Tomato cages

16 years ago

Hi, this is my first year growing any veggies. I have about a 10'x 6' tomato/pepper bed. I grew indet. toms, not knowing the differance, from seed. Now I need to figure out a cheap effective way to support them. The ideas on the tomato forum are just too expensive. I've put maybe $10 into this bed, that includes seeds, potting soil to grow them and manure and humus to ammend the bed. They talk about using some wire fencing that cost around $75 a roll. I just don't want to put that kind of money into it! The whole point behind growing my own was to save money, and convienience of having them in my back yard. I though about just staking w/ bamboo steaks (They're only like $2 for six) But I'm not sure that will support well enough. Any thoughts?

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Comments (3)

Patriz
16 years ago
Those bamboo stakes sound like the really thin ones at that price. They will not work. I used metal garden stakes about 1/2 inch diameter last year and the tomato plants snapped several of them. I do grow tall bamboo and have used 1 inch diameter reeds as stakes, however, is it hard to get the bamboo deep enough into the ground for support, plus you have to rig the poles to catch support string otherwise the tomato just slides down the pole.
What worked for me cheaply was to teepee 3 tall pieces of scrap wood, or tree branches, tie them together at the top and tie up the tomato plant to the top of the teepee. This works is you have free wood or a few tomato plants.

What I've done with my rows of tomato plants is to buy those heavy green flat metal stakes and use them as the end anchors, then just run heavy wire to them. I bought the tall commercial ones about 7 feet tall (6 feet will stick up out of the ground and you would need a ladder to hammer them down into the soil. I got them for $5.00 each at Lowes). I bought a cheap roll of heavy wire for about $6.00. I tie up the tomato plants to the wire using old tee shirt pieces or pantyhose, similar to this photo (this is not my garden)...
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deweymn
16 years ago
If you are going to be a frugal gardener, you will have to learn to scrounge. Anything can be used for something else. Got a free site in your area available thru the net? Eureka recycling hosts one here and if you are the early bird, you can find something useful for some project.

I have many poles, metal, pvc, wood that I got over the last year. Tent poles from a discarded old canvas tent (they are more sturdy/thicker metal) will hold tomato plants if sunk in the ground and staked close together.

Hay (straw) will work placed on the ground and if some fruit vines are there, it will keep them from rotting on the vine. That in addition to some type of teepeeing or tying like in the pics above.

I put six plants along the edge of my tulip bed, 3 varieties, and I had gotten some 1" six foot tall stakes of hardwood, old, but still useful. I dug good sized holes and filled them with water and then hammered in the stakes. Then placed the plants in deep. I will mulch them and then place two pieces of those stakes across the top and tie rope from those to the plants. I should be able to make them climp whereever I want.

I used discarded lattice pieces last year, nailed to a fence above my containers and just tied them as they grew. Also, I had a 4'x8' piece of lattice and I set it behind four plants and bent it over away from the plants and attached it to a fence. As they grew up and over the lattice supported the vines nicely.

I use wire tomato cages but I drive a sturdy stake in the ground to support the cage and sometimes pieces of chicken wire wrapped around the cage and attached to that stake.

Hope you work something out.
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I keep my beds mulched all year round. Depending on the crop, and the time of year, different mulches are used for varied purposes. All my beds are covered in thick heavy mulches through the winter. I may eventually rotate a winter cover crop, but I'm still building the garden, so too many irons just makes for problems. In the winter, the beds set aside for tomatoes were covered in a very thick layer of unshredded leaves. In the early spring, I raked the leaves back and turned, amended, and fertilized. I then re-covered the beds with the leaves. Just before transplanting, I removed the leaves, put on some compost and fertilizer, and quickly incorporated those amendments. I then put in the plants. Next, I took my hedge shears (large scissors) and cut a bunch of tall grass and weeds - the handle on my swing blade was broken, so I had to make use of the shears. I simply put the cut grass around the plants. I then put the cages on. The mulch and cages were put on as I found time, and before the plants grew too tall. Following this routine is easy as can be. There's no reason to have to hurry in any of the stages except collecting the leaves before the city vacuum truck beats me to them. Even then I just make a big pile and add them to the beds as time allows. In order for a weed to put down a 1' root, it would need a lot of time to become that established. A weed poking through mulch is easy to see, and never has time to set deep roots. Mulch and cages work very well together. If there is any problem with the combination, it's that you should put down a deep enough layer of mulch for your climate. Mulch decomposes faster in warmer, wetter regions of the country. If my homemade mulch decomposes before the season ends, it can be difficult to put down such long strands of hay through the cages. So... if it becomes necessary, instead of the hay, I just toss an inch or 2 of my homemade compost as mulch right over the hay. In short, planning ahead helps keep work to a minimum, and allows the grower to not rely on commercial outlets for garden resources.
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robertzone6
16 years ago
I tried cages and hardware cloth around the plants for a year or two. Many of six types of tomato plants got huge and outgrew their confinement.

Last year and this year I tried something different. I bought four heavy metal three-sides posts like a stop sign would be mounted on. They were about ten feet high, and cost $17 each. Each post was set in a 5 gallon bucket with cement.

The posts should last a long time. Each spring twine is strung up in the holes between two posts, which are about three inches apart. Two rows of tomatoes and peppers are set between two posts about thirty feet apart. The first year several of the lengths broke, but no big deal. The next ball of baling twine will have to be stronger.

Tomato cages

Comments (3)

Patriz

deweymn

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