ot: tomato cages

Money Pit · Feb 20, 2015

garden planning is underway. until now we have been using the store bought wire basket style toamto cages. never seem tall enough or strong enough. thinking of other options.

one i came up with was socking in some steel t posts and using some welded wire fence for them to climb on. already have plenty of both. put the fence over the midle of the plant maybe a foot or so above it.

it was just a thought; i can see a few concerns doing it this way.

what have others doen to make for happy tomato plants?

thanks

steve19438 · Feb 20, 2015

hope the pic shows up.

anywho I used this stuff. cut to fit. they have lasted me over 20 years.
Untitled URL Link

greywolf224 · Feb 20, 2015

How many cages we talking about?
My 80 year old Dad plants about 150 tomatoes plants a year.
Has been using the same wooden stakes for about 20 yrs. now.

I tried getting him about 20 cages a bunch of yrs back to try. Last I saw the cages he cut them all up and used them to patch the fence around his sweet pea patch to keep the deers out.

Oh well......

steve19438 · Feb 20, 2015

what kinda wood are the stakes made from? whenever I had tried wood stakes they all rotted at the bottom before growing season was over.

Money Pit · Feb 20, 2015

looks like the welded wire fence i was referring to. do you just put it in place or stake it?

hadn't thought about just ctiing it and making a circle; looks like a good idea.

re: qauntity of plants. only 8 - 12 or so. i aint old enough to be planting 150 of them!

Bruce (VA) · Feb 20, 2015

What's your goal here? I see below 8-12 plants, but are you planning on planting just one crop?

It works like this.......

Tomatoes are either indeterminate or determinate. If it's determinate, you will get one huge crop & then a few more for a month or so. Around here, we set plants around Apr 21 & pull the determinate plants up in early August.

Indeterminate plants will produce until frost.....BUT they get huge and production does fall off as a result.

Your best bet is to plant twice.

As to cages.....

Get a 100' roll of 6' tall concrete reinforcing wire. First, it lasts forever. Next, it has openings large enough to get your hand & a tomato in. (6"x6", I think) I think you can get 20 cages out of a roll. It will cost you $100.

The downside.....you need a place to store them. And, if you are growing indeterminate tomatoes in them, you still need to stake them.

So.....my advice:

Plant two crops.

Use stakes.

Learn how to weave the tomato plants instead of tying them individually to the stake.

Buy a bundle of commercial tomato stakes (18 to a bundle) for $24. They are rough cut pine & will last easily 10-12 years if you store them undercover in the winter. And best of all, they have a "pencil point" tip so that the stake goes straight down when you drive it in.

Or buy 12 pieces of 5' rebar for stakes.

JWA · Feb 20, 2015

I use 6X6-10 concrete re-enforcement wire. Cut to length, roll to size. Been using the same ones for years. The 10 guage wire is strong enough to support large plants with no problems.

Bruce (VA) · Feb 20, 2015

Re-enforcing wire cages for the indeterminate tomatoes; staked tomatoes in the back.

showcrop · Feb 20, 2015

we always tied them to hardwood construction grade stakes with cloth strips. The important thing though is to,remove the "suckers" that come out at the base of the branches. They result in too much foliage and less fruit. You can get the stakes at construction supply places.

Bruce (VA) · Feb 20, 2015

You must grow some small tomatoes!

I couldn't get my hand through that fence.

greywolf224 · Feb 20, 2015

Steve, Dad cut up an old horse paddock fence and used the
1"x 6"'s. He ripped them down in 1-1/4" x 5'. I believe the wood was pressure treated. He did the same with old 5/4" wood decking.
The decking outlasted the horse fence. He ties up the plants about three times during the season as they grow using twine.

He has worked in the electrical realm most of his working career and has also accumulated a couple hundred 5' lengths of aluminum conduit which he also tried using but didn't like because the twine doesn't bite and the plants slip down to the ground

He refuses to use the cages cause he says it gives him too much cleanup work at season end and its a PITA during the season since he likes to give'em a french manicure.

He was a farmer/sheep herder back in the motherland and has done it this way his whole life.

rustyfarmall · Feb 20, 2015

I gave up on the cages also. A 16 ft welded wire cattle panel works much better. Just weave the vines through the openings as the plant grows.

Indiana Ken · Feb 20, 2015

For tomato cages I go to Tractor Supply with my trusty bolt cutter. I select the hog or cattle panel, made from 1/4" galvanized wire with 6" wide openings, of my liking. After paying for it, I cut the 16' long panel into sections, each with three of the 6" square openings. Therefore, the sections are 18" wide. All this is loaded in the pick up....which is much easier than transporting a 16' long panel, half of which is hanging behind the truck.

I zip tie four 18" wide panels to form a square self standing wire box around each tomato plant. When the tomatos are finished the zip ties are cut and the sections can be stored flat and inside, ready for the next season.

Jimmyjack · Feb 20, 2015

I use the same welded wire cage like Bruce does;, but I cut the bottom rim out to leave six inch spikes to help anchor the cage, then I only need maybe one stake to keep it from tipping on a windy day.

rd 2N in mo · Feb 20, 2015

that's what I use. just cut the bottom bar off and cut vertical so you have 6 running bars and then turn the last bar into the first to close the circle. Stand on end and sink the 6" end into the ground. works great and no stakes required. holes big enough to trim and pick.

64frd4000ind · Feb 20, 2015

The first cages I made were from an old fence, woven wire, we went out to where a guy was clearing a fence row and brought home about 200ft of it and made cages.

Later on I found some at local auctions that was remainder fence from when someone was putting up a new fence and just had 20-30 ft left on the roll. Have done that a couple of times.

It makes cages that are about 4ft tall, and if you use a dab of jb weld on the bottoms (or you can tack weld it if you have a welder, low low amps though) you have stakes built in after you cut the bottom ring off.

its a lot easier to bend than the welded wire fencing to make different sizes and the holes are big enough for even big tomatoes.

Have been using these cages for 10+ years now, some years the plants grow out the top, but most years they are just about right.

old · Feb 20, 2015

All depends on the store you buy them from. I have a bunch of cages that stand 4 or more feet tall and are very well built and strong. I also have some that a guy made from simple 4X4 fence wire but the problem with that is it is hard to stack them down. I have used tomato cages for 30 plus years and all my plant get then. 2 reason for all plants getting them. #1 so I know where I planted a seed. #2 so people that are pulling weeds do not pull up the plant they should not pull

Bruce (VA) · Feb 20, 2015

"..... I cut the bottom rim out to leave six inch spikes to help anchor the cage, then I only need maybe one stake to keep it from tipping on a windy day."

Yep.

That's exactly how I do it.

Charles Krammin · Feb 20, 2015

In my 8' X 8' by 8foot tall, recycled house wood sash on sides, with aluminum storm windows for roof, vent windows one side thermopane and small thermo in back top and old swood stormdoor, with window or screen for summer venting.
I plant 12 "indeterminate" plants (early Girl is my favorite, Burpee Roma Grande, next, then Burpee Early Pick). These plants will be started, now, from seed in starters over starting heat mats, in my furnace room 70 degrees, under grow lights, and then keep potting bigger, until I have 3 gallon plastic pots (bottoms cut but retaped with duct tape, and then May 1 remove bottoms and set pots in ground soil.
I use 4 foot green colored plastic stakes Z tyed together, with one along top and then attach boughten Plant netting 5' X 5' X 15' 4" squares and train the vines thru them all year with fruit from about June until Nov15th. These stakes and netting could be adapted to a tent garden planting of inderminate plants, and are also a good "garden in small places", like along garage Southern wall.
Cages are ok for garden determinate, short term harvest, usually fall canning.
Charles Krammin SW MI Chill factor -20 today

oldtanker · Feb 20, 2015

4' woven wire with a T post per cage to anchor it. I use plastic zip ties to attach the post to the wire.

Rick

Money Pit · Feb 20, 2015

once again this group comes through!

6 x6 opening heavy wire / fence / panel is the winner.

thanks to all.

John,PA · Feb 20, 2015

Locust stakes, with non-plastic "twine" around the main trunk line will do the "cageing" that is required.

TRICK: do NOT forget to put that old IRON nail in the ground close to the plant.
WHY" the nail will attact nitrogen from the lightning of thunder storms.

Also CaCL around the base of the plants will keep the "blight" away from the fruit.

Here, I use the vintage "big boy and girl" plants. For canning, any variety will do.

HTH John,PA

John,PA · Feb 20, 2015

I forgot: I always put a 5 gal plastic bucket, with the bottom cut out, around the plant so when watering, only the plant gets the water and not the surrounding area. Also the plastic bucket keeps the ground hogs and rabbits from getting to the plants. Sorta like plants in a container, but NOT upside down.

We are always water conservitave, here.

John,PA

Tom N MS · Feb 20, 2015

Yea and mostly do nothing but cause flats if you lose the nails..

Tom N MS · Feb 21, 2015

Sounds like a plan if u have a source for a bunch of buckets free..

John,PA · Feb 21, 2015

No problem for free buckets......local grocery stores with inhouse bakerys usually have their frostings come in 5 gal buckets.

Every week a store, here, has about 15-20 empty buckets sitting out back for the "recyclers".

So, for me, that is a year's supply at one time.

Also good for small parts when doing electrolysys.

John,PA

Tom N MS · Feb 21, 2015

Good deal

ot: tomato cages

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