You'll Need

• Indeterminate tomato seeds
• Seed tray
• Dibber
• 4-inch pots
• Trellis
• Hose with spray nozzle
• High-potash fertilizer

Instructions

1. Buy tomato seeds. Choose vining or indeterminate tomato species such as Early Cascade, Gardener's Delight or Red Pear, rather than bush varieties such as Baxter's Bush Cherry or Balconi Red.

2. Select a patch for your tomatoes. The area needs at least six hours of unfiltered sunlight every day. If you live in a cold weather area, consider growing your tomatoes in containers in a greenhouse.

3. Set up a trellis on your growing patch. Buy one from your garden center, or make one using planks of wood and garden canes. Choose a trellis with sturdy end supports, a long central top beam and wires or strings stretched vertically between the top beam and a ground-level lower beam.

4. Start your tomato plants off indoors. Purchase a seed tray and fill each pot with quality compost or potting soil. Place a seed in each pot. Water lightly every day until the plants reach a few inches in height. Transfer to 4-inch pots.

5. Relocate your tomato seedlings to your outdoor patch. Use a dibber to gently pry out the plant with roots intact. Dig a hole right next to the bottom of one of the trellis wires. Insert the tomato plant, leaving a gap of 1 foot between plants. Lightly curl the stem around the wire -- but don't force it. The plant will grow naturally around the line.

6. Water daily with a spray nozzle. Keep the soil damp at all times. If you allow the soil to dry out, then apply a heavy watering, the tomatoes will split.

7. Allow four to six vines to grow from the main stem. Clip off other shoots that appear. Try to leave a gap of at least 6 inches between each pair of vines, with an equal balance on each side.

8. Feed the plant with fertilizer every week or two. Use a high-potash solution. Your plants should grow vertically, in line with the trellis wire.

Tips & Warnings

• Trim off yellow or brown leaves from the tomato plant.

• If you want the plant to stop growing upward at any point, pinch off the top few inches from the tip of the stem.

• Use strong, 12-foot garden canes if you can't find a suitable trellis.

References

• Royal Horticultural Society: Tomatoes
• Vegetable Gardener: A Freestanding Tomato Trellis
• Ohio State University: Growing Tomatoes in the Home Garden