Frugal Heavy Duty Tomato Cages

Are you tired of buying tomato cages that are not big enough to actually support the tomato plants? Tired of them falling apart and having to buy new ones each year? Do you struggle with tomato plants that don’t grow in circles?

Much like my strawberry bed, these came about, because I wanted to use something we had around the farm.

Last year our tomatoes grew out of their cages and the cages all fell apart. We had just bought them, so we were a bit grumpy over this. So, through the winter, I brainstormed ideas to use for tomato cages that would not fall apart, would mostly contain our tomatoes, and be fairly easy to set up. One afternoon we were walking behind the machine shed, when I noticed a pile of wire cattle panels. I mentioned to my husband later that they would work for our tomatoes. He agreed, and about a month ago we set them up.

Each panel is 16 foot, therefore holding about four to five tomato plants. I use straight, round electric fence posts to help support each plant, put in at angles, through the sides of the panels.

You can see the fence post sticking out on the very right hand side of this picture.

It took my husband around thirty minutes to set these up, though he had a 2.5 year old and a sixteen month old helping.

Our tomatoes will be so much easier to pick this year. Our hopes are that they will be less disease prone, and have more even ripening. Do you have a gardening secret?

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