Diameters of CRW cages & winter storage

14 years ago

My husband and I are planning to make CRW tomato cages this weekend or the next. WeÂd like to make them so we can "nest" three together for winter storage. WeÂre planning on diameters of 18", 21" and 24". When I round the circumferences up to the next closest 6" (making 60", 66" and 78") and deduct 3" for bending the end wire back around to form a hook, the finished diameters calculate to 18.1", 20.1" and 23.9". This would make 8 sets of three cages, with 168" of wire left over Â enough to make one more medium cage and one more large cage. Total: 26 cages, remainder: 24" of wire

IÂm a little worried about whether that 2" difference in diameters will be enough to enable us to slip the smallest cage inside the middle cage without too much of a struggle. IÂd like to optimize materials without paying for my mistakes for the life of the cages. Oh, and having useful-size cages would be a plus :) Does anyone have any suggestions for how much difference in diameters is necessary to allow for easy storage?

A couple options IÂm kicking around:

If I round the smallest cage circumference down to 54", weÂd have 9 sets of 3 cages with diameters of 16.2", 20.1" and 23.9". Total: 27 cages, remainder: 18" of wire

Alternately, I could round the middle and largest cage circumferences up to 72" and 84" and wind up with 8 sets of three cages measuring 18.1", 22.0" and 25.8" (and 72" of wire left over Â enough to make one more middle-sized cage). Total: 25 cages, remainder: 0

Having never worked with this wire before, I should ask, too, is it realistic to figure the hook will reduce the circumference by 3"? Maybe 4" or 5" or 6" is closer to the mark? BTW Â DH is against the idea of cutting everything off flush/square and using zip ties to secure the ends. I havenÂt broached the hog ring idea though :)

Thank you!

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Comments (6)

cyrus_gardner
14 years ago
Have you thought about making them slightly conic? Not as sharp as those fragile ones sold everywhere.

Just take a look at 5 gal. buckets. They dont even look lik conic but they are.
Sure, you might struggle a bit putting them together and separating
but how oftem do you do that; JUST ONCE A YEAR.
But this design can be space saving.
Plus, you can design all of your cages identical in cone angle and diameter.
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bigdaddyj
14 years ago
It will be tricky storing them that way as they can't be made into perfect cylinders by human hands. At least by MY human hands! ;-) I have some between 18 and 22 inches and those rusted old cages are so bent out of shape I'd scratch myself silly trying to get them to snug inside each other! I leave mine ouside all year round much to my neighbor's chagrin I suspect. If you only need a few cages have you considered Texas Cages which don't rust and fold flat for easy storage? If time is money by the time you add up the cost of the CRW, travel expense and time required to make them the costs get closer to the Texas ones.
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anney
14 years ago
mrs.b_in_wy

Maybe it was last year (could be the year before that) that a Garden Webber showed pictures of his tomato cages, and he'd made them triangular from CRW, not round, so they could be folded flat and stored for the winter. I don't recall if he gave the dimensions, but probably around 3 feet to a side. They should be easier to store than round ones.

Maybe easier to make, too. Just three pieces of 5-6 foot tall CRW attached at the sides with plastic zip ties and the bottom wire removed so the vertical wires could be pressed into the soil. I think he used one fence post to keep it all stable.

You could make a square cage the same way, maybe with two fence posts for stability. They could be two-foot lengths of CRW connected with plastic zip ties.

If you decide to go with round cages, maybe the following information will be helpful. Apparently a 23" diameter round cage is optimal for tomato cages.

ttlight posted these helpful dimensions for cages made of CRW last year or the year before:

If you want to explore other cage-materials, this lady has some ideas for non-round tomato cages made simply of PVC, and it appears that you can take the square one apart.

Have fun making your decision!
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pyrrho
14 years ago
Without going out to measure them, I believe I made my cages out of a 50' roll and did four at 19" diam. and four at 23" with some left over. The smaller ones nest easily into the larger, but I don't how about nesting them if there's only a 2" difference.

A couple of things to consider. Plan to have some surplus (i.e., don't account for every section of CRW you buy), because the first 6" segment is used to tie the roll together, and when you get to the end, the last foot or so is rolled so tightly it might be unworkable.

Another thing is to check the roll you buy for dents/bent wire. If you're going to try to nest cages with a 2" differences in diameter, these little bends will be an issue, but not so at 4".

To experiment, I would start by making the largest cage you wnat and make the next one 2" smaller and see how they nest. If it's a real pain, just make that second one smaller and go from there.
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digdirt2
14 years ago
Another option: when making the cages rather than twisting the cut ends to permanently lock them into a closed circle just soft wire or tie-wrap them. End of the season you just snip the wires/tie-wraps and store them stacked together flat.

Ok so it isn't totally flat. ;) But you get the idea.

Dave
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mrs.b_in_wy
Original Author
14 years ago
Great ideas from all. Thanks so much!
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Diameters of CRW cages & winter storage

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Diameters of CRW cages & winter storage

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