Advice-Texas Tomato Cages

[Ed of Somis]

Although costly....I can afford to buy these if they are that great. If you just keep pushing the branches inside the cage...I don't understand how the weight of heavy maters would not break/collapse the plants. Do you still tie the branches up to the laterals of the cage? I am kind of tired of all the tying to my flat CRW supports. thanks

[SueCT]

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I do sometimes drape the fruit over the wire to support it if it is pretty heavy. If the tomatoes start to pull the vine over, it leans on the cage. But also I don't prune mine so they are full, bushy plants, not long, thin vines. That might make a difference. If you tend to grow taller thinner plants, I would choose the smaller diameter supports if they still sell more than one size. My plants tend to be wide and full so I went with the larger size.

[Ed of Somis]

It looks like you are probably just pushing them back inside the cage when they start to drape outside. Does that support the weight of mater trusses OK without being tied up? I am so dependent on tying up my branches to the CRW suspended between my T posts...it's a lot of work/time.

[SueCT]

I don't use any ties, and don't remember ever doing that since I got the cages. If I did it once or twice I don't remember but its possible, it would just be pretty rare. Yes, I do stick them back inside when they start to grow out sometimes, esp when they first start getting big and poke through the first few spaces in the cage. Later in the season, when they are in the top 75% of the cages I don't usually need to or bother. No one can tell you if you will be satisfied or not. But I hated the Florida weave, way too much work to keep up with the plants, staking I had to keep adding stakes and tying all season, too much work, this is the least amount of work for me. But if you look you will see some branches outside the cages and I am fine with that. If you are OCD about tying every branch now you probably will be with cages also. Now that you mention it I may have added a center stake a couple of times when I had really heavy fruit set on a vine, but again its rare. You live in an entirely different climate than me and if you have a much longer growing season your experience may be different. I have also seen posts and pics from people who live much further south than I do and they said they just let the vine grow over the top and back down the outside. You could find out if you like it by making one cage yourself. You already have the CRW. There are directions online and here also I am sure. Just make one cage the same diameter of the Texas cages you are considering and see how it goes. I think the big advantage to the Texas cages over those is 1. Much less work, and mostly, 2. They fold flat for storage. I also don't have much if any rust on mine after 3+ years. I don't think most people can say that with CRW cages. But they seem to function about the same from what I have seen posted by others.

Try searching here and other garden websites and I am sure you will find lots of posts from people who use them. Here is one to start with:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...s+tomato+cages

[feldon30]

Even with the Texas Tomato Cages, you have to go out every other day and make sure the branches are growing up rather than out and if not, stuff those branches back in. If you let it go, then you cannot get the branches back in the cage without breaking them.

For cost reasons, I use 12 Texas Tomato Cages and the rest Galvanized cages kept open in a "C" shape with a 1 foot gap on one side. I zip tie all the cages together so that the TTCs keep everything standing up even in severe wind.

[Durgan]

No tomato support is ideal. All are somewhat of a compromise. I have used them all over the years. Now I use an overhead structure made from fence posts and rebar and support the fruiting branches by overhead strings. I also use 4 by 8 concrete reinforcing wire for the cherry types and of course some cages.

I only have about 40 plants. If many more I would probably use one stake for each plant and hope for the best. For ties I use pipe cleaners from the dollar store.

[SueCT]

Just FYI regarding the price. When I didn't have enough Texas cages I planted a tomato between each cage and then tied them to the cages on either side of them. I tried to place my smaller plants there like determinates. It worked pretty well. Since you want to get away from tying, you probably don't want to do that. But it is an option if you want to get away from your current set up and have too many plants for one box of cages.

[luigiwu]

Sue, what is the red SOLO cups in the pictures?

[SueCT]

I grow my plants from seed in the cups, and write the name on the outside. When I plant it, I put the cup next to it, sink it into the ground a bit and fill it with soil to weight it down and it becomes my plant marker. This year, though, I have bought and am trying out new metal plant markers, so there won't be cups in this years pictures. Frugal plus, when you have written 75-100 plant names on cups, you don't really want to do it again.

[Ed of Somis]

thanks for all the good ideas and info!

[My Foot Smells]

thing I like is you can keep stacking TTC, as most plants 7b go 8' or more. I'm not diligent in training, but rogue limbs usu tie up on the cage. I still attach rebar and tie off though b/c I might have 12 ft stacked and Arkansas weather can be brutal, often getting 70mph straight line winds at the head of t-storms in the summer & spring - well forget about it; anything that isn't nailed down ends up in Oklahoma.

I'm a big fan of the ttc, easy storage, long life, stackable and good folks down in del rio. cages are sturdy and of good design. CRW cages turn into a rusty ugly mess and difficult to store for off season. Although very functional and much cheaper, YMMV. But 5 ft is eclipsed by mid may here and things usually go haywire.

The ONLY drawback, imo, for the TTC is the price point. But likely to last lifetime. I'm short on time in the garden, have no storage of sorts (like things clean and not a weedy wirey mess if stored outside CRW).

2 cents

[Worth1]

I have 36 of them they have their drawbacks.
They need to be oiled at the connections to keep them from sticking together the prongs that go in the ground need to be serviced each year or they will eventually rust out.
Good product all around though.
Worth

[Gardeneer]

Here is a cage sold at HD.
It weight about 15 lbs, made of galvanized wire of about 1/4" in diameter, ... 6ft tall

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Here is a cage sold at HD.
It weight about 15 lbs, made of galvanized wire of about 1/4" in diameter, ... 6ft tall

That's actually not too bad. Please,what did they cost? Not as tall as TTCs if you use the extension, and not foldable , but I like how sturdy they are, and galvanized.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

That's actually not too bad. Please,what did they cost? Not as tall as TTCs if you use the extension, and not foldable , but I like how sturdy they are, and galvanized.

Actually the wire size is thicker than 1/4", it is 5/16".
While I was at HD, the price was not there. I went To HD site.
It is $34.95 + tx, of course.
It has the conic design so the for storage you can insert them into each other ( as shown in the picture.

Gardeneer