What are the best sizes on tomato cages?

[feldon30]

As BigdaddyJ said, if you get the Texas cages, you won't need stakes or anything unless your soil is exceptionally soft even 18" down. The spikes are that long!

I found rebar and T-stakes to be expensive for my needs so I tried something different. I used wire ties to lash my cages together. Then I used a staple gun to staple the cages to the sides of the raised bed. I regret the staples but tying the cages together made it nearly impossible for any cages to topple since they would all have to fall over. One or two T-stakes at each end would hold the entire thing in place even in moderate wind.

This spring, we built wooden frameworks over my two raised beds for two purposes:

1) to seal in with clear plastic in case of a frost warning (like we had at the end of March). Most folks plants were set back a week because of the cold temps (36-38 degrees at night for 2 nights). My plants actually took off in the "greenhouse" since during the day, it got up to 85 inside.

2) To prepare for the future when I add clear corrugated plastic A-frames over the two beds which can be opened or closed with a lever. The purpose of the latter is in case of torrential rain, I can deflect it out of the beds and onto the lawn. This should reduce the amount of daconil spraying, fruit splitting, and overall poor plant health caused by ridiculous marathon monsoon-type rainstorms.