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Vegetable Gardening

Tomatoes outgrowing cages, Suggestions?

7 years ago

The last two years my tomato plants have outgrown their cages. The are so big that they are nearly touching the ground on the other side and I'm afraid they are going to pull the cages over. Does anyone have suggestions/solutions for this? I think it's too late this year but maybe for next year? Thanks!

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Comments (5)

Labradors
7 years ago
Two solutions.
1. Build scaffolding and string your indeterminate tomatoes from the top.
2. Grow dwarfs, compacts and determinates. Cages are only really good for these varieties anyway.
Linda
digdirt2
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Depends on what you mean by "cages"? There are those wire 3-4 ring things some call tomato cages that are good for pepper plants but a waste of time and money for tomatoes - even the determinate types can pull them over. The best you can do with them is to drive several 6' stakes deep into the ground to try to keep them upright and then stack one of them on top of the other and tie them together.

Then there are several really good, tall, strong effective tomato cages that work well for indeterminates and even huge cherry types. CRW (concrete reinforcing wire) cages you make your self are very popular, so are cattle panel cages and Texas Tomato cages. Plus several garden/seed vendors sell some high quality stackable, heavy duty cages.

So what cages are you using and what varieties are you growing? Perhpas as Linda said you just need to switch to determinate varieties.

If you type 'cages' into the search here you'll find many discussions about what works best and what doesn't - many with photos - especially over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here.

Dave
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You'll find several different threads - many with pictures - on staking them over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here. Personally, I use 4' pieces of 3/4" re-rod - it drives better than wood - driven in a good foot. 1 on each side of the cage and use plastic tie wraps to tie the cage off to each stake. Dave
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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.
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Many people make taller cages by making a ring of concrete reinforcement wire (crw). How available crw is in smaller lengths, I don't know. Some people have used a second small cage, inverted, atop the first, usually attached with cable ties. How successful that is may depend on the gauge of the wire used in the cage uprights. [The times I've seen this method used, it's always been with self-watering containers, usually the hand-made ones.] This link evaluates many different methods of supporting tomatoes: http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks/tomato_staking.html Probably the easiest and cheapest way to get tall support is to buy tall stakes. You'll want to bury a foot underground, so consider that when deciding what length you need. Another option is the "Florida Weave" (I've seen the term "Texas Weave" used; I assume they're the same). In the first link above, it's called "Post and Twine Method" -- and badly described. See number2's post on this thread for a diagram; when I've used it, I weave around each plant individually, not two at once (they'll get mixed up enough anyway without my bundling them together in twos!). http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg041148319850.html?14 I have a neighbor whose late husband built tomato frames out of wood; most of her tomatoes are Roma-types, so the frames are about 3-4', but you could make them taller. Basically he just put two rows of stakes into the ground (I think they're 2x2's), then added occasional horizontal cross-pieces at different heights. This is a permanent installation. Here are the instructions for GWebber qaguy's homemade PVC cages: http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/tom_pvc/
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Holly I sowed three determinate varieties, Inbar (a hybrid), Clear Pink Early, and New Yorker (both OPs). All three are 3-4' tall. Would those crappy box-store cages fit in 5-gallon self-watering buckets? They are 15" in diameter. (It's hard to find the diameter listed for cages shown on the internet.) My containers will also be on a deck, but its elevation is ten feet, so I won't be able to let them drape over the railing! I suppose I could also purchase a roll of CRW and just make round cages to fit into the buckets with a couple of stakes, but I don't need that many cages. And I was hoping to not have to make them myself.
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nancyjane_gardener
7 years ago
We use hogwire zig zagged across a 4x8 bed and attached to a metal Tpost driven in the ground at each end of the bed (outside the bed cause we have hardware cloth for gophers)

As they grow we attach the branches with what ever we may have...that green plastic stretchy stuff, old nylons, the green stuff with velcro or we have been using the last few years some plastic clips that I found at the flea mart cheap.

I usually have 5 plants in this sized bed. They're about 5- 6 ft tall and VERY full! We did 6 plants this year and I think that was one too many. Nancy
Laura John
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks for all your tips! I have 4 plants, 2 Big Boy, a Better Boy, and a Brandywine. I do have the terrible round four ring things which are definitely useless! I already have a few of the T posts holding things together. I have plenty of space to try something different next year since I love the varieties I have. My Grandfather grew Big Boys every year so they taste like my childhood! :) I don't remember him ever having this problem though!
glib
7 years ago
In my previous garden I had rebar cages, 6 ft tall. That is as far as you can go with rebar. Anything taller you could build cattle panel structures, or go with the trellis as others have said. Just the same in that sandy acid soil the toms grew to 8-9 ft, up and over. so there is no cure really :-), but it is not a bad problem to have. now in alkaline clay I get more manageable specimens.
Laura John thanked glib

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