For The Juiciest Cherry Tomatoes, Plant Them Along A Fence

A cherry tomato salad dressed in a punchy vinaigrette makes for an incredibly vibrant addition to a summer picnic table (you can even stuff your tomatoes for a bite-sized take on Caprese). But the one thing that tops it? Making your dish with cherry tomatoes you've harvested from your own vegetable garden. Sweet, juicy, and adorably cute, these diminutive fellas are actually packed with flavor if you grow them in the right conditions. While you must take care to water your tomatoes sufficiently and protect them from bugs like aphids, you should also provide them with a structure to grow up against. For the juiciest cherry tomatoes, plant them along a fence so they can flourish and multiply.

Cherry tomato plants can grow up to 6 feet tall and produce lots of green foliage in all directions. If they don't have a structure to guide them, they can often begin to droop, which will affect the quality of your harvest. A thriving tomato plant can also become heavy, putting pressure on the stalks. Purposefully stationing your tomato plants against a fence works well because you can weave the stalk through the gaps in the pickets or tie them to finer poles. Twine made with cotton or jute is an easy fix, but you can also use plant clips. As your tomatoes grow, the fence will provide a road map of sorts for the fruit to follow, allowing you to prune back smaller shoots easily, too.

Planting your tomatoes against a fence where they can grow thinly, both vertically and horizontally, ensures that they don't bunch up. This maximizes their exposure to the sun, making them juicier and sweeter. Tomato cages work well for some tomato varieties because they provide support for them to grow upwards; however, it can be tricky to prune inside them, given their circular design. Protecting larger tomatoes by supporting them with wooden stakes can work more effectively in some cases because the fruit doesn't have to grow within the confines of a cage. 

Alternatively, much like a fence, you can drive metal trellis panels beside your tomato plants and weave them through the square holes, which allows them to droop over the sides without snapping. This makes sense if you're growing them well away from the sides of your garden and far from an appropriately well-placed fence. Simply drive them deep into the soil to make sure they are stable and won't topple over in windy conditions. The beauty of using panels is that you can add more as needed, or even use them to grow other climbing fruits, like raspberries or blueberries. Grown a glut of cherry tomatoes? It's worth freezing cherry tomatoes because you can add them straight into hot stews, chilis, and soups.