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Went out this morning to find one of my mater plants bent over so I set up a lean and lower trellis today using stuff on hand. Not pretty but works and it's not like I'll be growing tomatoes there every year so I don't need permanent, I'm using baling twine for the verticals and strips of cut rag to attach to the vine but will be ordering some plant clips from ebay. I didn't keep up with pruning well enough to not end up with some of the plants getting a Y in them as opposed to single stalk which makes lean and lower double work and more crowded on the top wire. Top wire is actually nylon straps and a short piece of chain since two straps wouldn't quite reach each other. Not in the picture; I took a couple of steel pipes about 7 foot long and slid them down over two t-posts, then hooked the straps in the top, open end. Might have to prop the middle if the plants get too heavy and the straps droop in the middle. Bad time of day for pic lighting. Good thing everything I used was orange. LOL Structure is tall enough for plants to be upright but it felt like I was pulling hard on them so I let them lay over a little. Since I planted so close together, they were getting crowded due to the Ys so hanging allowed me to get a little space between them.

Would have been nice if all plants were the same height but there's four varieties there. Would have been nice if the taller ones were on the left which is the only way I can lean them but it's opposite. No biggie. A few of the plants were taller than me and only one's close to me being able to start getting tomatoes from it. How long will the vines be in a month or two? 10, 15 foot? This seemed the best way to deal with it. Low branches get pruned on an ongoing basis with this method.

These are all the cherry tomatoes. The slicers are 4 foot tall right now so I think I can get away with t-posts on those. Plants are planted in a backwards L shape and the slicers are on the short leg and not in the pic. Blue barrel section in the back is potatoes that I can pull whenever.

Something I've never seen done with lean and lower is burying the stems that end up laying on the ground. We know they'll will grow roots.

Also found a hornworm on one plant this morning. It became chicken food.

For anyone wanting to see a proper set up or not familiar with lean and lower, the first few minutes of this video shows a set up but in a high tunnel. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8L_x42RieA

As long as the fruit is set, and then you get cooler temps or provide a LOT of shade, things will ripen.

Is it abnormally hot by you? If not, you might need to adjust your ‘growing season’ and start/plant your tomatoes a lot later than you have this season.

I keep looking back to the 2012 season up here. We had NO RAIN for MONTHS ON END. It was awful. And I was managing a friggin’ GARDEN CENTER that year! Try selling trees, shrubs and perennials in a DROUGHT! Ugh! Not Good Times!

And then into 2013 we had record-breaking snowfalls! My Snow Plow Gal had to hire a guy with a skid steer to remove snow from the end of my drive before she could even start plowing. It was insanity!

And yet, completely out of my control. As is it all. ;)