What you all use for tomato cages?

[mapper]

Too short a season here to get a really good crop, about the time they start to ripen early blight shows up.
I grow mine in a 10X20 greenhouse along with peppers, cucumbers etc.
I use tomahooks, string and tomato clips, race track the plants from overhead wire cable. Hooks and string are reusable.
This method is very productive, usually start harvesting tomatoes by mid June. When I clean out the greenhouse in early October a lot of the plants are over 16 feet long.
I do use some cheap and oft repaired tomato cages to support the bell peppers, they seem to be rather weak at the nodes and will break from the weight of the fruit.

 

[mapper]

July last year!

 

[Alan W.]

I use field fence and make 3' diameter cages, works great and lasts for years and years.


Same here. Have been using mine since 86.

 

[Oaktree]

Too short a season here to get a really good crop, about the time they start to ripen early blight shows up.
I grow mine in a 10X20 greenhouse along with peppers, cucumbers etc.

I keep saying I'm going to build a greenhouse, haven't gotten around to it yet. I did try one of those cheapie ones from Ocean State Job Lot, only lasted a year or so before it fell apart.
Growing season is short here, and it's not really quite warm enough to grow tomatoes or peppers...just about the time they begin to ripen we get a frost. I do start plants inside, planting seeds in containers in early March.

 

[skipmarcy]

Been using 5' high 2x4 welded fence on T-posts for the past 15 years. I have a post about every 5 ft. Got a 20' section this year but have had several at a time in years past. I leave them in the garden for several years at a time before moving it (them) around some. I leave the bottom of the fence about 6" off the ground. I use the elastic waistband off my old tighty-whities to make ties to tie the vines to the fence - work excellent and don't pinch the vines and also give a little bit as the vine grows in diameter. My pocket knife removes them easily when time to clean the fence in the fall.

We also have discovered the MUCH easier, quicker and cooler way to find horn worms. We bought 2 of those UV flashlights off Amazon last year and wait until dusk when the sun isn't beating down on you and blinding you and go hunting. The worms glow in the UV light and are SO MUCH easier to find, especially the little ones. Takes much less time to cruise a row and much cooler and saves the destruction tremendously.

 

[hube2]

I use stakes, the place I buy them from calls them tomato stakes, expensive but the last several years. They are 4ft. I use baling twine to tie the plants to the stakes as they grow. I wrap the twine around the plant and tying in a loop, like a big hoop around the plant.

I put in 36 to 48 plants every year, I'm not spending the money on cages for all those plants.

 

[thepumpguysc]

The thing I found w the store bought wire cages is, they get scorching hot in the summer months..and burn the plant when it rests on it.!!
What I did was paint them white.. WHAT A DIFFERENCE.!!!
Works great..

 

[redobbin]

Made mine out of hog panels. Cut, rolled, welded, and painted all the welds. Work great, been using them for years.

 

[mapper]

I keep saying I'm going to build a greenhouse, haven't gotten around to it yet. I did try one of those cheapie ones from Ocean State Job Lot, only lasted a year or so before it fell apart.
Growing season is short here, and it's not really quite warm enough to grow tomatoes or peppers...just about the time they begin to ripen we get a frost. I do start plants inside, planting seeds in containers in early March.

Mine is built using the salvaged frame from a Shelter Logic tarp shed, 10'×20'. I anchored it down to pier blocks and built ends with a couple of $5 storm doors from the habitat for humanity thrift store. Its covered with a double layer of 6 mil UV stabilized greenhouse plastic that is inflated by a 1/60 hp inflation blower.
It is unheated so we use it in the winter to store the patio flowers and cover them with remay row cover, most survive.
10x20 may not seem very big, but it is enough for about 60 12" pots of various tomatoes, peppers, English cucumbers and other stuff.
We usually end up with more than we can use so have a lot to share with neighbors.
If I recall correctly it cost me about $1500 in materials and equipment to set it up. So far the plastic has lasted 6 years, the inflation blower keeps it tight so the wind doesn't weaken it. The plastic, wiggle wire, inflation blower, and vent fan and shutter were most of the cost.

 

[MossRoad]

Do you have the source where you got your plastic?