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Subject: Market Farming
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- From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
- To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:25:35 -0500
David
When we make them for determinate tomatoes, we roll out the
wire about 15-20' at a time, then carefully bend the wire back, just a
little, to take the strong curl out. We then cut it down the middle to make
twice as many short cages. This works really well for the very determinate
varieties, just about anything but really indeterminate varieties, like Early
girl or Brandywine.
For indeterminates, we don't split the roll down the middle.
We just cut it across at 10 square (60") intervals. We hook the cut edges and
connect the hooks to the opposite square, which makes a 5' tall cage, as opposed
to the 30" short cages. Snip the cross wire between the verticals at the bottom
and you have small spikes to push into the ground. Watch out for drip tubing
though when you set them in the field.
One problem with them is that they are top-heavy, especially
as the plants grow up into them, set fruit and a storm comes along. To address
that, we plant the tomatoes in pairs about 30" apart, then skip about 4' to the
next pair. We set a tomato stake between the two in each pair, then place the
cages over the plants but against the stake. Then we use a cable-tie (cheap
plastic but strong) to bind the cages near the top of the stake. They are
all bound together and lend each other back-up strength during high winds. In
three years of doing this we've had only a couple blow over, even during strong
storms with 50 mph winds.
I'm pretty happy with this system for indeterminates. It's
easy to set up, the fruit are pretty easy to reach, the plants get good aeration
for disease management, break-down and storage go pretty quick and it's not too
difficult to move them, especially if you unhook each cage and nest about 5-6
together. Un-nesting them is a little tricky but if you watch what you're doing
carefully, it's not too bad.
Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist, Food
Crops
University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research Center www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/shoemaker_wh.html
|
-
[Market-farming] Tomato cages,
David Tannen, 04/25/2006
-
Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages,
Willie McKemie, 04/25/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages, Andy Hupp, 04/25/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages, Pat Meadows, 04/26/2006
-
Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages,
Bill Shoemaker, 04/26/2006
-
Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages,
Shelly Elliott, 04/26/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages, Wiediger, Alison, 04/26/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages, Bill Shoemaker, 04/26/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages, David Tannen, 04/26/2006
-
Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages,
Shelly Elliott, 04/26/2006
-
Re: [Market-farming] Tomato cages,
Willie McKemie, 04/25/2006
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