Best way to cage tomatoes

[Ridgerunner]

Hopefully @Ridgerunner will be okay with me quoting this post, because I'm not sure how to link it. I found this when I was searching earlier. I'm guessing this is the same system everyone is praising. It definitely looks like it's worth a try.

Ccheek you can link and quote me all you want. Once it goes on the internet it's public property. When you post something anybody in the world can see it and repost it. A lot of people don't understand that but that is the world we live in. I've stolen a lot of my best ideas from other people. Besides when you quote me that means somebody is thinking of me and I appreciate that.

When I want to link to a different thread I usually copy the URL at the top of the page and paste that in my post. That usually works.

 

[MoonShadows]

I still like the pole system, but instead of using twine, which can easily cut into the plant or slide down the pole, I do what my Dad always did. I cut an old t-shirt into strips (anywhere from 1/2 to 1"); instead of just putting it around the plant, I double it around the plant and the pole before I tie it. Never slips; plants stand up straight. Also makes it much easier to harvest rather than reaching around and into all kinds of cages and wire. And, its cheap! This method for me is not broken, so I don't try to fix it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do about the same thing with my old T-shirts, tear them into strips and use a bowline knot to tie around the stalk so they don't pinch, then use two half-hitches to tie them to my cow panels. How's that fro getting technical early in the morning?

Cheap and not broken! I like the way you think.

 

[Kassaundra]

I still like the pole system, but instead of using twine, which can easily cut into the plant or slide down the pole, I do what my Dad always did. I cut an old t-shirt into strips (anywhere from 1/2 to 1"); instead of just putting it around the plant, I double it around the plant and the pole before I tie it. Never slips; plants stand up straight. Also makes it much easier to harvest rather than reaching around and into all kinds of cages and wire. And, its cheap! This method for me is not broken, so I don't try to fix it.

My Gma used all her old pantyhose as garden / tomato ties

 

[Kassaundra]

I am trying something different this year for my tomatoes. I read about it in article somewhere. I took a 5 gall bucket and drilled holes in the bottom and about 1/3 up the sides. Filled bucket w/ chicken poop, buried it deeper then the holes in a raised bed, planted the tomatoes in in ring around the bucket, used a run of that cement wire fencing to make a big cage (about 4 foot ish across) and caged the whole thing. You water the bucket it waters and fertilizes at the same time. So far it is working well, but it is early. The tomatoes in it are chest and shoulder high and full of blooms. I am so glad I changed to raised beds this year, we have received over 8 inches of rain in 3 days, last week and the forecast is for more rain this whole coming week. Where I usually plant them they would be in standing water, that is how I lost them last year to blight. I will likely have water issues this summer, but I'll cross that bridge if my tomatoes survive the extremely wet spring.

 

[so lucky]

Wow, @Kassaundra, did you do a lot of plants that way, or just a few to try it out? Plastic buckets, like pickle buckets? Sounds like you will have tomatoes soon! I think too much water was my problem last year, too.

 

[Kassaundra]

I planted 2 bucket circles, I was going to just put 6 tomatoes around each bucket, but think I ended up w/ closer to 10.

 

[Kassaundra]

Yes, plastic 5 gallon buckets

 

[Blue-Jay]

I use old bed sheets cut in strips about and inch wide. The sheet strips don't seem cut into the plants branches as they support the weight of the parts you've recently tied up. It seems though there is a period in a tomato plants life when you seem to need to keep tieing them up every couple of days as they seem to be putting on their greatest growth.

 

[seedcorn]

So has anyone come up with a better solution.