 |
| Metal tomato cage |
Over the years, I have tried different sizes and weights of this type of tomato cage.
All have bowed under the weight of my full grown tomato plants.
I always found myself staking my tomato cages and trying to add additional support to hold up the plants. It was a constant battle through the summer.
During a visit to a family friend's cabin a few summers ago, I noticed they had the most durable looking tomato cages I've ever seen. Of course I had to ask about them and was told that this is a design that has been passed down a few generations.
My friend's father vowed they are the best tomato cages on the planet. He happily wrote down the dimensions for me drew up a plan so we could make our own.
 |
| Plans for sturdy tomato cages |
 |
| Sturdy tomato cage |
Boy was my friend's father right, these are the most durable tomato cages I've ever seen or used!
They look overpowering (and a little ridiculous) in the garden until the tomato plants get bigger.
 |
| Sturdy tomato cage in use |
Come wind, come rain, come hail, my tomato plants aren't going anywhere.
I haven't had a tomato plant yet that's been too large for my tomato cages to support.
How do you support your tomatoes? I would love to hear about your trials and tribulations.
Pin It
Last year and this year I have just used sticks from pruning as stakes. I put one tall (5-ish foot tall) stick in the ground per tomato plant before planting. I use jute twine to loosely tie the stem to the stake, and add more twine and stakes as it grows. It works pretty well, and the only time I lost any plants was in the 50 mile/hour wind storm a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteYour tomato cages look a lot nicer than my sticks though!
Some day when I have more storage I'd like some nice sturdy cages. I don't always grow the same number of tomatoes though and I'm not sure what I'd do with the cages if they weren't in my garden.
Wow I really like those! They look very sturdy and they are nice looking! This year I am only using indeterminate tomatoes and I'm going to try and have them climb a trellis made with pvc pipes and nylon mesh. They look like soccer nets, but hopefully they'll work better than my cages did last year!
ReplyDeleteWow, those are REALLY nice! We use a really large chicken wire, they seem to work great, even with the heavy storms we have here in georgia(not that we've had any yet this year lol, let alone rain :( ) BUT we have 40 tomato plant's and building 40 of those would be very time consuming and idk how cost effective. Hope they work out for you!
ReplyDelete@Michael - I understand about not having the same amount of tomato plants every year. I have a small garden so I can't do more than 4 tomato plants. I guess if I ever want to do more, I'll have to build more cages! :-) Ha, not that I have anywhere to store them either. (They stay in the garden during the winter.)
ReplyDelete@...and she lived... - Thanks! I hope your trellises work for you. I have never tried anything like that. Good luck!
@Johnathan - WOW, 40 tomato plants!! Ha, you're right, these tomato cages would not be a good fit for you. That would be waaaaay too much work!!! Good luck with your tomatoes too. (I can't picture how you have the chicken wire setup though.) What do you do with all those tomatoes anyway?
Amy
These look great, and thanks for including the plans.
ReplyDeleteHi theimperfectgardener! Thanks, I'm glad you like them. Have fun if you decide to try building them for yourself.
ReplyDeleteAmy
That is actually very attractive, I too might try to make a few. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks nk - have fun! Now that the wood on mine has started to fade, I think I'm going to paint them this year. I haven't decided if I'm going to do one neutral color for all, or mix it up with some fun colors.
ReplyDeleteAmy
I've never found anything I like that's sturdy enough*--only problem is I have about 10 to 20 tomato plants--heh. I used the stakes and twine method with varying results. Maybe I'll try building a few of these cages and see how it goes!
ReplyDelete*Actually there's one cage thing of my mom's I appropriated, but they're like $35 each if I were to buy them. Nope.
P.S. Not being a handyman, I can't tell what the dimensions or name of the wood is--1x1s?
ReplyDeleteHi Monica - Yes, that's the problem with these cages...if you have a lot of tomatoes, it's going to be too hard to build all those cages. I did a few smaller varieties of tomatoes last year and planted them on the outside of the cages, then tied them up to the cages. It worked pretty well. I was going to try experimenting with different solutions next summer and see if I can find something better than those flimsy metal supports.
ReplyDeleteYes, the wood we used for these cages was 1x1s. Sorry I forgot to include that detail in the post.
Amy
Thanks! I was actually thinking of placing them offsset and then planting some tomatoes in between two cages, and tying them to either side. It might just work!! My brother-in-law has a workshop in his garage, so if I get the wood, it should be fairly easy for him to help me make them. Hey yo! Also, I swore (SWORE) I would grow no more than 10 tomatoes this year, so this might be doable.
ReplyDeleteI think that would work! I'm excited that you might try building these - let me know if you do. I was thinking you could modify them to be slightly smaller, then they wouldn't take up so much space. Good luck, I hope your BIL makes these for you.
ReplyDeleteAmy
Silly question..I don't see any screws into the frame..just into the dividers, do any go into the frame and how far does this go into the ground..:)
ReplyDeleteHello, sorry I didn't add those details to this post. The screws that hold the vertical divider pieces in place are screwed into the horizontal frame. Hope that makes sense. As far as putting it in the ground, we dig a hole deep enough for the legs, try to get the frame as level as we can, and then fill the hole back in with dirt. After it's in place, I plant the tomatoes. It's a bit of a task to get them in the ground, but we only have to do it once a year. Hope this answers your questions.
DeleteAmy
Thanks for your great blog. I too was searching for some tips to support my tomato plant. I was able to gather some information from your post. Hope i would succeed in growing my tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteGreat, glad I could help!
DeleteI bought 6' wood stakes and have been meticulously tying my plants up them - it's a pain and not all that secure. These look much easier. I am wondering, though, some of my plants get very tall (8'). Do you ever have an issue with the plants toppling over the top?
ReplyDeleteThe plants do grow over the top, and I'll just tie them to the cage. I don't let my tomato plants grow much taller than the cages though, I've never had one get near 8' tall (WOW, 8' tall?)! :-) I trim them, which helps them produce more tomatoes and makes for bushier plants. You could probably make your cages taller if you want taller plants. But I don't think 8' would be feasible. How in the world do you harvest from an 8' tall tomato plant?
DeleteAmy