In my travels to gardens and farms around the world, I've seen a variety of inventive ways to trellis tomato plants. Some of the trellises are particularly attractive, others are surprisingly strong, and still others are rather elaborate.

Choose a system suited to the number of plants you're growing, their type, and the prevailing winds in your area. Trellises suitable only for small, determinate-type plants are noted. Otherwise, assume the trellis is for indeterminates.

Here are the ten basic ways you can train tomato plants.

An ingenious American trellising method. Make a 4-foot-diameter cage (minimum) from fencing or concrete reinforcing wire. Build a compost pile inside it. The following season, plant tomatoes around the perimeter and train them to grow up the outside. Rain falling on the compost will feed the plants.

• Relatively inexpensive
• Low-maintenance
• Good for determinate varieties
• Requires planning a season ahead

The most common method in the United States. Pound a solid stake a foot or two into the ground, and tie a single vine to it as it grows. Six-foot 1- x 1-inch stakes are usually set 2 to 3 feet apart, 2 feet deep, in rows 3 to 4 feet apart.

• Simple to construct and maintain; inexpensive
• Not wind-resistant
• Heavy pruning usually needed to keep plants attached to stakes

A home-scale variation of a widely used European trellis. Sink 8-foot-tall 2 x 2 rot-resistant posts 18 inches in the ground, 5 feet apart, and join them at the top with electrical conduit flattened and drilled at the ends. Tie strings to the base of each plant with a nonslip knot, then loop over the top bar. Braid stems with the strings as the plants grow.

• Uses space efficiently
• Relatively inexpensive
• Provides good air circulation
• Wind-resistant if parallel to prevailing winds

This system is a high-tech single-stake method. Set the metal post 1 foot into the ground; as the pruned, single-stem tomato plant grows, it intertwines itself with the stake.

• Simple to set up and maintain
• Not wind-resistant
• Relatively expensive

Almost as popular among American gardeners as the single-stake method, these cages are taller, sturdier versions of the basic tomato cage. Make one from 4-foot-wide concrete reinforcing wire, available at most building-supply stores. Set a stake just inside the cage and fasten the wire to it.

• Good for determinate varieties
• Not wind-resistant

For this English-style trellis, set 8-foot-tall 4 x 4s 2 feet into the ground at the ends of a 20- to 50-foot row. Run a 9-gauge wire from anchors beyond each end over the top and tighten with a turnbuckle. Run twine from the plant base to the wire or tie bamboo stakes to the wire every 2 feet, and tie the stems to grow up the twine or stakes.

• Provides good air circulation
• Efficient for large-scale growers
• Wind-resistant if parallel to prevailing winds