Keeping tomatoes off the ground

If a tomato plant's foliage or fruit make contact with moist soil, the plant will become diseased. That's why they are usually staked, says Bill Kerr.

- Bill Kerr

Most tomato plants are staked for various reasons, including the fact that foliage or fruit that touch moist soil may become diseased. However, there are occasions when you can grow determinate varieties without staking them, provided you don’t expect rain during the growth of the crop, and you use drip irrigation so that the crop can rest on dry soil.

This method is often employed for processing tomatoes, which are mechanically harvested. Those who market to hawkers also often use this method, but the yield could be lower and some of the fruit on the ground may be downgraded or unmarketable. Those who practise this method reason that these sacrifices are offset by the lower production costs. Processors will choose a very determinate variety with a concentrated fruit set and good hold ability on the land to avoid wastage when harvesting mechanically.