Tomato plants outgrowing cages

@Turan wrote:O looking good What kind of tomato? Has it set a lot of fruit yet?

To ripen fruit it helps to shock the plant a little.

@GWN wrote:Hi there
I have read books written by Eliot Coleman, and what he does .... is that he has the tomatoes growing up strings and then when they get near the top he essentially lowers the string.
He cuts off all of the lower branches, and essentially the plant lies on the ground to allow for the plant to keep growing taller.
The way to get the tomatoes to ripen is to get a banana that is over ripened and lay it in the tomato patch.
The substance given off from a ripening banana will stimulate the tomatoes to ripen and essentially one tomato ripening will stimulate the others. It is a chemical reaction.
I tried it last year and my tomatoes ripened ahead of anyones. Even the farmers at the farmers market.

@GWN wrote:huge tomato patch, in his hoop house.
He is the guy who write about winter gardens.

@TN_GARDENER wrote:I'd be more apt to try to add some sort of taller poles.

Maybe a teepee or A-frame of sorts from 8 foot furring strips or bamboo poles. You might be able to thread them through your cage in such a manner that you don't have to drive the feet too far in to the ground and risk damaging your roots.

Might also need to attach some guy wires to keep it from toppling over in high winds.

@GWN wrote:It is a very interesting part of his book that is not incredibly clear.
I read and reread to get the details and studied the pictures in great depth.
I essentially did this last summer, but in the end, when I needed to be dropping them down, I was extremely busy with something else and so did not follow through.
I am grrowing a few of my heirlooms in large buckets this year, and intend to bring them back into the greenhouse in the fall to try to do this

@Turan wrote:

@GWN wrote:It is a very interesting part of his book that is not incredibly clear.
I read and reread to get the details and studied the pictures in great depth.
I essentially did this last summer, but in the end, when I needed to be dropping them down, I was extremely busy with something else and so did not follow through.
I am grrowing a few of my heirlooms in large buckets this year, and intend to bring them back into the greenhouse in the fall to try to do this

Which book? I need to go to the library today.

This reminds me of an article I read once about the amazing greenhouse tomatoes they are growing in the NE. Those tomatoes are grafted and trained to grow up and sideways.