I used my own weave method for many of my tomato plants last year. However, my plants grew so large the year before last that I tried very tall sticks of rebar as uprights last year instead of wooden stakes. They worked much better for me; they were very inexpensive; the little grooves on the rebar held the twine in place better; and they will be re-usable for many years, not rotting as the wooden stakes will. When my plants towered above my head, and grew much heavier when laden with fruit, I took sections of pantyhose and tied around the stems, attaching to the twine. That helped with plant stability, and the twine did not sag as much.

I use 7' tall fence stakes. Most were on the farm when we got here (some are over 100 years old and still going strong) others we have bought at farm auctions.

Everytime we have used wood or bamboo the stakes break under the weight of the tomatoes.

the wood stakes are fine for hybrids and heirloom determinants but if you are growing heirloom/OP indeterminants you need very strong and tall support and that would be rebar or metal fence stakes

A variation of the florida weave that I used last year with success was to put up a section of goat fence with 4 inch holes. I then planted the tomatoes on either side of the fence - and gently pushed the tops of the plants through the fence as they grew. It worked well - there was no fussing with running more lines (which I have tried before and doesn't work for long sections) or with trying to prevent sag.

I can't seem to find the beginning instructions on this. Can anyone tell me how far away the uprights should be from each other? I am testing this on one row of tomatoes this year and am thinking of doing it to my cucumbers as well.

Below is the link, which is working this AM. I plant the tomatoes 2 ft apart, then put in a post after two plants, then another two plants, a post, etc. I think that there is quite a strain on the two end posts, so I braced them with a post between the last two. The brace ran from the top of the end post down to the base of the second post.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best description of Florida Weave

How did it go?

Just a follow up to the above stream. I used this method last season with fantastic results.

I have an extremely limited amount of room (4' x 10') for I live in a townhome. The plants grew in a very impressive display. I ended up using strips from plastic grocery bags to support when fruit was getting heavy.

One word of advice would be is to plan high. My plants grew to over 8' tall.

I had been looking for assorted methods of supporting tomatoes & found this thread from '09. I never liked the idea (or task!) of staking & having to prune to a fare-thee-well, so most of my gardening years (more than 40 now!) I have used 5' high cages made of 4" square fencing that lasted for years. (Had to top the tomatoes, of course, as they outgrow it, but..)
But when most of my cages were crushed one winter as they lay stored piled one atop the other at the edge of the woods and a large limb fell on them, rendering them a twisted mess that was not worth trying to untangle, I could not find that type of fencing any more. Only thing close was concrete reinforcing wire, which of course is a much heavier gauge and therefore much harder to work with -- and to store. So I went with plain generic yard fencing with 2" x 4" rectangles--which are very inconvenient because I end up each year having to cut a number of the vertical wires in order to get at the tomatoes -- eventually these Swiss-cheesed cages will be useless! Also we have moved since and I now have been teaching some gardening courses and seminars so have wanted to try some different supports as demos for my "students" -- all older, retired folk. And also now I have raised beds compliments of my wonderful hubby.

Last year I had pretty good results using the concrete reinforcing wire that was leftover from pouring a concrete floor we made, so I used it as a fence around one of the raised beds. I planted the tomatoes (a dozen plants, I think, of 5 different kinds, paste & salad types) just inside the fence and did some fairly extensive pruning of suckers, weaving the remaining the vines in & out of the squares.

Now, this year, since of course one should not plant tomatoes the same spot 2 years running, and because we did not feel like taking down the fence entirely (installed with steel posts and a lot of heavy wire to keep everything straight & true), I planted peas along it and so had to come up with an alternate plan for the 'maters.

I did remove one 5' section of the concrete wire fence and erected it in another bed using 2 more steel posts. This time, though, I planted the toms just inside the fence and then, once the tomatoes had reached about 20' tall, ran a length of clothesline rope from one post to the other along the other side of the tomatoes. In this way, I am hoping to contain the plants but not have to prune. I HATE removing those branches of potential fruit!!

I also am trying a couple of other techniques, including the Florida weave. But now that those plants are growing taller, and I do not want to prune them, I find that the very plentiful foliage is mashed together so the plants are not getting the air circulation they should have. So now I am thinking of adding a second row of stakes and re-doing and modifying the weave allowing the plants more room to spread out and up. So it will no longer be a true FL weave, I guess, but an Ohio weave! LOL

I used 10' 3/4" rebar jabbed as far into the ground as I can spaced every 6-8'. As the plants grow I use baling twine and weave the plants from one rebar to the other. Eventually the plants get 8'+ and the rebar and weave works great. I end up with a wall of tomato plants making it easy to see and harvest the tomatoes.