Best way to cage tomatoes

[ducks4you]

My MIL (1920-1998, RIP) had the BEST tomato cages. They looked like this:
http://s198.photobucket.com/user/digdirt/media/June2008034-1-1.jpg.html
except that she pounded in a 5 ft. high fencing stake for each plant, too. They are great, BUT you have to buy the fencing material and the stake and you NEED a place to store them off season. I have about 35 ft. of cattle fencing left over in a roll that I haven't used since I got new horse fencing in 2008 and I Could use my stakes and buy some more, but I don't have the time to make these. I'm starting to rethink this bc I have both materials and storage space.

 

[Beekissed]

Don't know that I'd want to drive a stake AND have these cages...a stake is usually enough.

 

[ducks4you]

The cages won't stay put without stakes.

 

[Beekissed]

I see. I don't know....seems like double the work there to stake AND cage, and then having to pick tomatoes through the wire as well as having to sucker through the wire as well. I've never been a fan of cages.

 

[ccheek]

@Carol Dee @baymule

This is how I used to support my tomatoes. This year I used T-posts instead of the wooden stakes and liked that better.

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Raw materials
2x4’s ripped into 2x2’s and cut in half. One end sharpened.

16’ long cattle panels. Cut the bottom horizontal off so you have spikes to stick into the ground. I suggest cutting them into 8’ lengths with bolt cutters. This makes them a lot easier for one person to handle.

Wire from bales of wheat straw.

2’ long strips of 1x2’s with holes drilled in the ends. I ripped these from 2x4's also.

½” to ¾” wide strips of cloth torn from worn out old clothing, usually old T-shirts.

I drive the stakes about 10” to 12” on each side of the row of tomatoes. Space them maybe 6’ apart. Place the 8’ long cattle panel next to the stakes and push the spikes into the ground. Use the wire to attach them to the stakes. You probably have something about 4’ tall at this point. Continue on both sides of the row of tomatoes until you have one level along the length. You probably don’t have rows exactly evenly divisible by 8’. No problem. Leave some space between the panels so they are pretty evenly spaced. A one or two foot gap won’t hurt anything.

I grow indeterminates so 4’ is not usually high enough. I take another cattle panel and attach that to the upper half of the already installed panels. It’s probably hard to see, but overlap the two panels maybe 24”. Again use the wheat straw wire to tie them together. You wind up with something maybe 6’ tall.
To help stabilize it and hold the two sides apart, I attach the 2’ long 2x2’s at the top with yet more of that wheat straw baling wire.

I use the strips of cloth to tie the tomato stalks to the wire where necessary. Since I only grow indeterminate I usually prune back to two or three stalks. Some of these I can weave immediately but often I have to tie the stalks to get them started. But after they are started, I just weave them as they grow, at least when I remember. I don't always remember in time and have to tie some of these too.

You don't always have room to slip your hand inside to get the tomatoes, not in the overlap area, so you have to come at them high or low. You can do it, it's just inconvenient in that specific area.

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.

 

[digitS']

That's it.

Now the question is:

Where is @Ridgerunner ???

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

I'm wondering why the two cattle panels for one row of tomatoes? We usually just use one and it supports a row of tomatoes just fine on its own.

 

[MontyJ]

They look really nice and tidy too. I take it you don't have to drive them into the soil? That would make my hubby happy. After about 60 stakes, he starts to get a little annoyed with me. Also, what kind of lumber did you use? Is it treated?

Once they are in place I just go back and push the stakes in a little to keep them from slipping. These are made from non-treated 2x2's. I've had them for several years and they are still going strong. Just make sure they are dry when you put them away for the winter.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

My husband made me cages out of 4 ft fencing that work well in Ohio. The only problem with them is that for indeterminate varieties they aren't tall enough, but worked fairly well for roma's and similar determinate. Another problem with them is they limited air flow and encouraged blight and leaf spot. This year I am trying a couple of things. I have some 4 ft bamboo poles and I am staking and tying my determinate rutgers. I used 3-4 for each tomato, essentially using a pull for each main stem of the tomato. I bought the pulls at our local garden store in a pack of 25 for $5. They are painted green and I could have done without that, it rubs off on your hands when you handle them. Complete was of time and resource on the part of the company.

For my indeterminate I have put in 10ft metal conduit that I am using to train them to vine up on twine. It was a little work to set up but now it is very quick. I am keeping them suckered and am treating for fungus with weekly baking soda/water spray. Right now it is going great.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm wondering why the two cattle panels for one row of tomatoes? We usually just use one and it supports a row of tomatoes just fine on its own.

Bee, you know I'll tell you that you can do it any way you please. You will anyway. You and my wife have some things in common. Of course I could say that for a lot of the women on here and even a few of het men so don't go getting a swelled head. You can let your tomatoes flop, stake them, trellis them, or cage them, whatever you want. And there are all kinds of different way to do any of these. I'm enjoying reading some of them.

I almost always grow nothing but indeterminates. Some of those get really big, some not so much. I tried trellising them with one cow panel like you are talking about one year and ran into a space problem. I did not have enough room on that trellis to tie up all the shoots those indeterminates put out. I had to keep pruning off all the excess or a lot would flop on the ground. Being lazy like I am, or maybe busy doing other things, I did not keep up with the pruning and tying up, so I had tomatoes growing over the top of the trellis and falling back down, plus a lot just sprawled on the ground to start with. I still got a lot of tomatoes but it was a jungle. One cow panel by itself wasn't tall enough either.

I found it was easier to do a bit of extra work to start with and put up a second row of cattle panels to form a box for those tomatoes to grow in instead of tying them to a wall where there wasn't enough room for all of them anyway. It made it a lot easier to add a second cow panel higher up to make the things a couple of feet higher for the ones that like to really climb. By tying those together at the top with those boards they are really stable in the wind plus it keeps them apart so they don't bend into one another. My ground is not rocky at all where the tomatoes go, so with those T-posts they are quick to put up, quick to take down, and real stable. They store pretty well to since they are flat. I still do some pruning, tying up, and weaving the shoots in those panels, especially at the start, but I find that once they get started it's a lot less work to keep them inside that box. Being lazy I'll do a little extra work up front to avoid a lot more work and aggravation later on.