I have had to learn the hard way. My very first tomatoes have no supports. If you will notice in earlier photos they are leaning against the wall. Well, I waited too long and they simply grew too fast. I am afraid to try adding support as I might damage the plants.
On my newer plants I have come up with a trellis system. You can get tomato cages and/or trellis at Lowes or Home Depot. I already had a few cages. I also got a couple of the tomato trellises for $6.00 each. You can make three supports from these as they are flat and can easily be taken appart and bent to suit your needs.
All I did was bend in a circle fashion and then drill holes in bucket lid, insert wires in holes and then bend them over for support. I also discovered that I could get brooder lamps and insert them right over the plants by sliding them down inside the wires. You can move them right down on top of the plants and move them up as the plants grow. These brooder reflectors can be bought for about $9.00 each at Walmart, Lowes, or Tractor Supply. I am using a 23 watt 6500K CFL which is equivalent to 100 watt incadensant. When I want the plant to bloom I convert to a 2500K bulb which is more of the red light spectrum. You could also screw in a Y if you wanted to add two bulbs. This is the ideal setup for bucket systems, as you can lift the lids to check your solution and the plant and all will still be supported with the trellis.
Notice my cucumber. It has doubled in size since I took this photo a week ago. Should be picking cukes in 5-6 weeks.
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