I don't use cages - I use trellises for tomatoes. I think it works a lot better & is cheaper. I got the idea from "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" by Ed Smith. Materials: You need 2x2's (That's 2 inches by 2 inches, which is of course not quite those dimensions), which I get from the big box hardware store for about $1.50 each, nails, some cheap twine, and some basic tools. Ingredients to make a nontoxic wood preservative for the part that goes into the ground makes them last longer. End posts: We cut them to 6-7' (used to do 6', decided to make them 7' this year, because when they're pounded in I can reach the top if I stretch). Then hack the bottom end off to make it somewhat pointy. Top: Take another one, cut to appropriate size for where you need it in the garden. We've made ones about 6' long that haven't sagged. Any longer and I think you might want to put another post in the middle. Add nails to sides & top as described below, nail the top to the sides, and hammer into your garden with a mallet. (Consider how tall you are when making the side posts!) Twine: In the top piece, put nails at appropriate intervals for the twine for the tomatoes - whatever you've decided is the right spacing. (These can be left in for next year.) Tie twine to the nails. To brace it at the bottom, we put nails in the side posts and tie a line - the twine for the tomatoes is tied to this. For best results, use sticks or leftover wood to make stakes for the bottom as well. One a week or so, simply flip the main tomato vine around the twine. I find this easy, and it works great. If you want more support, you can add more twines down and flip side branches around those as they grow. We use the wood preservative recipe in the book, which is a combo of linseed oil and I can't remember what else...sorry. We already had all the ingredients laying around, since we do some wood projects, so that was cheap, too.

This Forum is primarily for IDing sources for heirloom flowers and veggies, etc., and not for culture, growing methods, etc., which occurs in the Forums devoted to them. Is what I wrote above and in no way was I being mean or nasty or contrary, as has been suggested, but not in so many words. I was making a suggestion that I thought would give maximum input to the poster, which I see as being paramount. Those of you who know me know that I spend untold hours answering questions in the tomato forum as well as here and almost alone I answer the disease questions in the tomato pest and disease forum. When I first got to GW I too came here to this Forum since my major interest was heirloom veggies. But when I came here I looked at the kind of threads being posted and saw that none were about culture of heirlooms. I was also told that culture questions were handled in the various forums and I found that to be true. Yes, for discussion of heirloom plants as cited above, as in where can I find seeds for this or that variety, or where can I find plants of this or that Dianthus or whatever. And since I knew there were several threads about staking/supporting tomatoes already in the tomato forum I thought, and still think, it was the place to refer someone to before those threads scrolled off. Any person posting deserves to get the most input possible about questions, and many more toamto growers post in the tomato forum than read/post here, for over time, and before I came to GW, heirloom tomatoes, and now I mean ALL aspects, have been discussed in the main Forum. And maximum input means that when someone e-mails me directly for information I ask them to post publically. That's b/c GW is a public message forum and all questions and answers should be posted publically. No one person knows everything, so the goal is to get as many responses/thread as possible. I haven't felt very good reading the criticism that some of you have directed my way, but so be it. plsgorw, it seems to me I've answered some stuff for you in the Tomato Forum already, or perhaps you did e-mail me at home and I suggested you post publically for greater input. Yes? And I will continue to help you and other folks as I already have when I feel I have something to add that hasn't been already said. After posting here at GW for several years I've been able to transmit a lot of what I know about heirloom tomatoes and I see that others to whom I passed on that info are now using it in answering others. And that's the way it should be. So each year now, I expect to post less and less and let information be continued to be passed on. if growing about 2000 varieties of heirloom tomatoes has taught me anything, it's taught me that the best thing I can do with that info is to continue with my SSE membership to distribute new varieties, I don't know if I'll continue with my seed distributions here at GW where I've already distributed over 300 varieties, and most importantly, to pass along information on all aspects of tomatoes that I've learned from my research and my growing of them. Carolyn, who has been growing tomatoes for about 55 years, was raised on a farm and still grows the majority of her tomatoes by sprawling except when she's waiting for a quad muscle tear to heal and expecting a hip replacement will be necessary for her to walk again. And I'm waiting now and going on month six in the walker with possible surgery in the Fall.

For tomatoes I use four 6' stakes pounded into the ground about a foot around each plant, and then I "cage" the vines by tying twine around the stakes every 8-10" as they grow. I try to keep "ahead" of the tomatoes, 'cause it's MUCH easier to tie the twine around the stakes when you're not trying to "contain" the vines while you're tying! I started out using mostly 6' bamboo stakes since they were the cheapest thing I could get, but over the years I've gradually been replacing them with the vinyl-coated metal stakes. Because of my very limited space I MUST grow them up! For the "regular" tomatoes 5' is usually high enough, but the cherries grow over the top and just hang after that, and some years they hang most of the way back down to the ground! With the four stakes they're pretty sturdily supported, but some years I do have to pound a T-post in next to the cherry tomato cages and tie the stakes to that to keep them from flopping over! For the eggplant I put one good solid stake in by each plant and just tie the main stem as they grow so they can support the weight of the fruit. The only peppers I grow are a couple paprika peppers, but I usually wind up eventually supporting them the same way I do the eggplant. Here are some pics that show how I do it--from beginning to end. (I don't have any serious Wind Issues with the fence, the shed, and the house blocking enough of it!) 07.01.12 - About two weeks after I planted them - The stakes are in but no twine yet 07.10.12 - I tied the twine around the stakes high enough that it's above the current growth 08.06.12 - Everything's pretty much full grown, but nothing's flopping over the top yet 09.31.12 - From the other side where you can see how high they are relative to the 6' fence, and the cherries, on the left, are totally flopping! I wound up with three "extra" tomatoes this year and didn't have anything planted where my root crops normally go, so I stuck the extra three in there and just let them flop--the way we always grew them at home--when we had a couple acres to let them flop on!!! I tried "regular" tomato cages the first couple years! They're a JOKE! Skybird P.S. If you want to see anything close up, click on the pic and then you can magnify it by clicking on the little magnifier on top of the pic! This post was edited by skybird on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 1:03

concrete reinforcement mesh with 6"x6" openings for easy access to plants. It's 5' wide and will fit nicely around the buckets and wired at the bottom. Let the top expand out to form a cone and wire it at the top to desired shape. Rolls are 50' and 150' long so you can make it any height you want and stake the remesh to the ground, it's all I use for my indeterminate plants. It may seem expensive but I've used mine for decades every year. https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/concrete-cement-masonry/rebar-remesh/5-x-50-reinforcing-mesh/1831155/p-1444447140470-c-12502.htm