I have 5 ft tomato cages but the plants will probably reach 7 ft and are now falling down. Should the plants be pruned, will this encourage new low growth or limit it, or do I do what I have done in the past, sink in a 8ft 1x2 and tie them up. I googled but this I could not find anything. The best cages I used to have were wire mesh for concrete and rebar but you need a big place to store them.
Could run a row of wire fencing or plastic snow fencing and tie plants to that, possibly.
I topped a tomato plant growing way above its cage and it did not appear to harm it or number of tomatoes.
=3D=3D Google "pruning tomatoes".
I prune constantly.
=3D=3D
All planning and construction of tomato cages should take place before the plants are planted. After that, it's like trying to control Audrie in The Little Shop Of Horrors. So what if you have to store them year to year? Sheets of reinforcing wire don't take much space. That concrete reinforcing wire is great stuff, and if you make it on posts, you can access both sides. Of course, it depends on the variety of tomatos you plant, some vining, and some turning into bushes. It all depends.
Steve
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Sometimes you need to do that, or you will have so many growing points that they won't mature before frost, or you will end up with much smaller vegetables/fruit. Which is it for a tomato, veg or fruit? Anyway, that's what I've learned from years of tomato growing.
Love dem tasty garden tomatos. You could take some people and blindfold them and give them a piece of store bought tomatos, and some of them wouldn't be able to tell you what it was, they are so tasteless. And even odorless.
Steve
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I've never seen a store-bought tomato cage that was worth a damn. Next year, make these cylindrical ones out of normal fence wire. These are 5' high. They've withstood huge winds without a problem. Any negative aspects to these cages are imaginary. You'll want to cut some arm-size holes for harvesting, and one near ground level for weeding, although not many weeds grow once the tomato plant shades the ground underneath.
-snip-
There are some out there- Gardeners.com has some for $12 that look good enough.
If you make them out of reinforcing wire you'll have heavy duty cages with 6" square holes & you'll eliminate the need for stakes. I cut mine 6' long- so I end up with a 5' tall cylinder just under 2' in diameter. I cut the bottom horizontal wire so I have 10 6" spikes that hold it in place.
Mine take a bit longer to fill out.
The only tomatoes that get taller than 4 1/2 feet in my garden are the Sweet 100s. Their cages have a 30" extension wired on.
Jim
Mine are made out of 8' re-mesh as well, w/ 6" spacing between the wires. I made them differnt diameters so I can store them inside each other. I can store 12 cages in the space of 4.
-Zz
I second the "different diameter" scheme. I zip tie the cylinders and if they don't nest, I just cut the ties & expand or compress them as needed. I only need to store 4 cylinders.
I used to use 2x4 fencing and cut away wire to give access but the wire snip rems were always cutting me.
I bit the bullet and got some 5' Keystone Wire Poultry & Garden fencing. The majority of the mesh is 4" x6" ...the "bottom foot" is tighter but I use it upside down so I can reach over the top to harvest. The 4x6 opening allow me to reach through at any point to harvest even the largest tomatoes.
Of course the wire comes in 165' roll, (30 + cages) :(
but I sell them for cost or give them away.
Not getting a couple nicks every time I harvest is worth it.
cheers Bob
Lucky you! If you had these some of these darn deer, like we have here, you wouldn't have plants that high. They pulled mine right out of the ground.
Next year will be a fence of sorts for me.
Reinforcement wire with a split old garden hose around the top ring for a cushion. Let the vines double over the cage. 5ft up + 5ft down =3D
10ft of tomato vine. If they get longer than that you're using way to much fertilizer.
Fence? Deer can jump an 8 foot fence with room to spare.
True, but a 6 foot fence can be part of an interesting array of common garden structures which will deter deer. You know what I mean, so there's no need to explain further.
Rename the red things "deer bait" and can venison instead?
Use 9 foot fence, and then have a big ladder to pull the deer down from the top. And, prepare to can venison for the winter?
Land mines, and sniper towers? Stalag Tomato 13?
Please bottom post like a normal person instead of someone who desperately needs to be different, and for no good reason.
Onward: If the area inside the fence is crowded with things that make the deer nervous about a landing (or launching) place, the fence will work. When my fenced area had none of these things, the deer entered every night. As soon as I added tomato cages, very tall bean poles, cold frame and other annoyances, the intrusions ceased completely. This has worked for 6 years so far.
I planted my tomats along my privacy fence. I use cup hooks and the rails with bailing wire strung from them and rubber tubing to act as a cushion so the wires don't cut through the vines. Gerry Baker always recommended steal stakes with nylon stockings used as ties. He said that there was some sort of electrical reaction... I can't remember the whole explanation. I know they grow tall but they may anyway.
Pruning: I pinch off the suckers that grow at the branch nodes and some of the flower bunches in the probably mistaken belief that I'll get bigger tomats. Usually cut off the lower branches below 6 or 8 inches after the plants get going.
Pungi stakes? or was that pungi pits?
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