[Market-farming] tomato cages

Sharon and Steve shopkins at tdstelme.net
Tue Feb 5 10:46:57 EST 2008


After about 10 minutes with one of those store bought inverted cone cages we 
decided they were several ntothes less than useless and proceeded to make 
our own.

>From a roll of 6 x 6  #9 concrete re-wire we cut the center horizontal wire, 
the resulting strip was then cut at the 14th verticle wire and this was 
formed to a circle and hooked with the spikes left from cutting. This made 
the cage which is about 2 feet diameter and 2 feet high, with 13 - 6 inch 
spikes at the bottom which go into the soil as anchors.

These cages were covered in spring with 3 wide poly attached using 6d nails 
as if they were straight pins, the extra left loose at the top. Early they 
were set over broccoli and cabbage, later they were moved to tomato and 
peppers, (2 plants per cage) and as the weather demanded, the top poly was 
adjusted closed or open. When true warm weather arrived the plastic covers 
were removed and stored.

Worked well for us, I still have, and use, most of the cages after 20+ 
years, but most of our tomato production has moved into the greenhouse, and 
if I needed more I would use the highly temporary type hoop house season 
extender.

MAsteveINE








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