Jake,

I am in the same situation as I've ordered 4 more sets from Gurney's - - and no confirmed delivery date.

I think I may have found an even better solution. Burpee has a 40 inch high Pea Fence vs. the 32 inch Gurney's cage. I have 4 sets on order, and if they are indeed made of 6 panels, of 14 inches each, they should work great. This would give you a 76 inch tall cage vs. the 60 inch Gurney's product

Here is the link to them.

http://www.burpee.com/gardening-supplies/garden-growers/supports-ties-and-fences/pea-and-cucumber-fence-2-pack-prod001250.html?catId=2320&trail=

$28.00 per set if you order 2 sets. Do a search on Burpee Coupons in Yahoo and you will find a free shipping code number.

Raybo

Here is a link that might be useful: Burpee Cages

The Free Shipping code is:

LSJ5

Good through the end of June

Raybo

{{gwi:40026}} pvc works if you cant get pea fence.

lol that looks like a plant jungle gym

thats pretty cool

My first thought was I bet the is a monkey or two hangin' around in there.

terry,

Looking great!!

With all those Filler Tubes showing, you REALLY need to get the EarthBox AWS and modify it for your containers. Makes life a whole lot easier!! Trust me, I have 33 in operation today, and could not live without them automatically filling the 'Tainers every day.

Raybo

Thanks Raybo & Terry, I appreciate the help!!!

-Jake

ray, i have 28 different containers and it is a pain but one project at a time. the tubing help find the fill tubes. also there is one monkey in there but i cant find him.

I ordered the Gurney's pea fences, waited a month without any meaningful communication from them, then saw this thread and canceled the Gurney fences and ordered the Burpee's ones. Three days later, the Burpee's order status is still showing as "processing." This is getting very annoying. Why do these garden-supply places accept orders for stuff they apparently don't have in stock, and can't or won't tell you when it might be in stock?

raybo, did you get yours from Burpee's yet?

I received a UPS tracking number for my order on Tuesday, about 4 business days after placing the order at Burpee. Still waiting for my Gurney's shipment confirmation 2 weeks after placing my order with them.

Raybo

After waiting a month and a half for my Gurney's pea cages to come off backorder and ship, I decided to cancel the order and make my own. It worked out so well that I took photos and made instructions in case anyone else wants to try (or improve upon) it.

http://ladelfa.net.s3.amazonaws.com/earthcage.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: Wire Fabric Cages for EarthTainer

looks good dave. and thats why i dont buy from gurneys anymore.

I've now ordered a total of 3 batches of cages from Burpee over the past 20 days, and I've received prompt UPS tracking # (and delivery of the first 2 orders) right on schedule. 4 more cage systems are in transit with delivery on July 5, according to the UPS tracker.

NEVER had that kind of service from Gurney's!!! The fact that they charge your Credit Card on day of order, even if the product is out of stock, really ticks me off. I am thinking of dropping them from the EarthTainer Construction Guide as a Recommended Supplier, and just referring everyone to Burpee.

I just did the 36 bends in each of 2 Burpee base cages this morning, and I can tell you from the (increased) torque required, that the Burpee cages use a thicker gauge metal in their construction.

Raybo

ray, burpee better quality, bigger, and dont give you the run around why not.

Terrybull your pvc tomato cages are what I am building, what is the horizontal spacing between pvc bar supports, looks like around 20 inches, plenty of space to reach in yet structural integrity at tall heights.

There is a similar design online by a guy named Tom Mackey (not Garden Web) who built his at 30 inch horizontal spacing but that seems like not enough support especially at the stage when the tomatoes are 29 inches tall.

At the ground, I drove 18 inch long rebar stakes (5/8 inch dia) 10 inches into the dirt near my homemade containers and the 3/4 inch pvc fits over the stakes which is how I anchor the base. Perhaps overdesigned but some of the tomatoes reach 8 feet tall in two months.

Robert

robert, the first one from the ground is @ 20" and then they 14" after that. mine are on a deck and i have to tie them to the railing, my tallest ones are 7 feet. with a good wind they can blow over. the rebar sounds pretty good.

Terrybull your pvc tomato cages are what I am building, what is the horizontal spacing between pvc bar supports, looks like around 20 inches, plenty of space to reach in yet structural integrity at tall heights.

There is a similar design online by a guy named Tom Mackey (not Garden Web) who built his at 30 inch horizontal spacing but that seems like not enough support especially at the stage when the tomatoes are 29 inches tall.

At the ground, I drove 18 inch long rebar stakes (5/8 inch dia) 10 inches into the dirt near my homemade containers and the 3/4 inch pvc fits over the stakes which is how I anchor the base. Perhaps overdesigned but some of the tomatoes reach 8 feet tall in two months.

Robert

thanks terrybull, sorry i hit send message 2x... good luck with the wind and the phantom monkey hiding in your 28 containers ;) what is your fertilizer regimen, your plants look great, Someday I will figure out like Raybo how to reliably fertilize with an automatic watering system. My mix does start out with osmocote and garden lime but I supplement with foliage pro when I manually water down my container watering tubes

A couple pictures of the new Burpee 76 inch cage systems:

{{gwi:40027}}

On my Brandywine from Croatia plant, I further extended the cage height to 90 inches:

{{gwi:40028}}

So far, no bugs or other significant problems at the EarthTainer "Farm".

{{gwi:40029}}

Raybo

ray, looking good!

robert, the fert that i use is called apex 14-14-14 made by simplot soil builders, its a slow release. i put it a couple inches down in the soil.then every week i add i tablespoon of a product called "sensical".its all the micro nutrients. and one cup of lime mixed in the soil. now i have to figure out a cage or staking system for the motherbox. see below.
{{gwi:40030}}

is there any reason I can't use the tomato cages I already have instead of building the cages from pea fence? I have the really sturdy ones recommended in previous years' earthtainer instructions.

Another great thread on these forums- Im commenting so I can be emailed everytime a new great idea is added to it- I mentioned this in other threads but I could only get ahold of 3 or 6 legged tomato cages so I improvised a 3 legged cage for my Earthtainer and side mounted two legs of each cage- see pic- this made dealing with the bedliner much easier for me

This post was edited by Remodeller on Thu, May 9, 13 at 21:50