[Shapshftr]

Like most others here I used to use round cages. Initially I used the store bought ones that are way too short and small in diameter. Then I moved up to making my own with rolls of 5 ft wide concrete reinforcing mesh. Even these were too small in diameter, and needed to be staked to keep them upright in the wind. Sometimes staking didn't even keep them upright when the plants were big and top heavy. I had many plants get damaged or destroyed in them when we get 40 to 50 mph winds.

Then one day I decided I needed a better way because the plants were too confined to get good air circulation to prevent fungal infections. It was also a pain pulling the tomatoes through them. I grow big maters. So it dawned on me that tomatoes are vining plants and are designed to sprawl out horizontally, not vertically. I had never seen any type of horizontal trellises for maters, so I searched online for hours. I finally came across a post by a guy who had the same idea. So I copied his plans for the most part. He had raised wooden beds so he nailed or screwed 2x2s to them for upright posts.

Instead I pounded metal fence posts in the ground and attached the 2x2s to them with tie wire. Rather than the 5 ft wide rolled concrete mesh, I bought the 4x8 ft sheets of it. I then made a 4x8 frame out of 2x2s with a center cross member for added rigidity. Then the mesh was attached to the frames with fence staples. The panels are supported from the posts by ropes that simply go through holes drilled through the posts, and are tied around a small piece of dowel rod on the outsides. Then you lift and set the panels in between the posts that are spaced 6 ft apart lengthwise, and a little more than 4 ft apart width wise. This is because the 2x2's that run across the width of the panels are 4 ft, making the panels roughly 51 inches across. So the panels just hang in a sort of hammock style fashion with just the ropes supporting them.

The posts are 8 ft high, so I can hang 3 panels, up to about 7 feet. The reason for using ropes to hold them up was so you can raise the panels as the plants grow, by simply pulling the ropes through the outside farther and tying them up higher. I found that while in theory that sounded good, it really doesn't work well once the plants have grown up through them and are very bushy. So I just add up to 3 panels as needed as the plants grow. This takes a lot of garden space so isn't feasible for small gardens. However you could plant 2 plants to a panel section, instead of one in the center like I do. I have them all set up end to end in a long row.

To me this is the ideal way to trellis tomatoes. They get lots of air flow to prevent fungal infections. And you can easily reach in between the panels to pick the fruit, spray with any types of sprays you may need, search for bugs, etc. No more plants falling over, no more vines going sideways through the cages and bending down to the ground from the weight of the fruits. You can help train the branches up through the mesh as they grow, and they will lay on the panels as they bear fruit. Once they are grown through the squares of the panels they are totally protected from wind.