SQWIB
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Tomato Cages

Tomato Cages
  • A quick note on Tomato Cages, I have always despised those round conical shape tomato cages sold for tomatoes and many years ago built some heavy cages out of copper pipe.
    I tried Florida weaves, vertical growing with string, cables, tried tomato spikes, and have come full circle with cages, But this time I figured I would go overboard and buy a set of Texas tomato cages for my tomatoes and use the lighter duty cages for eggplants and peppers.

    As far as the Colored tomato cages from Lowe's and Home depot goes, those cages are not very good for the types of tomatoes I grow but they do have their place in the garden, they work fairly well with Peppers and eggplants as well as other smaller plants.
    Here are a few observations on these Colored cages.

    Lowes
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    Home depot

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    A few tips when purchasing and using these.
  • Place your order online and pick them up, inspect the cages before you sign for them and if any are broken have them replace them while you wait, Why do this? Because the way the cages are shipped to the store you will end up with a broken finger trying to separate them from one another.
  • Beware of bulk pricing, do the math, sometimes a pack of 6 cost more than 6 singles.
  • When you purchase the Colored cages, swing by the paint aisle and grab a can of similar colored spray paint for yearly maintenance.
  • If you purchase these cages knowing they may require yearly maintenance, you will not regret your purchase.
  • These are no good for your larger beefsteak variety tomatoes but are fine for peppers and eggplants as well as smaller plants.
  • Bend the tines (legs) straight (carefully) when pushing into the soil See (Fig. a)
  • Use rebar, pipe or stakes if cage is being overpowered.



    Tomato Cage Repair

    Something to consider when buying these cages from Big blue or orange, the welds suck. The welds on the cages I picked up from Big Blue were horrible, some were so misaligned it almost looked as though it was done on purpose, I had to repair one 15 minutes after it was purchased, the weld snapped as I placed it in the car.
    But to be honest I bought these knowing they will require regular maintenance.

    Quick tip on inserting cages in the soil, make sure the legs are bent out slightly so they are straight up and down, note the one on the left (Fig. a) is wrong.
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    (Fig. a)


    Busted cages? No problem, here's a few tips on fixing these.

    For the Big Blue cages, I used some extra copper tubing from an Ice Maker install, the copper fits nicely over the round portion of the cage.
  • First make sure to de'bur the area.
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  • Cut a section of copper tubing and ream both sides.
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  • Form the tubing to the radius of the cage ring.
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  • slip over one end.
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  • Then slip on the other end, no glue needed.
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    Another option for fixing the rings is a piece of 1/4" drip line tubing. If the tubing is too tight just stick the ends in hot water before inserting. Pictured below is a Big Orange cage.
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    Here is how I fixed a broken weld, where the ring separated from the legs on a Big Orange cage.
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  • Mix some epoxy.
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  • Dab some epoxy on the weld.
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  • Cut a piece of galvanized wire or picture wire.
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  • Wrap securely and snip off the ends.
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  • Coat wire in epoxy, both sides.
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  • If you have a ton of paint like I do, you may luck out and find a close match.
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  • Paint after epoxy is semi-cured. This joint will never break!
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    Just a quick recap, I'm OK with this yearly maintenance on these fair priced cages, just as long as it's a little fix here and there.

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Some tomato cages are better than others. I refuse to buy the light gauge wire. TSC = Tractor Supply Company has heavy duty tomato cages. I buy 5/8" cement rebar cut it into 8 ft long pieces then hammer them in the garden soil to hold up the tomato cages. If a cage breaks I wrap #12 copper wire around the broken place then solder it. I buy hay bail twine to tie the cage to the cement rebar so the cage do not fall over. When tomato plants get tall I tie them to the rebar with twine up to 7 ft high. If plants grow taller than 7 ft I let the plant turn & grow down to the ground. If I cut the top of the plant off or trim the limbs the plant will make no tomatoes for a whole month. Never trim all your plants at the same time you will have no tomatoes for the kitchen table for a month.

30 years ago I had a roll of cement reinforcement wire I cut it into 4 ft pieces and made my own tomato cages. Cement cages will not stick in the soil so you have to use stakes to hold them all up. They do not stack well either you have to stack them like logs they take up a lot of space.

SQWIB
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Gary350 wrote:Some tomato cages are better than others. I refuse to buy the light gauge wire. TSC = Tractor Supply Company has heavy duty tomato cages. I buy 5/8" cement rebar cut it into 8 ft long pieces then hammer them in the garden soil to hold up the tomato cages. If a cage breaks I wrap #12 copper wire around the broken place then solder it. I buy hay bail twine to tie the cage to the cement rebar so the cage do not fall over. When tomato plants get tall I tie them to the rebar with twine up to 7 ft high. If plants grow taller than 7 ft I let the plant turn & grow down to the ground. If I cut the top of the plant off or trim the limbs the plant will make no tomatoes for a whole month. Never trim all your plants at the same time you will have no tomatoes for the kitchen table for a month.

30 years ago I had a roll of cement reinforcement wire I cut it into 4 ft pieces and made my own tomato cages. Cement cages will not stick in the soil so you have to use stakes to hold them all up. They do not stack well either you have to stack them like logs they take up a lot of space.
I always wanted to make them from the remesh in narrowing diameters 18" 20" 22" 24" and stack them inside one another, I just never pursued it.

pepperhead212
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Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

Many years ago I got some large tomato cones (haven't seen them for decades!) that were 52", before being shoved into the ground; not as good as the trellises I eventually made from CRW, but not bad! Eventually, the pieces that went into the ground rusted away, and only had about 8" left on the longest pieces, so I just drove some long stakes of rebar, or whatever I had on hand, into the ground, and zip-tied them to it, and also turned one upside-down on top of another, and zip-tied those (regular wire gets dangerous when harvesting - been there, done that!), and ended up with a cage 7' tall. I used those for cherry tomatoes, mainly.
that!)

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lakngulf
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Location: Lake Martin, AL

Always looking for a better "mouse trap" but so far I lean heavily on the cylinders formed from cement construction wire. Very heavy duty. They will twist a bit into the soil but I hold them up with either (1) a metal T fence post per two cylinders or (2) a metal T fence post at each end and wire from post to post.
Sure these rust a bit but over the years I have thrown away only a few. My parents used them LONG before I started gardening and some of theirs are still in use.

I have tried Florida weave......too much tedious work
I have tried 16 ft cattle panels upright.....still have to tie many tomato branches to the panel
I have tried 16 ft cattle panels 45 degree leaning....above
I have tried 16 ft cattle panels laid flat on concrete blocks....works great early on but over time the fruit ends up on the panels without good leaf protection, and the sun scalds the fruit.

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

35 years ago I put 4x4 posts in the ground so 6 ft was above the ground 8 ft apart. I put cement reinforcement wire on both sides of the posts then planted tomatoes between the parallel rows of cement wire. It worked great tomatoes grow up between the 2 fences. Big problem was taking it down after cold weather killed the tomatoes. There was no way to till the garden with that fence there. I took it down to till but never put it up again. There was no good place to keep 60 ft of cement reinforcement wire until it was needed again.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I rarely use the conical cages. As you have already mentioned it has limited use. I do get the folding square cages because they are easier to store. I open them up and use them mostly as a fence or trellis for cucumbers and some short vines. The square ones can be double stacked but will need support poles as well. I like CRW for trellising and I found an old close line made a good support for string training some peas. I don't like to prune tomatoes so cages are better for tomatoes that are minimally pruned.

I think the only useful thing I have found for the conical cages are to support pepper plants.



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