6 Ways to Build Your Own Tomato Cages

Although a near-necessity for growing tomatoes, tomato cages are often as fancy, homemade, or as economical as you’d like. If you’ve got some spare materials, you’ll avoid making a visit to the shop before making your own tomato cages. but, if you’re looking to upgrade your typical cages to ones which will outlast even you, you’ll get to part ways with a piece of your wallet. Either way, we present a spread of DIY tomato cages for the thrifty and spendthrift alike. Share your own DIY cages! 

BAMBOO CAGES

If your property is lucky (or unfortunate, counting on how you view it) enough to possess fast-growing bamboo, you’ve got a free and endless supply of tomato cage framing material. Creating tomato cages from bamboo requires little or no time and energy. First, make 4 holes within the soil about 8 inches deep. Next, insert a 40-inch-tall vegetable into each hole. You now have the frame of your cage.

You’ll want to tie climbing support posts (made of shorter bamboo pieces) two or three levels high, counting on the variability and heartiness of tomato . to connect bamboo to bamboo, use yarn, fish line, or twine. Your bamboo cage may last years, but expect the decomposition where bamboo touches soil and, potentially, the tie material you employ . for extended-lasting cages, use plastic around the bamboo posts that sit in the soil and use an inorganic tie like a fish line.

PVC CAGES

This method will take more planning, effort, time, and dollars. However, PVC cages will provide lasting sturdiness for growing tomato plants. The concept is simple: connect many PVC pipes together using elbows, ensuring the cage itself is secure to the bottom.

The application may be a bit harder. First, you’ll need to visualize or prolong, the planning in your head. How tall will they be? what percentage runs will appear along the way? The subsequent step maybe a trip to the shop to urge enough PVC piping to make as many tomato cages as desired. The trickier part is going to be determining what percentage elbows you’ll need per cage. If it’s easier, cut your PVC first, do a mock assembly and tally the needed elbows as you “build.”

LEARN MORE: Vegetable Gardening Basics

ALL WOOD

If you’ve got extra lumber sitting around, you’ll potentially whomp up several all-wood tomato cages. These strong and durable cages are excellent keepers for strong tomato plants which may otherwise bend wire cages or, worse, squish their soft fruits into oblivion.

You’ll need four long, strong stakes to insert into the soil. Dig holes for every one of those posts. The stakes are often as high as you favor. From there comes the straightforward task of nailing side support beams at various intervals to the peak of the stakes. Once assembled, simply insert into your ground holes and secure with soil. the sort of wood you employ will determine the strength and lifespan of your cage. you would possibly want to avoid softwoods like cedar, fir, pine, redwood, or spruce.

METAL PIPES

This design involves plastic tubes, but has already provided a PVC option, we expect a metal structure would be an incredible alternative. just like the PVC method, this cage would require some foresight but will moreso require power tools.

Pick up three metal pipes from your local ironmongery shop. they’ll get to move the specified height. These pipes will form the stakes and will be 1-2 inches wide. Smaller pipes also will be necessary to make the cross-support beams; these pipes should be about ½ an in. wide. Drill holes within the stakes that allow you to slip the smaller beams through, cross-wise. Once you dig your holes, insert the stakes and support beams.

If you’re especially handy, you would possibly even be ready to attach an irrigation system to the pipes.

THE STAKE-A-CAGE

If you lack bamboo or excess lumber, here may be a method for creating wire tomato supports. You’ll particularly like this method if you favor wire cages or have an outsized quantity of tomato plants growing. This method isn’t a cage, per se, but more of a flat support panel. Although this DIYer claims the cage only costs $2, this is often only true if you’ve got coop or other wire mesh readily available to repurpose. If you don’t, you’ll get to buy a roll, and this will be quite costly.

Once you’ve got secured your wire supply, dig rectangular grids of the desired size. Nail one grid to a centralized wood stake: this might be a fallen branch or discarded lumber. rock bottom portion of the stake must remain uncovered for you to insert the stake securely into the bottom. confirm your grid doesn’t extend much above your stake otherwise you may experience grid bowing.

THE TOMATO-LOVER’S TRELLIS

You have to actually love tomatoes (or other vine produce) to undertake this DIY method. While not overly difficult, this method is semi-permanent; while it is often disassembled, it won’t come down without some force and destruction. make certain you’ve got picked the right spot for your tomatoes before attempting to create.

This beautiful 16-foot long structure features 12-inch raised-bed edges and 8-foot support beams (two feet are within the ground). Over the highest are multi-use curved PVC pipes: you’ll prefer to install an irrigation system otherwise you can use the hoops to drape plastic, as this DIYer has. By the time the builder is completed, the structure is surrounded by roll-up netting and draped plastic. His tomatoes will grow a minimum of six feet tall, which is why he installed clothesline-type vine support at the highest of the structure.

6 Ways to Build Your Own Tomato Cages

2 thoughts on “6 Ways to Build Your Own Tomato Cages

Leave a Reply

Scroll to top

Discover more from DIY Gardens

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading