Veggie-Cages

[Noreaster]

Has anyone tried these......if so, did they work ?

Am thinking about discarding my current use of wooden trellises....which would get in the way of the red plastic mulch that we'll try next year to help keep all the darned WEEDS out. Yukkkk !

http://www.tomato-cages.com/

[TomatoDon]

Get concrete re-enforcing wire. Nothing on the market is better. Make it your own size and way. Cheaper and better.
Don

[RPostley]

Amen, to making your own remesh cages. Mine are about 18" in diameter and 6 1/2' tall. To see how I do it, go to http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2007...ato_cages.html

Have fun!

[mdvpc]

I used them one year and had a bad experience-they really didnt work for me at all. If you dont want to make your own cages, tgs has some for sale-I have had mine for 10 years.

[Worth1]

You might try Texas tomato cages I have seen them in operation and they are a good product.

But of course you may not need them as the tomatoes in Texas get so much bigger.

http://www.tomatocage.com/

Worth

[greggf]

Try the TX tomato cages - ours are in great shape after many, many seasons (no rust!!).

[BigdaddyJ]

Here's another vote for Texas Cages. They don't rust, fold flat for easy storage and are twice the thickness of homemade concrete wire ones. My concrete wire cages need additional support because my plants get huge without pruning. My Texas cages never need extra support. Plus, you save the cost of bandages trying to make your own cages by yourself with that rusty concrete wire...

[wilderness1989]

I made concrete reinforcement wire cages this year (I have grown tomatoes for 40 years and always used snow fence cages) and had trouble with them falling over, they were not staked, we live in the country in the wind. This year it will be Texas Cages for sure.

[feldon30]

Alas Texas Tomato Cages are $21.40 each including shipping. 24 tomato cages would be $513.80. I seriously considered plunking down the cash but it was just too pricey for me. The convenience, sturdiness, and ease of storage of them cannot be underestimated though.

I buy rolls of galvanized fence material (the stuff with 2" x 4" holes) and then use wire ties to prop one side of the fence material open about 1'. 150 feet of 5' galvanized fence costs about $140 for 24 cages.

It didn't take me long to make these cages. One secret is to roll out the cage material and walk on it with sandals or shoes to flatten it out enough that it's not fighting with you when you're making the cages. Bully has posted pictures of this method with the two open ends of each cage secured to T-stakes. I secured the cages by tying them to each other with small wire ties. I then added a couple of screws to my raised beds and used wire ties to tie the cages to those screws.



Click for Larger Size


Click for Larger Size

[jwr6404]

Feldon, I use the2"x4" fencing as you. Living in the PNW I cover them with 6 mil clear vinyl plastic using 4"cable ties. I plant in large pots and make the cages 6" in diameter larger than my pots essentially creating a mini,one pot only, greenhouse. This allows me to start my plants early.I remove the wrap in June.This year I used the Walls of Water instead of the wrapped cages and had the worst Tomato season ever. Co-incidence or not I will not do that again.

[TomatoDon]

Being on the farm there just seemed to be CRW handy, so that's what I used. I've made about 60-70 cages I guess and that would have been mighty expensive to buy comercially made.

And you do have to stake them. I have a fence post on the ends of the raised beds and run clothes wire through the cages to hold them in place. If not, the wind will most likely topple them, which I've had happen in the past.

Don

[BigdaddyJ]

feldon, my math shows the large Texas cage @ $21.40 each with shipping. I have no need for the 2' extenders. They are already 6 feet tall and my plants will grow up about 8 feet and then start growing down again and the Texas cage works fine.

I own 12 of the Texas cages and 8 of the homemade concrete wire ones that are 5' tall and average about 21" circumfence. So I have had a few years of experience watching how both perform. Concrete wire ones are good if you also support them with a strong stake or rebar. Texas cages are way better though and without need of extra support!

How much would the concrete wires ones come too if you added up how much your time was worth to go buy the concrete wire rolls, cost of the wire rolls, bring them home and make the cages? Plus the gasoline to get to the store and back?

For us non handymen these Texas Cages are great!

[Worth1]

I am a handy man and I have checked out the price of building my own cages and this is what I came up with.
The T posts where going to cost me $5.00 each and I figured I would need two of them.

That’s $10 a cage right there not including all of the other costs involved,

Then there is the fact the all of the stuff I saw was 4 feet tall and some of my plants got to 15 feet so I would need extensions for the cages.
More work more wire and more trouble!

Then the trouble of making them and putting them away in the winter and so forth pretty much sealed the deal for me.

One of the main factors is my wife; I really have to make it easy for her to work with the plants.
She is not in the best of health and she is always worried she will do something wrong.

So the other cages are fine and if that’s what folks want to do then so be it.
I’m not trying to push anything off on anyone; it is their own business what they do.

I just feel the Texas tomato cages will cost me less money and less trouble in the long run for a much better product than I can make for the same price.

This is coming from someone that thought they where so much, (hog wash) 3 years ago.

Worth

[BigdaddyJ]

Worth I agree exactly. That's how I see it too. I could have a way more expensive hobby like golf! I love to garden and want the good stuff. We all make value judgements all the time. Should I buy the cheap wine or the good stuff? The generic paper plates or name brand? For those that enjoy the making of the cages as much as their use I totally recommend they make their own and those cages are fine.

But if someone campares only the quality and not the cost of concrete wire's vs the Texas it's no contest. The Texas rule supreme. Maybe only those who actually use and own both kinds like I do can appreciate the difference. But it is a huge difference!

[Suze]

As some may know here, I am a fan of the Tx cages and have accumulated quite a few over the last few years. Part of why I opted to go with these instead of using CRW is I've known for a few years that I would be moving, and to get movers to move 150+ CRW cages would have been extremely impractical and expensive. That is, if I could have even gotten them to do it -- rust and all (liability). With the Tx cages, when it was time to move, all I had to do is neatly bundle 5-6 sections together with cable/zip ties for ease of loading.

Yes, they are expensive, but based on how they've held up for me (I've had some for a few years now, and they still perform and look just as good as newer ones I've acquired), these are likely the last cages I will ever need to buy. As others have mentioned, ease of use and storage is also a major factor for me.

I'd like to offer my opinion about the extensions. I don't care for them and don't feel they are necessary. I do have a six pack, and did try them out this year. I won't be using them in the future, though.

The reason why is that it is almost impossible for me to pick the tomatoes on top unless I get a ladder out. I've also found that stability of the cage isn't quite as good, and did have to stake a couple of the ones that had extensions this year. It also makes the plants harder to pull. I am only 5'6", a taller person might have a different experience, especially if they don't have foot high raised beds.