Tomato cage

From Self-sufficiency
Jump to: navigation, search

A tomato cage is used to support tomato plants during its growth.

Make by concrete mesh

It is possible to make a tomato cage by taking a piece of concrete mesh and rolling it together as a roll and place that around the plats. See http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2007/06/building_tomato_cages.html for more detailed instructions.

Anchoring the cages If the bottom ring is cut away then the prongs can be pushed down into the ground in order to anchor the cage into the ground.

Next to every fourth or fifth cage, drive in a 7'-10' metal pole. Then use BLACK plastic (other colors will break down in sunlight) zip-ties (aka tie-wraps) to fasten the cages next to the poles at the middle and top. Then lay 1/2" plastic PVC water pipe over the row of cages and use more tie-wraps to fasten the pipe to each cage. The pipe is run down the length of each row AND (every other cage) across the rows. (Pipe slip connectors will hold long pieces of pipe together by friction -- glue is not needed.) This effectively bonds all the cages into one huge trellis that is extremely strong and windproof! Since the PVC is 6.5' in the air, you have no trouble walking under it!

At the end of the season, cut off the ties and take the "whole mess" down if you wish to.

Se also