Staking Plants
What types of plants are going to require staking for the best production? Look at your largest flowers; the plants that are vine like; these are some plants that will need staked. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, or beans can be staked up to keep the plants thriving and producing more than ever.

Posted Friday, April 21, 2006

Your gardens are growing large; the plants continue to fall over with the weight of produce hanging off them. Staking is an alternative to save your plants from stress, and to save space. Staking your plants gives you more growing room as your plants will grow upwards into the air instead of out and over the ground.

Staking your largest plants is going to give you more growing room. More growing room means more production. Staking only takes a few minutes, and once you do it, you never have to worry about your plants becoming entangled again!

If you have large flowers, you can put a single stake in a container or in the garden to support this plant. You can use wood sticks, metal rods, plastic rods or even metal-plastic coated rods, depending on what your preferences are and what is available.

Using a soft rope or string like yarn or twine gives you the best results. Harsh twine can cut into plants when the wind blows too hard. Old nylons or panty hose are the best things that you can use to tie up plants while protecting their delicate stems.

Staking is also done using cages. There are wire or metal cages that you put around the outside of plants, most often tomatoes, and will support them from moving in the wind and from falling over due to weight.

Where can you get the materials needed to stake up your plants? Wire from heavy hangers can be made straight to stake up tomatoes. Sticks from the woods that have fallen from trees can be used to stake up trees. Your old nylons or a collection of nylons saved from your friends and neighbors is a good start. You can purchase thin wood dowels, sticks, stakes, and metal or plastic rods at most hardware stores.

Take the stakes, cages and accessories from the garden at the end of the year so you can reuse as much as possible next season.