How to Grow MORE Tomatoes Sideways

[@gringo77345]

finally someone with real knowledge and experience and common sense.

[@r.e.625]

Right! So refreshing!

[@manojabraham6775]

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[@mommapreps4526]

This is great. I am already doing that this year. My side branches are huge and are loaded with cherry tomatoes. I'm in zone 4B

[@janebrummett8014]

Wow, mind blown. I’m trying this with next years crop.

[@fixieZfixation]

I grow 10 foot plus branches diagonally out on an arched cattle panel. Its raised and I keep things pruned back to 2 or 3 main lines. I'll run bamboo canes out horizontally, wired to the top of the arch, and hang string with clips down from that. Here in central Texas I keep them "alive" thru the really hot times, then a fall garden is a revival of those plants, plus a few planted from their sucker prunings. They start out in latter part of March and keep going till a good frost, which might not happen till November.

[@James.Richter]

Thank you Gardener Scott for helping me out with my questions. We learn so much faster when we leverage other's experience. I hope to share a tip with you some day. 😁

[@GardenerScott]

Thank you, James.

[@MoneypitHomestead]

Good morning, didn’t get a garden out this spring it was so wet, but enjoying gardening with you. Have an awesome day Lisa @moneypit homestead

[@lastchancemonicam3948]

I'm all ready doing this one. It's almost like tomatoes espalier.

[@amymyers7713]

This is great and just what I was searching for. There's no other videos on this method that I could find. Thank you thank you thank you.

[@mountaingran9623]

This year for the first time I am growing Amish Paste tomatoes. They have grown like crazy. Early on I found myself unable to keep up with all the suckers and resorted to horizontal trellising. I can attest to the fact that they’re growing well and producing a large crop of tomatoes. Thank you for this great video and sharing horizontal trellising. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

[@andreassumerauer5028]

I had great success this year growing Tomatoes next to the house wall that is facing our backyard. The walls keep the plants warm during nights and so I was able to harvest right until last week when we already had some snow and freezing temperatures in northern Germany. My other tomatoes, which stood away from the wall in places with much more sun, were already two weeks gone by then. In addition, the wall tomatoes taste much better, ripen faster and produce a considerably higher yield. Since the room between the windows is very limited I have decided to additionally use the space below the windows and grow the suckers horizontally. And that what brought me to this video. Since I have no experience with horizontal tomato culture, learning from your success gives me a very valuable encouragement and it will help me to put the idea into good practice. I am definitely going to visit your channel and watch more of your videos. Thanks for sharing!

[@jefffarris9238]

You mention Sun Sugar. This is my first year growing this variety, and I absolutely love it. So sweet and wonderful in my tomato and cucumber salads. Definitely one I will grow again!

[@krickette5569]

I have a cattle panel trellis and have been doing this by weaving the plant through the cattle panel. Aside from being practical it's also kinda pretty! Great video.

[@johnjude2685]

I also finding clips are very handy to train to panels Thank you for the teaching Sir

[@FloridaGirl-]

Awesome vid ! I have always admired this bed especially. The length of it is super for tons of tomatoes. Right now, it’s HOT in FL. But I think a bed LIKE this is going to be my next garden project when it gets cooler in October on to build. I think this is a great way to do tomatoes ! I love your channel! And pass it to anyone with garden questions❤️ Thanks so much!

[@umont503]

Hope you had a great growing season GS! And continue to personally grow and thrive🤗 I sense the light hours changing

[@KPKENNEDY]

I have taken off my side-shoots and grown the plant up vertically. Then strung a horizonatl wire between two posts. I then just wind the leader around the horizontal wire. The plant is happy to stay in place

[@GordonjSmith1]

I think that this is really interesting! By my own 'neglect' I had to support a beef steak tomato that 'ran wild', the result is a wonderful spread of tomatoes. I think that I should consider being more 'deliberate' in letting the plants develop and then training them - as you suggest!

[@stephenhope7319]

Very good, I am having great success with my 6 super sweet millions, up to 10 feet tall on my awning. I also tried 1/4 century but with not so great results. I also grew some determinate's for a change, called Robin Hood and they were much less than spectacular, even here in 9b Sacramento. I am harvesting about 50 cherry tomatoes every day from my super sweets.Been growing tomatoes for 35 years and love your channel and your input for us.

[@lilal3753]

I use those clips. I love being able to use them year after year. Thanks for this video.

[@aaronsmith2054]

Been thinking about doing this next year and this video just convinced me it's a great idea. Thanks!!

[@heidiclark6612]

Great information! Thank You for continuing to give us great ideas for our gardens!

[@remedychef]

Awesome thanks. Was just wondering about that. I had huge starters that put off giant suckers and I trimmed them but will side trellis next year.

[@Playinz4kidz]

Does this not affect the ripening process? I've always been taught to pinch out suckers as they can drain energy? Am I correct or is this a gardening myth? Great video as always, love from the UK. My favorite gardening channel, you have such a relaxed and chilled personality. Could listen to you all day!

[@arielschwartzmanmiles751]

Yes I’m wondering about this too. Maybe it still produces more tomatoes in the end, even if it takes more energy.

[@Playinz4kidz]

@@arielschwartzmanmiles751 yes I think your probably right trouble is I'm in UK and the season doest last that long here so would I just end up with loads of green tomatoes and a few ripe ones. Where on this planet do you reside?

[@eliandkate]

Hey @@Playinz4kidz I'm in the UK too and yeah we are always told to pinch off suckers. I have grown tomatoes this way for years though and found I got masses of ripe fruit. This year I have pruned the suckers and grown a more traditional single stem, but it was more to do with space than any detriment to the plant. Like Scott said though, the branches do get very heavy when they are fruiting so you really do need to provide support.

[@Playinz4kidz]

@@eliandkate brilliant thanks ever so much for the info. I've always single stemed mine and I've often wondered what would happen if I did not remove the suckers. This year I'm also growing some determine varieties and they are not big but they are absolutely loaded with fruit and they are ripening before my single stemmed greenhouse indeterminates. Next year I may try both ways with the same varieties and see which method produces more fruit and if it affects the quality or taste of the fruit. WATCH THIS SPACE Also I plan to next year try feeding some with a traditional tomatoe feed and some with a mixture of compost tea and weed tea to see if I can notice much difference between them both. Even using a cheap tomatoe feed is proving to be pretty expensive in my garden. What do you use to feed your tomatoes? And how often do you feed them when they have started to flower? I generally feed mine every time I water them which can be daily in hot weather, I know this is probably over doing it a bit so I'd love to hear your feeding regime. Thanks once again for you info. In in Norfolk UK (east anglia) where in the UK are you if you don't mind me asking. X

[@Playinz4kidz]

@@eliandkate ps I've subscribed to your channel 🖒

[@MoonlitWanderer16]

Great video...thank you for sharing

[@ellemarkele6081]

Thank you! Can't wait to do this! Cheers.

[@cindynielson4231]

Hi, just got a chance to watch the replay of this week's livestream. Great info. Since you said your will be visiting the Desert Botanical Garden have you thought about the Butterfly Garden in the valley? My son and his family loved visiting the garden. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge.

[@GardenerScott]

I hadn't thought about that but will look into it. Thanks.

[@jeil5676]

I'm doing this without a trellis lol. Plants are just flopping over onto each other. The branches arent kinking so I dont see a problem so far.

[@elizabethbooth5446]

Thank you

[@bradymcphail9690]

I’ve heard of this idea, but never seen this properly described. I’m very Impressed and excited to implement this method into my garden. I might even try with fruit trees too! Do you rotate your tomato beds? & How many years away from the original bed before you plant tomatoes again? Thank you 🙏

[@GardenerScott]

Because I amend my soil every year, I don't rotate my tomatoes.

[@bradymcphail9690]

@@GardenerScott ahh! Thank you

[@deecooper1567]

Hey Gardener Scott… just came in from hrs in the garden & trellising! Love LOVE the tomato clips. Little things make me happy 😃 Question…. Winnemucca Nevada here & we are engulfed in heavy smoke from fires in other states . Especially California… just over the Mnt. Not much sun…. Is this real bad on the plants? Was thinking about spraying the plants off .. don’t know if that’s good or bad for them. Still BLISTERING hot so I know they would dry. Appreciate your input since you know my area Have a great day 👵🏻👩‍🌾❣️

[@GardenerScott]

Hi, Dee. You have the right idea. The smoke acts like clouds and the plants may slow a bit with less sun, but they'll recover when it finally dissipates. Spraying the leaves can help remove unseen bits of ash. The smoke is strong here too.

[@deecooper1567]

@@GardenerScott Thanks 😊. Hope you’re a safe distance away 🔥 Take care 👵🏻👩‍🌾❣️

[@kerrylangford7152]

Just what I have been looking for. My raised beds are nearly three foot high stock tanks so thinking I was going to have to build an eight foot high trellis system and then have to use a twelve foot step ladder to work on the vines was not at all exciting plus I have bad knees which makes going up and down ladder painful. In the middle of the night I thought why not grow the tom's horizontally. I already have four 5'X8' hog wire panels I made for growing squash vertically which didn't work all the well for me. So for the last several years they stood there unused, but not any longer. I ordered 40 of the spring clips and will have them in four days. Thanks for your instruction. No more pinching the suckers off and hello tomatoes........

[@AJsGreenThumbLLC]

I tell you, I might just have a few plants next year (indeterminate) and build an efficient support structure vs many plants and having to fight all that darn explosive growth. Thanks for reasoning this through on your video Mr. Scott!!

[@Octoschizare]

If you allow it to go very wide, there's still only one root system to support everything above ground, so there will be effectiveness limits on that.

[@AJsGreenThumbLLC]

@@Octoschizare good point. So more fertilizer or no?

[@Octoschizare]

@@AJsGreenThumbLLC Well maybe a little more fertilizer in that case, but there would be effectiveness limits on that too since there's such thing as over-fertilizing and still just the one nutrient collection system. I'm no expert but I'm quite sure there's a happy medium in the middle between two extremes: On one end is obsessively removing every sucker, which takes a lot of effort, and sure that may maximize individual tomato size but it is also a far smaller quantity of tomatoes per plant. The other extreme is allowing the plant to grow every sucker and take up as much space as possible, so there will be far more tomatoes per plant but they'll be a lot smaller since there's still just one root system to support everything. Plus, you could have fit more plants in the same space if each plant requires less space. In between is where you get both decent quality and decent sized tomatoes. I think that seems to maximize tomato yield by weight. It's like how with rectangles that are equal perimeter, the one that maximizes the area is a square, but if you have one direction very long and the other very short then the area is minimized. (Image a 4x4 square, with perimeter 16 and area also 16. Now the extreme rectangles are like a 7x1 or 1x7 rectangle with perimeter still 16 but the area is only 7!) The plant analogy here is that one direction is the number of tomatoes and the other direction is the size of each tomato. So at the start, I remove many suckers but allow 2-4 main shoots for a while. Then as the plant matures and has a lot of full-size ripening tomatoes you want to keep new growth going and the root system is far more developed by then so ease off on the sucker removal and just let the plant do its thing. Support the new growth with both vertical and horizontal trellising as Scott shows here.

[@Scott3387]

I now have two large jars of green tomato chutney, never got a single red one thanks to late blight. Sigh, oh well. Might try this next year though I'm concerned about overlapping branches limiting airflow in my UK climate.

[@tamararoberts9307]

I use 2 large tomato cages. One upside down atop the other. I attach them with wire and/or zip ties. Also, for added support, I bend the prongs on the bottom cage before inserting into the soil. I usually tie side branches to the cages or sometimes prune depending on the variety. Then, if they grow even taller they just kinda flow over the top and downwards. But also, I grow some plants other ways, like weaving into a cattle panel or use a big long strong tree branch as a stake. Lol I grow different ways because I use what spaces I have

[@tamararoberts9307]

I've not tried horizontal way yet

[@rosefamiyeh6038]

Hi sir Am new gardener and l bought single poles and bamboo sticks how to do l tie the tomato Multiple stems. I took all the suckers and Only 6 tomatoes on the plants

[@Octoschizare]

Yes, small tomato cages are useless, especially the ones that get narrower going up, which is opposite to what the plant does. However, I have big tomato cages and they work very well. I have a stake in the center and I spiral the plant around it when the new growth is flexible enough to bent. For the sucker offshoots that I allow to live (approx 1/3rd of them) I can also spiral them around either the central stake or the vertical wires of the cage. Probably too costly for a huge garden, but I'm doing this in 14 pots and happy with the results. I tie the tops of the cages together by running a rope through them all tightly anchored on both sides to the house on one side and fence on the other to prevent wind storms from topping over the cages and pots. When they get tall, the vertical top rope can be used to transfer their growth horizontally.

[@chezamymorris]

How far apart do you plant when using this method? (As a fellow CO gardener, I'm excited to try this method next year as I hope it yields more tomatoes in our short season!)

[@GardenerScott]

My plants are about 15"-18" apart.

[@billsnyder6945]

Excellent advice, pruning is often overstated. My Sun Golds allowed to go wild are literally stupendous. Question: I am in a similar zone southwest side of CS, do you plan on pruning tops and flowers this month to prepare for first frost or do you just leave them be until frost?

[@GardenerScott]

Thanks. I do plan to prune the tops and flowers when the nights begin to cool below 50.

[@Beth-fi1eu]

First time starting seeds. Bought trays with domes lids, vents and lights….how long should I keep the dome on? Until I transplant the first time?

[@GardenerScott]

Leave the dome on until the seeds have germinated. Once the seedlings are growing remove the dome.

[@Heaeven]

I somewhat do this to tomatoes and cucumbers, because I do not have the courage to “cap” them. I… just can’t.

[@Jack-gt4os]

Great vid but wondering if you need keep adding compost or fertilizer to a coma dare the added stress to the plant. I know the vid is 3yrs old but hoping someone will see my post. New subscriber about a month ago.

[@GardenerScott]

I add compost and other organic matter to the soil each year, usually in fall. My plants grow well without fertilizer.

[@namitanarang1437]

Can you please tell me which fertilizer you use and how many times you fertilize and water your plants. Here in italy I won't be able to find the seme brand of fertilizer but knowing the ingredients it will be much easier to find. Thanks a lot

[@GardenerScott]

I don't use fertilizer on my tomatoes. I amend the soil in autumn with organic ingredients like compost, aged manure, dried grass, and crushed leaves. I water to keep the soil moist which is usually once a day for me.

[@garynorcal4269]

Hey GardenerScott .. I have about 36 tomato plants that are not producing much fruit this summer. I believe it is because of early and extended 95 to 108 degree days. Will these plants possibly set tomatoes after the fall temperature goes below 90 degrees later this fall? Or should I just pull them out and prepare a new fall garden? Location Sacramento in zone 9B. Also .. mostly indeterminate varieties.

[@GardenerScott]

Yes, you should see fruit set when the temperatures drop, as long as you allow the main stem and some suckers to keep growing. Depending on the variety it will take weeks to get a harvest so if you're anxious for crops a new fall garden may be a good option.

[@gamlielu]

Hello, so if you grow the tomatoes vertically from the suckers do you cut the main trunk of the tomatoes? this may be good for small tomatoes size!!!

[@GardenerScott]

To keep the plants from getting too tall I often cut the main stem.

[@Veronica-nq9kr]

??? That's great info. I have three indeterminates I just staked, but they're getting so bushy I'm going to add the trellis. BTW, my Roma's are full of fruit, but they're all green. About 3 weeks ago, I added shade cloth. Anything else I can do to get red tomatoes, or am I just being impatient?

[@GardenerScott]

Like all of us you're a bit impatient. Romas will all ripen at about the same time so they fill the plant and then change color.

[@habaceeba]

Thank you for these tips. My tomatoes (in Arvada, just north of you) are flowering, but don't have many actual tomatoes. The plants have a lot of vines and last weekend I cut some off hoping that it would force them to concentrate on flowers/fruits. Will that strategy pay off? Also, since they are so prolifically pushing out foliage, might I have too much nitrogen?

[@GardenerScott]

Yes, pruning should direct energy to the flower and fruit development. Too much nitrogen is a possibility if you fertilized recently.

[@habaceeba]

@@GardenerScott Thank you for the confirmation Scott. My tomatoes are in a second year raised bed that I filled with manure/soil mix last year. I think there is just a lot of available nitrogen in the bed this year. Happy gardening.

[@cathyj6824]

How did you put the trellis in

[@GardenerScott]

I attached wire fencing to the posts.

[@johnjude2685]

I do love and agree with you more of the time but I be building and copying what looks like a great tomato cage. Mark's Garden Life"( you tube) showing what I believe is the best system and after enough seasons probably one of the cheapest, I'm a big fan and lots of respect for your teaching Sir but next year I'll be setting up Mark's trailis system. Gardener Scott you say you always want to learn well this looks the best,Sir.

[@GardenerScott]

The design that Mark uses is a good one and very sturdy. In my area they need to be anchored to avoid leaning or falling over when the plants are tall and the wind is high.

[@craigimboden9741]

This is a good method, but for those in Hot and humid conditions, there can be disease from lack of air flow.

[@lorindav5549]

I was wondering that too with the humidity. Maybe just allowing some suckers to grow, but not all, plus pinching the suckers off of the suckers. No leaves below 18" and some good, deep mulching, as usual. It will definitely be something to try.

[@SecondComingTwice]

Fine information, but I can't afford a wall of shade in my limited garden space. Tomatoes either stay low or are grown upward. I have a ten foot aluminum step-ladder at arm's reach in order to inspect or prune plants trained on rope, yarn and wire from 5 to 10 feet above soil level and still have enough sun throughout the day for low growing plants to get enough sunlight.

[@jeniferwilmeth1230]

So which trellis do you recommend, vertical or horizontal?

[@GardenerScott]

I do both depending on the bed and how much space I have. For many of us, horizontal allows for longer plants.

[@JaneDoe-ft8sz]

How close to one another are they planted this way?

[@GardenerScott]

I plant about 18" apart.

[@JaneDoe-ft8sz]

@@GardenerScott Thanks!!

[@barbarasampson1325]

How far apart are you planting yourtomatoes?

[@GardenerScott]

I typically plant 18 inches apart.

[@stephenluna7932]

How many tomato plants can you plant in that type of setup?

[@GardenerScott]

I plant them 15-18 inches apart.