Taller cages equals more tomatoes?

[Gardener123]

I am making my own tomato cages this year. They will be 4 foot high, which is about 1 foot higher than the ones I get at big box stores. Much heavier duty too. I was telling this to a buddy of mine who has a 2 acre farm that he basically uses just for his family.

He said "nice start, but 6 to 8 foot high cages would be better; you will get a lot more tomatoes with taller cages."

I have seen videos on YouTube with people having 12' high tomato plants, but to me they look rather scrawny.... Tall, but scrawny, and not that many tomatoes. This year I am planting about half the amount of tomatoes that I usually do so that I have room for other veggies. I am thinking maybe I should go 6 or 7 feet high..... A lot of added expense there if I do that.

What do you think?

[applestar]

It would surely depend on the variety of tomatoes you are growing.
What ARE you growing?

Out of my entire list, there are only a dozen or so specialty micro and dwarf varieties that could be supported by only 3 ft or 4 ft high cages.

I group and sort my list in different ways, but for planting, I sort by height groups (less than 24" good for containers) (3-4 ft) ("nominally" 4-6 ft) and (6 ft+). Most are (6 ft+)

Using a modified Florida weave method, (6 ft+) varieties grew tied to 6 ft high stakes, then were supported by strings tied from stake to stake for another 2-3 feet... sometimes more.
>> last year's tomato garden

[imafan26]

Indeterminate tomatoes can get much taller than 4 ft. I find commercial tomato cages are only good for cucumbers and supporting the weight of my bell peppers. I have had to stack tomato cages before to support beans even. I don't like to stack cages if I can help it. They are not that easy to stay stacked and I have to use long stakes (as in multiple stakes) to keep them on straight. Besides the light folding cages don't hold the weight as well as CRW.

Some tomatoes are big and need heavy support. Sometimes tomatoes are big because of the way they are fed. You can have a productive short tomato if you prune the indeterminates otherwise, as you noticed as the tomato gets older the legs get kind of bare when the vines get older. It doesn't mean though that the tomatoes had not produced a lot of fruit previously.

[rainbowgardener]

I just make a row of tomatoes in 4' cages. Once the branches grow over the top they are trained over to the next cage, so they are growing horizontal across the gap, but by the time the branches are getting long, the ends are supported. By the time they are 5 or 6' tall, I also start pinching out the growing tips, to discourage them from keeping on getting taller/ longer.

[feldon30]

Most of the varieties I grow are medium or large indeterminates. I expect most of them to hit 8 feet or more. I'm using a mixture of Texas Tomato Cages and galvanized fence C-cages I made myself.

[hendi_alex]

I use concrete reinforcing wire which gives five foot cages. Some years I let the plants cascade out the top of the cage. Other years I add another half section to give about 7-8 feet. My plants are easier to maintain and have less problems with pests and rotting fruit when the extra section of cage is added. This year I'm toying with the idea of topping the tomatoes when they begin to out grow the cage. Hopefully that will cause new secondary shoots to form and replenish the plant. If not, I'll just replace with late season transplants, to start over with a fresh more vigorous plant.

[Gardener123]

OK, well, honestly I just buy what looks good in brochures. I don't pay much attention to determinate or indeterminate, as I always end up with more tomatoes than we can use.

Going from memory this is what we have to be planted in ground in a few weeks:

Mortgage Lifter x2
Black Mammoth.... as many as I want..... lots of healthy plants growing
Roma x1
Lemon Boy x1
Cherokee x1

I plan to take all those cheesy cages I bought at Lowes or HD, and use them for my hot pepper plants this year.

[gixxerific]

10 foot is not enough.

[PaulF]

Tall cages make it easier to harvest tomatoes and keep the vines off the ground so you would lose less fruit. I agree the variety, the weather, soil, etc. will determine more for production than just the height of a cage.

My cages are concrete reinforcing wire and the vines grow out the top and fountain down the sides. I am not a pruner, so they grow however much they grow.

[Gardener123]

.......

My cages are concrete reinforcing wire and the vines grow out the top and fountain down the sides. I am not a pruner, so they grow however much they grow.

Some of my cages will be made from that wire this year, and all will be by next year.

[Gary350]

I think for Philadelphia 6 foot tall cages will be perfect. It also depends on other things like the variety of tomatoes you grow.

I made some very nice tomato cages 20 years ago from cement reinforcement wire when I lived in TN. The cages were 20" diameter 6 feet tall. The large squares in the cement wire makes it easy to reach in and pick tomato's. You don't need to do much either, place them over your tomatoes then shovel some dirt on the lower wire so wind does not blow it over. The cages almost took care of them self. I planted tomatoes about April 20 and frost killed them about Halloween. I strip off 3/4 of the lower leaved and plant the whole lower 3/4 of the tomato plant. 2 weeks after planting tomatoes the plants are growing at a rate of about 1" per day. Growth slows down and pretty much stops in hot weather. When cool weather comes plants will grow another 2 feet tall before frost. Buy Halloween tomatoes plants are taller than the cages.

[ElizabethB]

I like indeterminate tomatoes so they can be grown vertically in my square foot garden. G welded rebar into upside down U shapes that just fit in the back corners of my boxes. They are 4' wide and 10' tall - plus what is in the ground. I tie twine from the cross piece ad let it drape to the ground. As the tomatoes grow I pinch the suckers and train the main stem up the twine. In a good year the vines will grow to the top and then turn down and grow some more. Tomatoes all up and down the vines.

I find that indeterminate tomatoes have a longer season and more production.


Good luck

[dtizme]

I see someone mentioned the CRW (concrete reinforcing wire). Its more costly than alot of other options but they should last a lifetime and your not going to get a more solid cage than using that stuff. you can lookup videos on utube on how to make them. I made 1 last year, pretty simple.