Tomato cages--what do you use?

[Creamer]

Mine being A shaped stack very well for storage

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

I made mine out of concrete reinforcement wire. They are tough; takes bolt cutters to cut the heavy wire. They are very strong, and work fine. I have room for storage, so it's not a problem.

Yep mine have lasted 30 years and show no signs of giving up. Put the cage around the plant when plating, the cage and plant are one, no work needed. Use a 3' 1/2" rebar as a stake, reuse the same ones over and over again. We have 25 cages, also good for pole beans and cucumbers. In the fall leave them up, in the spring the tomato plant is dried and falls out very easy, reuse, a wonderful thing.

 

[sseelhoff]

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.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Yep mine have lasted 30 years and show no signs of giving up. Put the cage around the plant when plating, the cage and plant are one, no work needed. Use a 3' 1/2" rebar as a stake, reuse the same ones over and over again. We have 25 cages, also good for pole beans and cucumbers. In the fall leave them up, in the spring the tomato plant is dried and falls out very easy, reuse, a wonderful thing.

Yep, beans and cukes grow quite well on them too. I stagger mine in the raised bed, and tie them together with zip ties...makes them very stable with heavy plants and in the wind. I had one turn over a couple weeks ago; it was standing by itself, had a big tomato plant in it. Figured out later that a deer was eating the top of the tomato plant and turned it over.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

FWIW, our tomatoes this year are as big and beautiful as I have ever seen. Except for a "Mortgage Buster" and a "Cherokee Purple" (which aren't doing much), I planted all "Super Fantastic"...in my opinion, for this area they are the best!

 

[RalphVa]

I just drive multiple stakes, as needed, into the ground and tie the tomatoes to them as needed. I stake volunteer cherry ones once and then kinda let them sprawl.

I've tomato plants all over the place this year.

Ralph

 

[xzcVAbc5]

I made mine out of concrete reinforcement wire. They are tough; takes bolt cutters to cut the heavy wire. They are very strong, and work fine. I have room for storage, so it's not a problem.

Same here for cages. I leave the cages full height. Run a T-post in the ground next to the cage and then put two zipties from the cage to the post.

As far as storage I lay them on their side and then stack them the way pipe would lay row by row. I used to tie them down before winter because I thought they would blow over but it didn't happen the last two years.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Hah. I put mine in the "corral"...a fenced in area I built and planned as a compost area, but which turned out to be large enough to compost half the city. :laughing:

 

[varmint]

I'd second or third the idea of using conc. reinforcing wire- we nip off about 6' of 5' wide rolled wire, and make a cylinder that's about 23" in dia., 60" tall, with wire ends that poke into the ground, to hold the cage. Only the largest, most unruley plants required stakes of 1/2" rebar to hold them in place. The wire ends eventually rust and break, which means rebar is required after some season's of use.

 

[lakngulf]

I made mine out of concrete reinforcement wire. They are tough; takes bolt cutters to cut the heavy wire. They are very strong, and work fine. I have room for storage, so it's not a problem.

For the most part I use cages from ^^^^^ this wire as well. Last forever.
I have also tried cattle panels two different ways, and both work:

(1) Horizontal



(2) Vertical