6-pack of 6-ft wooden tomato stakes with notches

Description

These innovative tomato plant support stakes are designed and built by and for backyard hobbyist gardeners like us, the daughter and dad team at Olivia's Backyard. Our stakes are lightweight, 6ft long, approx 1" x 5/8", with special notches for supporting heavy tomato vines. The are made of various types of wood (cedar, fir, pine), some of it reclaimed to help conserve trees and reduce waste, so variations in color and texture may exist and can add character to your garden. They have sanded and rounded edges to help prevent splinters or hurting the plants during windy conditions. (ties not included)
Tomato vines can be very tall, some up to 6 feet or more. Especially when the tomatoes bear fruit, they get too heavy for their thin stalks. So, they need good support.
We tried many things on the market, but in the end, we felt that the kind of tomato support that would work best for us does not seem to exist. So, we designed and made our own, and now we are making our creation available to you too.
Here's why our vine support stakes are different, and I think better:
- We tried bamboo stakes, but because they're round and slippery, we found that the ties attaching the vines would often slide down, letting the tomato vines bend, twist and eventually break, especially as they grew taller and heavier. That's why our stakes have special notches so that the ties don't slide down but can firmly hold even a heavy fruit-bearing branch.
- We tried straight wooden rectangular sticks from a home improvement store, but because they have rough and sharp corners, they'd sometimes give us splinters, or they'd cut or hurt the vines, especially on windy days, or when we were working around them. So, our stakes are sanded and have rounded edges.
- We looked at metal rods, but they're heavy, kind of clunky, and - what do you with them when you're done? Our stakes are made of wood, which is light and easy to dispose of. At the same time, they can last several seasons.
- We considered tomato cages, ladders, and more complex things too, but they were either too expensive, too short, or too much hassle for us. Also, it is pretty hard to have 20 or more of anything complicated in our densely populated bean and tomato corner of the backyard.
Now, when a growing plant is ready for something taller, we just take one of our stakes, put it about 9 inches into the ground, wrap some ties around it and the vine, making sure to go through the notches, and we're done!
I hope you give them a try and let us know! We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas for making them even better.