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Growing Tomatoes

Support for Container Tomatoes?

14 years ago

Hey Everyone,

I'm new to gardening, but I planted 13 tomato plants in 5gal buckets on my roof. Things are going very well and it's a lot of fun, but I'm afraid the tomato cages I bought for each bucket aren't going to be big enough.

www.bierz.blogspot.com

That link has pictures of everything. If anyone could suggest a support system for the tomatoes that would be great. I was thinking of putting a stake in each one to tie the main stem to, but I'm not sure that's the best method or the most cost-effective.

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

colokid
14 years ago
With 5 gal buckets a frame made from PVC would be nice.
Only other thing i can think of is a tri-pod made from 3 2by2s and a bolt.
Kenny
robeb
14 years ago
I used to grow in 5 gal buckets.
The cheapest way I found was to sink an 8 foot 1" x 2" (wood) down into the inside edge of the bucket, and run a few screws from the outside of the bucket into the wood for support.
1 x 2s are usually not much more than a dollar apiece.

Be careful when they get tall. A strong wind can tip them on their side in those 5 gal buckets.
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I've posted this pic before but this is what I built last year out of scrap wood. The cages are completely self supporting on their own and do not require any support from the containers. I have since torn these down and will completely rebuild them, only better this time, in June sometime. The main posts are 5 foot 2x2s and the cross beams are whatever wood I had lying around, screwed into the posts with 1 5/8" screws. Screws are nice because you can take the entire thing apart and rebuild it again rather easily. Here is a link that might be useful:
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I used the Menard's 54" heavy duty cages which look to be as strong or stronger than the ones you are using. Since my EarthTainers sit close to my yard I simply stuck the cages into the containers and drove a 2" x 2" x 8' wooden stake 12" into the ground right next to the tainers and the cages. I tied the cages off to the 8' stake very tight and that was it. As one of the other posters stated, the weight of the EarthTainers is well over 100lbs, so I wasn't worried about the containers going anywhere. As for proof of how sturdy the whole set-up would be in a strong wind, I have the proof. About 3 weeks ago a very strong storm that spawned a CAT 3 tornado touched down about 2 miles from my house. Winds were so strong in my neighborhood that the top third of a tree was blown off in one neighbors yard. And the other neighbor had a few very large branches blown off of his trees. While I also had some branches blown off, my EarthTainers never moved and the cages are still strapped to the stakes as tight as the day I built them. Wind gusts were said to be at least +60mph.
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bierz
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks, robeb; I think I may go pick up some 1x2" today and try this out.

I also really like the pvc frame idea and I think I'll use that for some cucumbers and watermelon that I have growing.
jmhewitt
14 years ago
I use 3/4" PVC frames for my big Gardeners Supply containers and Earthboxes (do a search on the NancySil tomato cages).....

for smaller containers, including the 5 gallon ones, I use the frames that Burpee sells. I drill 4 holes at the compass points in the container, and then use plastic ties to affix the frames to the bucket. If they grow real tall, I use another frame on top.

if the whole mess gets unstable (and with our hurricane winds here that is pretty common) I take a metal fencepost from Lowes of 3-4 feet, drive it WAYYYY into the ground, and then plastic tie the bucket/cage structure to it.

this works pretty well, and I have never lost a bucket.

Michael in Hampstead, NC

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