Kawaiineko, For your dwarf tomaotes in containers (especially if you find the ones that are labelled heavy duty), you can probably use the tomato cages you buy locally, they just aren't big enough or heavy enough for most non-dwarf tomatoes. I do use them to support pepper plants, but some peppers may be too large for them. I know of gardeners who use cages for peas, beans, cucumbers, and squash. Another name for concrete reinforcing wire (CRW) is concrete remesh. Here a couple of videos that show people making CRW tomato cages. Making CRW Cages The fellow in the next video is making them from the 5' x 10' sheets, which will cost more per cage, but may be a better way for someone who only has a few tomatoes or wants to spread the initial investment out over time. One other "disadvantage" to using the sheets is that you have to roll them into circles where the rolls of remesh are already curved (more about that later.) Making tomato cages from remesh sheets The second video shows the fellow cutting the remesh with a grinder, I have used a jig saw to cut cattle panels, so I think you could use one on the remesh, or a sawsall, but the bolt cutters are hands down the easiest way to cut them. The link below is to a good page that shows yet another way to make the cages from the rolls. If you don't have a couple of helpers to stand on the wire while you cut it, you can use several cinder blocks or some other heavy items to hold it down. If you unroll it the way most people are inclined to, when you cut the wire, it can snap up and stab you with the nice points you just made. So the use of some kind of weights is important, along with a good bolt cutter (a small one is OK, but regular wire cutter don't work well, you'll wreck you hands.) Heavy jeans, eye protection, long sleeves and good gloves are other safety itmes to consider. If you don't have access to a pair of bolt cutters and don't want to buy them, look into renting them, you can do all the cutting in a short time and then form the cages and bend the ends as you wish. As you can see, you can cut and bend the wire ends in different ways, you just have to decide what works for you. I know of a gardener or two that don't leave the wires for twisting but use zip ties to hold them together and then they cut them at the end of the season so they can open the cages to nearly flat and stack them in less space to store them over the winter. Some people make their cages in 3 sizes, like 18", 22" and 36" diameters so they can nest them to take up less storage space. Others leave the cages in the garden. As for cutting off the bottom ring(s) to leave wire to push into the ground, you can do that. I prefer to use rebar stakes driven into the ground 12-18" on either side to anchor the cages. Of course, your mileage may vary. Betsy Here is a link that might be useful: How to make CRW Cages

Commercial growers worry about things like ease of harvest and uniformity of fruit size, and they tend to have much more intense disease pressures than hobby growers. People who cage generally just let the plant grow as it will. Pruning is reserved for dying or diseased leaves, aside from aggressive removal of leaves from the bottom of the plant to keep foliage away from the soil. Some people will prune off growing tips once the end of the season gets near in order to try to ripen up the fruits already on the plant before frost. Others don't bother and say it doesn't make much of a difference. Some will cut off the tops once the plant grows as tall as the cage, but others will let the vines flop over the top of the cage and continue to grow and hang down. Regardless, the leaves are where the plant produces the sugars and other nutrients that go into making the fruit, so there's some logic to the idea of keeping as much of the foliage as possible. Disease is what you have to weigh against that, so it's a balancing act. Length of growing season is also a consideration. Is there a point in letting a plant get huge and wild and produce a gazillion flowers and set a ton of fruit if you don't have the time for those fruit to mature before frost? Also, if you want to plant a lot of varieties but have insufficient space to let them all grow into huge, caged plants and are OK with a smaller harvest from each plant, you could prune enthusiastically and grow the plants closer together. It's really a matter of what your goals and needs are.

Nice PVC cages...I understand fully what you're saying about my HD cages. You are correct in that they are only a support system, very specifically with these smaller ones I use. I don't mind helping a branch here & there by moving it above a ring or whatever. I very much doubt there will be constant upkeep with the cages. I am well aware of the size tomato plants get. One of the main reason I did 6 of them (2 each of 3 varieties) is that I know container gardening on a tiny porch means (for some plants) limited production due to space. Anyways, guess i'm trying to say I pre-planned quite well & bought items I specifically wanted. My hopes are to have plenty of matoes by football season. :) See, drtomato & macheske, it's not hard to talk like a normal adult. Start out by asking questions first though, like "Why do you use the small HD tomato cages?" instead of saying something like, "Those little HD cages are funny... My plants are over 7' now. I don't think I would be able to find them. They might be big enough for some of my peppers." Then maybe, by asking a few questions first, you'd know why I bought the materials I did, instead of just starting a bunch of crap in this forum. And I wonder why it's been so dead the past 2 weeks.

gardenzone4, like natal says I never had to extra stake a Texas ever. The long legs anchor well. I got the 24" because I never prune and grow monster size plants. I definitely have to stake my CRW cages though or they will blow over once full of heavy fruit. I space my Texas 4 to 5 feet apart and still the plants grow into each other by August. I have grown at least 100 plants in Texas cages and only once when I had a sickly, wispy, runt of plant did it ever collapse upon itself but it would have been the same had it been in a CRW cage. If you grow tall bushy plants it's not an issue. I construct my Texas fully at transplant time but you could just place the top piece on later if you like. Until the plants reach the 6' top of the cage I will walk by every other day and guide a few branches "up" to the next ring so they stay inside growing upwards and not outwards. Once they grow taller than the 6' top I stop that of course and then they start growing back down. Here's a pic of Texas in action: Notice the two tallest plants in the center. They are monster "Claude Brown NOT Yellow Giant" plants. One is about 7 feet tall and the other about 8. This pic was taken in July. They got even bigger as the season went on and like I said will grow back down again.