Tomato cages--what do you use?

[SandburRanch]

Use concrete wire cages. Cut in half to stack for storage and cut with fence pliers.

 

[oosik]

Wazoo Some of you guys look to have enough plants to feed the world. I use "standard" cages and have four plants. I don't can tomatoes. Just enough to have fresh tomatoes during the season.

Lakngulf - your photos remind me of our first garden here, some 33 years ago. We had 30 hills of zucchini - we froze 65 quarts of shredded zucchini and people became upset when we slipped sack loads of them in their cars, at work. The neighbors cattle would eat a lot of them too. We sure learned something after that garden the first year.

 

[Fire Quacker]

I took a 50" tall by 16' long livestock panel and split it both directions with bolt cutters. Then i bent each piece in half. I now have an "A" frame that I put between four tomato plants planted in a 2' x 2' pattern. I then use twine to help get them started to climb up the support.

I did this after I got tired of all the work of tying them to a wood stake or setting up cages that either break or blow over. Now I have rigid support that are easy to set and then remove in the fall and they never fall down. They are made out of 1/4" rod and the sharp ends stick in the ground. The A frame shape and 2'x2' base make them very sturdy. I have been using them for about ten years now.

A new livestock panel is $15 locally and I can cut it in about 5 minutes.

We need to try this.

Mine being A shaped stack very well for storage

Yes, should nest easily in a small footprint. I've always liked cages from concrete wire, this sounds better.

 

[lakngulf]

Wazoo Some of you guys look to have enough plants to feed the world. I use "standard" cages and have four plants. I don't can tomatoes. Just enough to have fresh tomatoes during the season.

Lakngulf - your photos remind me of our first garden here, some 33 years ago. We had 30 hills of zucchini - we froze 65 quarts of shredded zucchini and people became upset when we slipped sack loads of them in their cars, at work. The neighbors cattle would eat a lot of them too. We sure learned something after that garden the first year.

These do produce, and many more than I need. I have lots of friends around the lake that know I will show up with my sea doo or boat with a sack full of maters. They seem to look forward to them.

This year I am using the vertical panels. Picked these on Friday July 10th:


And Picked these on Wednesday July 15th:


And here are the big ones from the last picking:

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Wazoo Some of you guys look to have enough plants to feed the world. I use "standard" cages and have four plants. I don't can tomatoes. Just enough to have fresh tomatoes during the season.

Lakngulf - your photos remind me of our first garden here, some 33 years ago.

We had 30 hills of zucchini

- we froze 65 quarts of shredded zucchini and people became upset when we slipped sack loads of them in their cars, at work. The neighbors cattle would eat a lot of them too. We sure learned something after that garden the first year.

That's funny. The standing joke around here is that you have to plant more Zucchini than the bugs can eat. I put out about 5 hills (Sharn Jean wanted me to plant some) and they all succumbed to the bugs; not to mention the deer raid. I'm not one to use a lot of spray unless I have to; and I rarely have to spray my tomatoes. We can always get fresh squash at the Farmer's Market, no more than we eat.

 

[oosik]

In all the time we have had a garden only three things ever bothered the garden. We had potato bugs a couple years - however we went out every day & picked them - put them in an empty plastic bowl - set the bowl on the porch and the birds ate them. One year we planted an off brand of corn and just as it ripened the blackbirds came and ate it all in one day - we had eight rows, 50 feet long. Then there were the pocket gophers - they ate all the carrots and left the tops still standing - then they went down the rows of spuds and ate them all to. After that experience we bought spuds & carrots at Costco.

The deer never bothered the garden - the deer and the raccoons will raid the apple trees but thats OK - we always get plenty of apples anyhow. We would go out in the orchard in the early evening and watch the adult raccoons send the young 'coons out the branches to get the apples. The adults were too big and heavy to go way out the branches. The 'coons really liked the apples but the adults had probably had bad experiences way out the small branches - so they just sat at the base of the trees and encouraged their young.

A little off the original thread but a true story - none the less.

 

[TnAndy]

We grow our tomatoes in raised beds. I run cattle panels along the sides of the bed and plant the tomatoes next to the panels. Then strap the panels as the tomatoes grow.

View attachment 433480

We use cattle panels as well. One 6' T post at each end, one in the middle. Approximately 5 plants per panel. We also use them for peas and pole beans.

Use 8" long galvanized concrete rebar wire ties to attach the panels to the post (with the little 'spinner' tool for them, they come with a loop in each end). A near lifetime supply is a $50 roll of them. (I forget how many thousand) They are cheap, cut off and discard at the end of the season. Pull the T posts, and hang the panels on big nails in the garden fence posts.

 

[Pilot]

OP here. Wow, some of you guys are really serious about tomatoes. We only have 5 plants.

Here in NW Oregon we have had some years when we never got much of a crop because of short, cool summers so it's not worth the effort to go too crazy about the things. This year we finally got smart and planted them on the south side of the house where it's a lot warmer than out in the open, and we have had the added bonus of a SoCal-like summer. Can't remember what rain looks like.

 

[lakngulf]

We use cattle panels as well. One 6' T post at each end, one in the middle. Approximately 5 plants per panel. We also use them for peas and pole beans.

Use 8" long galvanized concrete rebar wire ties to attach the panels to the post (with the little 'spinner' tool for them, they come with a loop in each end). A near lifetime supply is a $50 roll of them. (I forget how many thousand) They are cheap, cut off and discard at the end of the season. Pull the T posts, and hang the panels on big nails in the garden fence posts.

Looks great.

 

[Bird]

As others have said, I made my tomato cages of concrete reinforcing wire about 2' diameter. I cut them so the bottom wires stuck into the ground, but I also used two 1" x 2" wooden stakes for each cage because I had more 1" x 2" lumber than I knew what to do with.:laughing: I was planting a dozen each of 4 varieties of tomato. At the end of the season, I used a machete to chop off most of what had grown out through the cages, which made them easy to pull up and store in the barn for the Winter.