Tomato plants cages, home made

[FILMNET]

I have a new garden beside a 6ft fence, I am growing Heirloom plants only this coming year. If my new garden is 25' by 25' should i put plants with 3-4 ft open around them? maybe7- 8 plants. last year i had 6' sticks only, so what should i make for all the 8 plants. There is a lot of different ways to do them, can i use 1 7'stick for each?
http://www.veggiecage.com/

[mjc]

Here...

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...t=tomato+cages

How to do some truly heirloom worthy cages. A number of heirloom varieties are 'bruisers' in the vine department and need something rather substantial in the way of containment/support. A single stake is usually not enough.

[FILMNET]

That's what i herd from others. Also heavy plants as the summer goes on, I have looked around on the web. Its so small a garden i do not want to make the 7' wooden ones, looking for something else

[FILMNET]

Here is woodies, can i use only 3 poles for each plant, like a tee pie?


I was also wondering if all 8 plants are together could i have them all tied? So the wind would not break any ot them?

[Barbee]

Film, I used the woodies cages this year. I would not recommend them for tomatoes.

My hubby made me some stakes 10' long out of 2x2's. He sharpened one end and drilled 5 or 6 holes in each. He drove them in 2 feet and they were the strongest tomato support I had. Even stronger than my Texas Tomato Cages. And the holes were great to string the ties thru.

[FILMNET]

Thanks i like to tie the plants up, that way i see what is going on with the plants, i play with mine, I know a farm guy he uses 1 stick only and ties it up tight, nice you can walk around them, but they were with cherry only, do the plants grow up fast ? and do the Heirloom's grow like Hybrid plants i have grown for years. I do not let it them grow wide.

[geeboss]

Barbee

What did your DH use to drive those 2X2 two feet into the ground?

George

[Salty_Dog]

Not mine, but i did find this on the net and considered doing it.

[Barbee]

George, he has this hand driver he made out of a steel pipe and I don't know what else, but I will ask him. It weighs a ton. I will get a pic of it tomorrow for you to see. With the stake being so tall, he had to get on a ladder to get enough height to use it.

Film, yes, the plants grew wide and tall. I don't prune anything, but by tying the main up thru the holes, if the side shoots got too wild, I could just sort of bunch them up and tie around the stake.

The hardest part was pulling them out of the ground this fall. Had to wait until it was soupy wet, then wiggle them back and forth. I broke 1 off out of the 6 I had. Then hubby came to help and got the rest out while I grumbled around.

Personally, I liked the Texas cages the best of all my supports. I can do it all myself and they are easy up and easy down. It held good and strong on all the tomatoes except the Lucky Cross..which was not only super tall and wide, but had a ton of BIG maters on it. While the Texas cages are pricey because you have to buy 6, once you break it down they cost about 23.00 per cage. I folded and zip tied each 2 piece cage together this fall, then zip tied them into sets of 3. I have all 12 cages hanging on one of those giant hooks in the garage so next year, I can just pull them down and cut the ties and install them.

[geeboss]

I'm surprised that there isn't a chinese knock off of the TX Tomato cage ....... Saw that Pancea out sourced to china their tomato cage.

Looking for more TX cages for Xmas this year!!!!!

George

[Salty_Dog]

I noticed they just sell a smaller gauge gal mesh for Tomatos, so instead of mucking around with Reo, i just bought that.
Not sure if i shall use it for my SWC in the round form or straighten the whole thing out and use it as a climbing wall for 8 plants?
I don't like the idea of a laden stem having its weight bare on such a small surface area, so i still might use stockings to tie them.

[FILMNET]

what are these? which company?

[Salty_Dog]

Originally Posted by FILMNET

what are these? which company?

Ummmm i was hoping the picture would be fairly self explanatory, but they are a Mesh for Tomatos, strangely enough as the sticker on them says

Basically its just a standard gal wire fencing material they packaged up to attract the tomato growing market from what i can tell, as the stuff has been around for 30 plus years.

No idea which company, they came from Bunnings stores, so any bulk hardware store should stock them or something the same.
After all, its just fencing wire

I think in America they call it Hog Wire... however, it's just a bog standard mesh fencing wire at the end of the day.

[mjc]

Originally Posted by Salty_Dog

I think in America they call it Hog Wire... however, it's just a bog standard mesh fencing wire at the end of the day.

Pretty much what it looks like to me...here in WV.

[Salty_Dog]

Ok, i just used the product myself for 3 SWC's
Here is a better picture of the label



Product was very easy to use, could be cut with normal pliers, tied it back around SWC with cable ties. It was also easy to shape by hand to make a nice uniform round shape.
It could also be just as easy used as a flat panel for Tomatos to climb, but would need a frame.