Do Cherry Tomato Plants Need to Be Tied?

Small Plants

• Dwarf cherry tomato plants are space-saving plants that are often grown in containers. You can grow dwarf varieties such as Tiny Tim, Midget, Patio and Dwarf Hybrid II in 6-inch pots, and they never need to be tied to a support. These little plants won’t produce as many tomatoes as standard-sized plants, but each plant provides a small family with occasional fruit for summer salads.

Larger Plants

• Tomato plants may be either determinate or indeterminate, terms which refer to the size of plant. Determinate cherry tomato plants grow to a predetermined height, usually under 4 feet, and then stop. Indeterminate plants grow throughout the gardening season, with some varieties reaching heights of up to 7 feet. You can grow determinate cherry tomatoes without tying them, but without support, indeterminate plants will sprawl on the ground. A disadvantage of determinate cherry tomatoes is that they tend to mature over a short period of time, whereas indeterminate types mature throughout the season.

Staking

• You can damage the plant's root system by driving the stake into the ground after it begins to grow, so it’s best to install the stakes at planting time. Drive the stake about a foot into the ground and 3 to 5 inches from the plant. Tie the plant to the stake using strips of cloth or nylon stocking, leaving an inch of space between the plant and the stake. Add more ties when necessary as the plant grows.

Caging

• Caging is an alternative to staking that requires no tying. The disadvantages of caging are that it requires an initial expenditure and plenty of space to store the cages over winter. Caged tomatoes are usually spaced a little further apart than staked tomatoes, so they take up more garden space. The advantages are less pruning and fewer problems and diseases. Since you prune them less, or sometimes not at all, caged tomato plants don’t have wounds that act as entry points for diseases. The heavy foliage cover shields the fruit so that they don’t develop sunscald.