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Tonight I took the leap! I decided to try a new kind of tomato cage this coming season. I know, crazy right? Anyway, I have sought new and better cage ideas for years. I have tried wood framed jobbies made by the local Lyons Club. Traditional round wire cages, and fold up metal kind. We even custom made them out of hog panel to get them tall enough. None of these were as pretty as I would like them to be nor were they really that sturdy. OK, so really they just weren't pretty. I just said that about sturdy to make myself feel better about not wanting to use ugly. Some years our tomatoes have been so tall they folded over at the top and went back to the ground where they turned again and headed up. The following year is the one we made the tall custom ones. Thankfully that only happened once. Well, I found these at Park Seed and ordered six of them to try. The description says to use any stake, up to 7 feet tall. Does anyone else use these? I plan to have a lot of tomato plants this year as my mom and I will have a joint canning venture with the harvest. I still have all the other ugly cages I can use for the rest of the tomatoes this year. I like the idea of using a little less space that traditional cages like to take up. I only ordered them in green but I could have ordered them in red too. I thought I would get crazy with color next year. Does anyone think red really makes tomatoes grow any better? I seriously have my doubts but I am not a botanist.
I've used a version of that. I used a stake and some heavy wire. They work okay. I still found myself having to tie the tomatoes to the coil after a couple months. Are you planting determinate or indeterminate varieties? It works best with determinates.
ReplyDeleteIt seems everyone is trying to sell red mulch for tomatoes these days. I still have my doubts, but I understand the reasoning.
I have not used these; I hope they work well for you. Let us know how you like them as the season goes along. Enjoy the day!
ReplyDeleteIt is attractive and I hope it works for you. I uses concrete reinforcing wire my husband made into cages. Some are over 8 feet tall and they never fall over, but they are not the most attractive.
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteI used to use the same as Tina, concrete reinforcing wire, yes ugly. Now we use recycled 4 foot fencing from Meg's house that we took down and put up a picket fence.
I should try planting tomatoes. Then maybe I'll better understand the talk here. The spiral wire looks nice, though. I hope they work well for you.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen those. Please post some pics of them through the season as your tomatoes grow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog, Heather! These cages should work great as long as you prune out some suckers/limit the size, or are growing determinates. Please keep us updated!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather, I've always use 8' green stakes as they take up less room in storage plus they work really well for me. BUT I only grow cherry tomatoes. I usually plant 3 in a triangle about a ft. apart, tying a stake to the main leader using twisties, (connect 2 to make longer), tying in a figure 8 so you don't choke the stem as they get larger. As the plants branch out, add stakes where needed (sometimes 5-8 for me). It really keeps the stems upright and fruit off the ground. I do alot of pinching off of the leaves that form under the new branch to keep the weight off too. This probably sounds confusing..and I'm sure you'll be getting plenty of other input. That is what's great with our blogging friends.
ReplyDeleteLynn
I've never used them. I've tried triangular green cages the last few years. Our growing season isn't that long here and besides cherry tomatoes the varieties I've grown only get about 4 feet tall.
ReplyDeleteLet us know how they work.
I just looked at these in a garden catalog today, and wondered how they would work. Be sure to let us know! I have used metal fence posts, with Tomato web attached for the plant to grow up through, and it has been my best system, but Tomato web is no longer available, so I'm looking for other options, too.
ReplyDeleteThose look interesting Heather! I hope they will work for you. Last year I bought 9' wooden stakes and 11' metal stakes (covered w/green plastic). I had the tomatos in pots on my deck, surrounded by a metal cage. They grew up out of the cage, thus the need for all of those stakes. The stakes were stuck directly into the pots, and they all seemed to do ok. Only when there was a VERY strong wind or storm did the pots topple over; otherwise, their 'somewhat' top-heaviness did not cause any problems. I might look for your new holders. I'm not much of a veggie gardener or even very experienced w/tomatos, for that matter! But I'm enjoying the 'show' from other garden bloggers (like you, of course)!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather~~
ReplyDeleteI echo your other posters in that I'm curious to see how they will work for you. Although I'm pretty much a cherry tomato gal, the cages I've employed, (like you, I've tried them all) have been only moderately adequate. My cherry tomato plants love to grow and flop.
These spiral cages definitely look interesting. One of my concerns while studying the picture is how to keep it secured in the ground. The stake used looks small considering its task. I'm wondering if a heavy brick will be needed to hold it down, keep it from slipping up out of the ground. Just a thought. I'll be very interested to see your results. It's always enjoyable to read your blog.
It'll be interesting to see how these new cages work.
ReplyDeleteWe have some rather short and bendy cages that don't work that well, but they're better than nothing, lol. I always mean to try something different with the tomatoes but haven't gotten around to trying anything yet. I need to though; I lose about half of my crop from the branches weeping to the ground.
A new gadget! I've not seen these before, although they look exactly like the little x-mas trees we put up in our yard during the winter. Those are a pain to secure to the ground so I'll be curious to see how these work for you. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather,
ReplyDeleteI finally made it over here to your blog. Thanks so much for visiting Hoe and Shovel. Congrats on the 1 year old birthday... she is a cutie.
I only use stakes for my tomatoes. Have read lots of different reasons for the two methods cage vs. stakes and stakes won out for me. Some indeterminate varieties I planted last fall were really difficult to keep up with- lots of folding over and flopping going on... then lots of tying. For those I used 7 foot stakes.
Hope you like your new spiral cages.
Meems @ Hoe and Shovel
Hi Heather,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by my blog!
We have only used stakes so far for our 'maters but your little coils look really interesting. I think this year we will be going with stakes again in our greenhouse because we should have enough of them for those plants already - and outside, well we're going to have to come up with something to build or buy - so do let us know how these work out for you!
Planning to do tons of canning with our tomatoes also this year - growing Romas for that. We've got Big Rainbow, Druzba, Brandywine, Gardener's Delight & Fresh Salsa tomatoes growing too. What is your tomato of choice?
I used them for some tomatoes I was growing in containers. They looked great, but I can't imagine that they would work for larger plants. I've since moved away from tomatoes (my neighbor always grows too many ;->) and have given the cages away. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHeather, I agree with you. They look very attractive. But have concerns with their strength and width. The cages are on my mind too as something is needed, but what the heck looks decent?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather and readers...
ReplyDeleteThe issue with these spirals is, you still have to purchase a support stake (additional cost) and like someone above said, you end up tying the plant to the spiral anyway (more work). I use a very simple stake that I found from TheTomatoStake.com
Cheap, much easier to use, as you only have to tie the main stem, and the support ties are included.
I have used these for 2 years now and love them.
Take a peek... and good luck!
Oops.. correct link is www.Thetomatostake.com
ReplyDeleteI used one of these last year. I will use it again but probably won't buy more. The height is nice but it was too narrow at the top. This year I am looking for something tall and square. I grow indeterminates and needed to do a lot of pruning near the top with this support.
ReplyDeleteOups, I forgot! My husband planted a few weeks ago tomatoes. Let's hope I will have tomatoes at least for one salad, hehe!
ReplyDeleteThis device that you want to test looks very nice and interesting. I will try to find out it here or to improvise something that looks the same.
Thanks for the tip!