Tomato cage help

[jasonig]

Every year I feel good about my set up and then one big late summer storm comes to the northeast and flattens everything. As deep in the soil as I place the cages, the wind topples them. The cages don't bend, it's that they aren't anchored so in late July and August when the plants are tall, they become top heavy and the wind wreaks havoc. When they fall the stems bend and twist. Although they continue to produce once upright, the leaves have been muddied from being on the ground despite the mulch, the stems are weakened and disease sets in. Any ideas how to reinforce the cages to keep them from toppling over? Or maybe a new design? I welcome any thoughts. Thank you.

[KarenO]

nice plants. drive a big stake into the ground, tie your plant to it and then the cage is more to support the fruit and branches. I plant mine (abnormally) closer together and i tie the cages together in a double row. They cant go anywhere that way-staked, caged and tied together
. topping later in the season removes some of the unproductive weight from the top of the plant as well.
KarenO

[PaulF]

The cages you have I use for pepper cages. Concrete reinforcing wire made into 2' circles anchored by electric fenceposts have openings large enough to harvest even the biggest tomatoes, has withstood tornado strength winds and tall enough to handle the largest plants. No need to chop off any of the foliage. These have been used and reused going on 16 years. Cost per year is minimal.

[Goodloe]

Yup, I agree with Paul, concrete reinforcing wire is the way to go. I elevate my cages on 3 T-posts to get a total height of 7 ft, and have never had one blow over. And I plant 3 tomato plants around the outside of each cage...

[KarenO]

You will note the concrete reinforcing wire cages shown have been staked ...
KarenO
My main point is that a cage on its own wont support a loaded plant but it works well in con★★★★★★★★ with a sturdy stake

[Yak54]

Yup ! I stake mine also. 6-1/2 footers.

[brownrexx]

I also get lots of wind and it will topple heavy plants in cages so I put metal stakes beside each cage and attach them with long zip ties.

[taboule]

As has been stated, staking them strengthens them tremendously. I use 2 or 3 stakes per cage-my plants get huge.

The conical cages have an advantage when putting them away at the end of the season. They stack into each other and require much less storage room than the cylindrical cages.

[Old chef]

Texas tomato cages are very strong

Old Chef

[TomatoDon]

Five foot tall concrete reinforcing wire with 24-30 inch diameter cages, staked. You can use T posts, which are the strongest. They are also the most expensive and are much harder to drive in, and even more difficult to pull up. They have a T post puller that makes it easier. Still, it's a pretty good chore to pull and store them at the end of the season.

I have hundreds of T posts and hundreds of 4 foot long 1/4" rebar. I brought in a lot of those long pieces and cut them in 4 foot lengths with a metal cutting saw blade on a chop or mitre saw. These are much easier to drive in and it can be done with a hammer. They are much easier to pull when the season is over, also.

I can't remember how many square sections it is, but about half way up the 5 foot cage, push the rod inside the cage, and then as straight down as you can get it. This keeps everything from moving. I've rarely seen this to not be strong enough. If you want more stability, use another rod on the other side. I've seen where deer have bumped into them and still not knock them to the ground.

Unfortunately, the cages in your pictures are rarely, if ever, tall enough or strong enough support anything other than dwarfs or small determinates. At least that's been my experience.

Concrete reinforcing wire, staked securely with with any of the suggestions in this thread, is the best method.

[D.J. Wolf]

Maybe I shouldn't, but I go ahead and let my plants bend over the top of the shorter cages I use. It hasn't seemed to affect the yields or health of the plants. As to keeping the cages up, I plant in a kind of rectangular block usually. Basically 3 rows of 5 cages each, adding rows or number of plants to each row as I slowly start doing more plants. I use electric fence posts, basically 3/8" rebar, driven in between cages and tie the tops of the cages to the bottom of the posts. All my cages stayed up good last year doing this. I'll try to kind of do a diagram below, O is cages, x is the posts.

.....O.....O.....O.....O.....O
...x.....x.....x.....x.....x.....x
.....O.....O.....O.....O.....O
...x.....x.....x.....x.....x.....x
.....O.....O.....O.....O.....O
...x.....x.....x.....x.....x.....x

And so on. Don't seem to need the posts on the east (downwind) side of them, as the one's on the upwind side hold the cages up good.


Edit: So when I posted it, the diagram took the spaces out lol. Ignore the periods in the diagram

[JRinPA]

When I use CRW cages I usually don't stake except in certain spots that get heavy wind. So I get some toppled, occasionally. When I do stake I use 1/2" rebar. I was gifted most of the rebar by a retiring gardener, somewhere around 100 x 5 ft. That would be a chunk of change to buy, and I was very glad to have them.



When staked with rebar, put the stake on the windward/upwind side. That is generally the west side. That will put it in pure tension with a heavy wind. Otherwise the cage might pivot around the stake. Hammer it down a foot or more, and zip tie the cage to the stake.



A wood stake may or may not hold up, depends on the wood I guess.


On another note, I tried a cage last year with 3 plants, sort of around the perimeter. I think I did 3 stems each, so 9 stems on an 18" cage. That worked pretty nice! Another great idea from tville! Of course I didn't stake that one because I would have had to drive a stake through the woven mat...and it did fall over in August. I ended up staking it anyway. I think it uprooted one plant, since the stems were clipped. No big deal, but another reminder to stake before, not after.

[decherdt]

I am still using CRW cages, 20 inch diameter x 6 ft 6 inch tall (cut long and rolled the wrong way) . Then space them 3-4 ft apart in double rows that are 2-3 ft apart. Then let multiple stems grow. but prune the interior leaves for a "no 2 leafs can touch" practise. (through a live multi species mulch.....connected with EMT....supported by t post......wire ties on steel....... jute on veg......)

10 cages share 4 stakes

http://tomatoville.com/showpost.php?...3&postcount=26

[b54red]

I have to agree with Paul and the gang that the best cages for the money are the ones made with concrete reinforcing wire with a metal stake to keep them from toppling in high winds. I used them for years before going to a trellis system to keep my plants more open in our super humid and hot conditions. I think those types of cages would work well in your climate and they are easy to pick the fruit off the vines while giving them great support. Consider the fact that they are not that easy to take down and store but if you have a place for them it is a great solution to your problem. Once you try them you will never want to use the ones you are presently using again but the ones you have now make great supports for peppers.

Bill

[Gardeneer]

I used to make CRW cages. But now
I string. I just grow one row.
So all I have is one post at each
end connected with heavy gage fence wire at tension. I keep up to 3 branches per plant
and each get a separate string.
I find this much simple system.