Best way to cage tomatoes

[seedcorn]

ive bought the cages--too flimsy.
Did the field stakes with baling twine between them-didn't work well for me.
Tied to a stake, seemed plants too heavy or wrong type of twine-mess.

What do you do that you like? Hate to allow them to run over straw mulch but seems best so far.

 

[thistlebloom]

I think @Ridgerunner has the best system, hands down.
If I wasn't so lazy I'd find it and link it here, but hopefully Ridge will be along and do the work for me.

ETA: I did the Florida weave one year and it was a mess, I guess I'm not cut out for that system.
I do a modified version of Ridges with cement re-wire. There is never a worry of mine growing too tall for that, the cool spring start and early fall frost takes care of it for me. But sandwiching them between the two rows is less work for me and very effective for picking.

 

[the1honeycomb]

I take 2/4 fencing, cut the fencing so that the circumference is about 12 inches. tube shaped. I have it on Pintrest but I don't know how to upload photos I cut squares in the side of the tube so that I can reach in and pull tomatoes it is a good system I know that I didn't expain it well
Hopefully @Ridgerunner will come by to rescue us

 

[digitS']

I like @Ridgerunner 's vertical set-up, too.

Struggled with the Florida weave for a few years. Stake and tie worked about the best but was too time consuming during the busiest part of the growing season.

However, I complained a little about wind-damaged tomatoes in 2013 & a lot about it last year so I'm staying with the sprawl ! (After the 2014 season, maybe I should go with foxholes!) Anyway, if you have the cattle panels and wanted to go horizontal instead of @Ridgerunner 's vertical, here is Rick's tomato trellis (link).

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

Cattle panels and T posts...hands down the most effective and sturdiest of tomato trellises one can easily put up.

This is not my pic, but shows how I use them....

 

[Carol Dee]

We also need to try something new this year. Tired of the tangled mess and heaped over plants.

 

[journey11]

Stake, prune and tie has worked well for me many years, but is time consuming. You have to keep after it. Been having trouble finding sturdy stakes in recent years. They've been too thin and flimsy. Everything is cheap anymore. Guess they cut them thinner to get more stakes out of it/more money.

I would go with Ridgerunners pair of cattle panels for sure, except it is expensive upfront for 60 tomato plants for me.

I am going to try the Florida weave this year, but I'll still be pruning the plants though. And I'm going to set T-posts on the ends and probably one or two in the middle as well, and the rest wooden stakes. We'll see how that goes.

At least for what I pay for the stakes, they do double-duty and make great kindling in the winter. I don't re-use them anymore, partly because they are too flimsy and also may carry over some diseases.

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

In Texas I could grow tomato plants BIG. The best method I found was cement rewire formed into circles. I set Tposts, planted a tomato on each side of the post and tied two cages to the Tpost. That worked better than any other method I tried. I had to battle high winds, and the Tposts were required to keep things from just blowing over. I found that large holed field fencing worked just as well. But it had to be real sturdy stuff... The cages could be a pain to store in the winter, but not bad if you have room for them behind a garage, or...

I haven't been at the new place long enough to have any experience w/ growing tomatoes.

 

[secuono]

I'm using old 2x3 inch welded fencing in circle or triangle shapes this year. Doing fine so far.

 

[majorcatfish]

yes ridgerunner does have it down to a science... mine are just 54" cages with rebar on both sides to hold them up and just let them weaver themselves together...