To cage or stake tomato plants?

[Liberty7]

I have always caged my tomato plants, but I've been reading a lot about staking.

 

[vfem]

I found a cool thing that is a stake, but a cage at the same time. Its a u-shaped piece with some ladder type rungs going up it. So it mimics a cage with its rungs but its open so its like a stake. It holds it up nicer, but makes it easier to get the tomatoes off, where with a casge occasionally they are hard to reach a few inside. It looked cool... I may try these this year.

Just for your info, I staked last year.... and it didn't turn out so great.
If a tomato plant wants to branch a lot, it will... even tying it up on a stake didn't help. They just get heavy.

 

[beavis]

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE CAGE!

Just my humble opinion.....

 

[me&thegals]

The only thing I've found that works is stakign to 8-foot fenceposts, but since I plant about 75 tomato plants I just don't want to mess with huge cages, which I've also heard work very well.

 

[beavis]

I plant about 100 tomato plants every year and use concrete reinforcement wire to make sturdy reusable cages with a 2 foot diameter and 5-6 feet tall.

They are the bomb!

 

[patandchickens]

You can get away with more laziness with caging, IME. That is, you don't necessarily *have* to prune as much, and the cages can be a bit on the wibbly and poorly-set side, and you don't have to tie anything to anything every week or two. If you make your own tomato cages (larger-diameter and stronger than commercial ones, out of pagewire (field fencing), with a stout stake to stabilize them) it may be the best low-maintanence way to go. Those weenie little things they sell as typical tomato cages are kind of worthless for any but the saddest dwarfest plant though

Staking, you have to pinch out suckers and tie the leader to the stake on a regular basis, otherwise it flops all sideways and parts may even break off. HOWEVER, you can grow more plants in a smaller area, and some say get a greater yield of lbs tomato per square yard of garden space, than by cageing.

I do it either way, sort of at random, from year to year, and for my personal tastes and gardening style I would say that neither method is fully superior to the other -- each has its advantages and drawbacks.

Fortunately tomato plants are the sort of thing where no matter what you do, you will get SOME harvest

Pat

 

[Grow 4 Food]

I think Beavis pretty much said it all!

 

[me&thegals]

but, Beavis, where do you store all those cages? I can pile up 50 fenceposts and barely see them above the tall grass bordering my garden, but 50+ cages? I'm really interested to hear more, as this is my biggest, longest-prevailing garden issue--how to support the tomatoes. I always hear about cages (homemade ones, never the things sold as tomato cages) doing an excellent job.

 

[vfem]

They are the bomb!

Lets just say "DUDE!!!!" you sound like my brother... that blew my mind!

 

[beavis]

I've got 1.5 acres so its not too hard to store them.

Mostly along a fenceline or behind the greenhouse works best.

Its nice to have strong sturdy cages already made so I am good to go each year.

The biggest hassle is cleaning out the old tomato plants from the cages each year, that take awhile.