Tomatoes outgrowing the hoophouse

[root_grow]

This is my first year growing under cover. In the winter I picked up 2 pre-loved PVC-frame hoophouses, probably about 7 feet tall in the center. We moved in April, so I wasn’t able to transplant any earlier this year than I would have even without the tunnels, but it's so much cooler here I wanted to use them anyway. Already most of the plants have zoomed over my head and are now pressed up against the plastic. It feels magical in there - but now what? I still have probably 3 months left in the season!

IMG-0193.jpg

This tunnel has the shorter plants...

And what do I do next year? Assuming I can plant earlier next year, they’d just outgrow the tunnel sooner. I was thinking of pruning more next year, for better disease prevention, but then they’d reach the top even faster, wouldn’t they? I could plant fewer plants spaced farther apart, but with the extra time, I’d have the same problem.

I realize it may sound silly that I’m caught off guard by tomato height, but growing in the cool PNW, at the end of the season I’ve been lucky if my tomatoes were even as tall as I am! So obviously a lot to learn, but I am stoked - in this cold summer the outside, cool-adapted, early, proven varieties have only just set their first fruit, while I'm already eating from the tunnels.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

[pepperhead212]

The only thing that I can suggest of is to spread them out more; I can't tell if they are on trellises, or stakes of some sort, but I had to put mine further apart on the trellises, and just train them out, instead of up, though the cherry and tiger tomatoes don't train well!

Other than "too tall", they look great!

[Gardadore]

Somewhere I saw a photo of where someone created a trellis arch to deal with the height. Spread them out so every other plant arches in the same direction and the others arch in the opposite direction maybe. I’m almost having to do that this year outdoors so I can reach the tomatoes!

[root_grow]

Thanks for the input! They are held up by a Florida weave. Now that I think about it, previous years' outside tomatoes sort of fell over a bit and grew out sideways or U-shaped themselves somehow and intertwined with neighbors, but I guess without wind in the tunnels these never got knocked over. These are the most mannerly, upright plants I've ever had, so I think you're on to something [mention]pepperhead212[/mention] with training them out rather than up. Now to convince myself fewer plants is better...

Some of the plants in the other tunnel have wedged themselves between the plastic and the rope strung between the PVC supports, so I was thinking of installing some twine for them to sort of reach across and grow over to the other side. I only hesitate because moisture builds up sometimes on the plastic, especially when it's cooler. If I make the twine bridge low enough that they wouldn't touch the plastic, I'd have to crouch to walk in the tunnel. If I top them, will that encourage more branches lower down?

[mention]Gardadore[/mention] It sounds amazing to have a tomato arch outside! Sounds like you're having a great season

[Gardadore]

Actually probably a more accurate term would be a bridge for them to grow across that is easy to reach. Next year I will add lightweight fencing sprayed with plastic that bends easily connected from one fence side to the other for the varieties that get really tall. I grow my tomatoes in straw bales with 6’ fencing on three sides so it’s like they are in their own cubicle so adding a bridge or arch across the top is easy.

[Clkeiper]

grow shorter tomatoes. even if you like what you have 7 foot isn't nearly high enough for some of the varieties I grow in mine. some of my cherry tomatoes are well over 9 feet now. the big beef are now at about 7' the bhn 589 are at about 5'. BHN589 are exceptionally nice large round red sweet slicers. they are marketed towards the roadside stand growers because they are nice tomatoes for color size, taste and appearance. they are a determinate but I pick them all Summer long.

[Cajun-Hydroponics]

This is my first year growing under cover. In the winter I picked up 2 pre-loved PVC-frame hoophouses, probably about 7 feet tall in the center. We moved in April, so I wasn’t able to transplant any earlier this year than I would have even without the tunnels, but it's so much cooler here I wanted to use them anyway. Already most of the plants have zoomed over my head and are now pressed up against the plastic. It feels magical in there - but now what? I still have probably 3 months left in the season!

IMG-0193.jpg
This tunnel has the shorter plants...

You can use the lean and lower method. Works very well for me.
There are many videos on youtube that show slightly different ways that it can be done.



And what do I do next year? Assuming I can plant earlier next year, they’d just outgrow the tunnel sooner. I was thinking of pruning more next year, for better disease prevention, but then they’d reach the top even faster, wouldn’t they? I could plant fewer plants spaced farther apart, but with the extra time, I’d have the same problem.

I realize it may sound silly that I’m caught off guard by tomato height, but growing in the cool PNW, at the end of the season I’ve been lucky if my tomatoes were even as tall as I am! So obviously a lot to learn, but I am stoked - in this cold summer the outside, cool-adapted, early, proven varieties have only just set their first fruit, while I'm already eating from the tunnels.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

[MissS]

[mention]Cajun-Hydroponics[/mention] Thanks. I was hoping that you would chime in.

[Cajun-Hydroponics]

@Cajun-Hydroponics Thanks. I was hoping that you would chime in.

I haven't been here much lately. Alot going on. Hope to have some work going on in the GHs next week.

But for sure the lean and lower is the easiest and most economical way to grow single stem and in a low top GH. May need to add supports to help the roof from collapsing though.

If the single stem is not an option the maybe a semi determinat variety could be looked at.

[Cajun-Hydroponics]

This is my first year growing under cover. In the winter I picked up 2 pre-loved PVC-frame hoophouses, probably about 7 feet tall in the center. We moved in April, so I wasn’t able to transplant any earlier this year than I would have even without the tunnels, but it's so much cooler here I wanted to use them anyway. Already most of the plants have zoomed over my head and are now pressed up against the plastic. It feels magical in there - but now what? I still have probably 3 months left in the season!

IMG-0193.jpg
This tunnel has the shorter plants...

And what do I do next year? Assuming I can plant earlier next year, they’d just outgrow the tunnel sooner. I was thinking of pruning more next year, for better disease prevention, but then they’d reach the top even faster, wouldn’t they? I could plant fewer plants spaced farther apart, but with the extra time, I’d have the same problem.

I realize it may sound silly that I’m caught off guard by tomato height, but growing in the cool PNW, at the end of the season I’ve been lucky if my tomatoes were even as tall as I am! So obviously a lot to learn, but I am stoked - in this cold summer the outside, cool-adapted, early, proven varieties have only just set their first fruit, while I'm already eating from the tunnels.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

I was looking back at the picture you posted. Couple questions

1. Are those determinat or in-determinat?

2. Have you been pruning the suckers?

Depending on the answers. If indeterminate, and you have suckers lower on the plant you could top the main stem and let the suckers continue to grow and they would basically produce another plant. Topping the main stem should not have any effect on the fruit thats already on the main stem. But you would want to verify that you have atleast 1 other sucker from as low as possible.

It looks from the picture that you have suckers growing so that should not be a problem. Also as each sucker grows they will produce more suckers as long as the plant is healthy and about to feed itself.

[root_grow]

Thank you, [mention]Cajun-Hydroponics[/mention].

They are indeterminates (except one determinate at the end of the tunnel), and I had not pruned them much except near the ground. I spent a lot of time in there this past week and now I think I'm just out of good options for this year. Since they already have several stems, they're quite bushy. I wanted to top them and hope that would encourage young suckers lower down, thinking I'd just add a layer to the trellis to hold them up, but then I realized air flow is already a bit limited and starting to encourage disease... I'll just do what I can to stave off disease and hope for the best. Looking at them now I can see a lot of places where I could have done something differently that would have been better, so lots of lessons learned this year, and a lot to think about over the winter!

For future seasons, I'm not ready to resign myself to just determinates. Despite the picture, a few of the indeterminates are actually much shorter, so there are some I'm not worried about at all. I don't know how to figure out which varieties grow that way except to grow all the varieties though!

Semi-determinates are an interesting idea... Are they enough like indeterminates that they could be pruned some for a little less bushiness / more vertical growth? It's such a confusing category, maybe it would be worth its own thread to share experiences with them... ?

I'm scheming for multiple experiments for next year's plants - if I'm going to start pruning, I may as well compare different pruning methods and numbers of stems, right?

[Cajun-Hydroponics]

[mention]root_grow[/mention]

I really think your best bet would be stringing them along the top. Though it may require some modification or adds to the GH in the long run i think you will end up with more and better growing time for your tomatoes. Training them to a single stem or 2 stems. Either would work for you. As they reach their top. Lower and lean.

The semi determinant is a crap shoot if you ask me. I had some 1 year. They produced a large amount of fruit early on. Then the space was basically wasted for the amount of tomatoes that were produced after the first wave.

Its gonna be mostly about the size and taste your looking for. Once you find out the ones you like the trellising system can be made to work for you.

Main thing just be aware. If you secure anything to the top hoops make sure to brace them. The plants get much heavier than one one think early on.

[bower]

Well - this is exactly the problem I have every year with indeterminates in my greenhouse. Last year I just grew determinates/semi-determinates and it was a breeze! No pruning maybe one day of tying up... This year I have indeterminates again though, and it's the same old nightmare. I need a ladder just to prune these monsters which grow up to the glass and don't set anything up there, it's too hot!!!

The first year I grew heirlooms I had just ten plants, and I was not a pruner. It was cold and wet. I tried that overhead trellis idea, It was really cool, to walk through the tunnel and pick tomatoes that were hanging down But then the weather took a turn for the worst... All the stems that were leaning against another stem started to rot, and by the end of the season, what a mess I had to clean up.

After that I tried several other strategies, one is to top the plants when they get taller than they should be for the space, and grow some extra leaders to make up for it (take em from the middle of the plant, because the low suckers often don't fruit or they manage to get stemrots down there). Also some years I have just hooked em down and let them go horizontal along a bamboo trellis. This isn't a bad approach but it all limits the number you can grow in there at some point where they are growing into and over each other.

I never could manage the lower and lean except for one or two plants that were super supple (Datlo comes to mind!) - my lower stems seemed to be too rigid or brittle to be manipulated as I've seen others do...

After half dozen years of carting out the rotting jungle in october I started to want a shorter season. Cut down the plants pre-emptively in September, before they start to rot. Fewer plants, more determinates, shorter season. No I'm not kidding.

If I do indeterminates again, I think I'd go back to the bamboo trellis approach, and hook those leaders down every two days. This year I just ignored them, didn't prune properly, and I know it's just building up jungle that I will have to machete down.

[arnorrian]

It helps to plant horizontally, with the unburied part of the plant at an angle pointing towards the direction of doing lower and lean.