[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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