That's a neat idea, Timfish. Were your cages wide enough for all of your tomatoes?

That is a great idea. Always wanted them taller.

"are a pain to deal with storing them in the off season. "

You aren't kidding. I nest them together to save space. It's like wrestling alligators getting them apart! I love you idea. I will try is with my next batch, if I go that route. They are supposed to last forever, but here in Florida, they are getting rusted pretty thin in some spots. Year 5 or 6 I think. Worth the cost I guess, but definitely not a 'forever' thing. Also, the rust rubs the plants too much. Damages the stems (Plastic drinking straws slit down the middle and slipped over the wire in strategic spots helps with that). Storing them flat like you say will allow me to keep them in the shed out of the weather for half the year.

It seems like instead of square, you could have them in more of a diamond shape. Wide enough for stability. The plants do not need all that interior volume. Then you could have the ends of the diamonds tied together in a tomato cage 'fence' arrangement. I always have trouble with my indeterminate coiling up and squatting down in the round cage. Flatter diamond cage may help. That's more like a traditional pole and twine arrangement. Two dimensional.
Thanks for the inspiration timfish!

Vance,

I also thought about the triangle effect, the draw-back is that then you would have to dismantle one side to get the cage to fold flat. Not that that would be painful but just another chore. In Florida I can understand why toms wouldn't want to reach for the moon with your extremely hot summer days and humidity to boot. I'm from NW Iowa and with the right variety by September you can't even see the 2' X 2' cages. If your tomato vines struggle to climb you might think of making a smaller square, just a thought :)

That drinking straw is a great idea as well, I'm going to have to give that a try this year, thank!

Tim

Hi Tim, Sounds like a pretty neat idea. I have not used CRW because it rusts. Have you been able to find any that is galvanized? Last year I used galvanized fencing with a 1" X 4" mesh (the largest I could find), and put it up as a straight fence. I raised it on the posts so that I got the extra height. I was then able to weave the vines through the fence as they grew. That worked pretty well, but the 6 X 6 mesh of the CRW would be better.
John A

John,

I've never seen or heard of galvanized reinfocement wire but it sure would be nice! I can see where your 1X4" openings could cause some problems, do your tomatoes try to grow arround the wire sometimes? I agree, the CRW cages will rust but I can't say it's been a real problem for me. I know some people will wash their cages with bleech to prevent fungus but bleech is also an oxidizer which will accelerate the rusting... What to do??? :)
I just put up with it, but it could be a sourse of blite problems as well.

Tim

Your cages sound great. I had been hesitating to go the CRW route just because of storage issues. Now I have my request in for the scrap CRW behind my husband's office building. A concrete contractor recently moved out of the nearby warehouse and is not going to be cleaning up anymore of his stuff. I'm hoping it shows up at our home on Valentine's Day. Told my husband it would be a great present with a great great tag :)

Tim, A few tomatoes do grow around the wires, but that hasn't been a real big problem. I just cut them away when they ripen. The biggest problem with the small mesh is to thread the vines through before they get too big.
John A

It's easy to nestle 8-10 CRWs cages together. Drive two concrete reinforcing rods into the soil. hook one side of cage over one rod then stretch cage over other rod, then slip next cage into first cage and repeat, and keep doing that until no more cages will fit.

I happened to be on the topic of various ways to make trellis structures for climbing beans, peas or even cucumbers. Some nifty creations were being done using ' cattle panel ' and T-poles to secure them.
This lead me to your discussion here.
Concrete wire seems quite similar to cattle panel commonly used for various farm yard enclosures. The difference is that the cattle panel doesn't rust ( to my knowledge ) therefore might a solution for your use.
Here is a link showing some various uses ...

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ozarks/msg0214553917594.html

I hope the link works for you. If go to Ozarks Region Forum and search for " Cattle Panel for Pole Bean " dated Feb. 20/07
Also try a google search for cattle panel.

kanuk

Here's another link discussing various uses for cattle panel.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/hpgal0303295610237.html

Can you guess what I'll be using in my next garden project!! lol

kanuk

Kanuk,

You hit the nail on the head!
Cattle panels will work the same way as CRW but if you are out to make 10 - 20 cages you may have to motgage the ranch! :)
But really, that would be the Cadilac way.

Tim

Tim,

I'm glad cattle panels could solve the rust problem but sorry to hear they're expensive. Based on the various ways I've seen other people using them in their gardens I thought I could use some panels for various projects. Somehow I got the impression that they are affordable. Doesn't anything good come cheap anymore!!!
Back to the drawing board...or back to the bank.

kanuk

kanuk

FWIW, here's how I use my cattle panels, don't have to worry a minute about how to store them flat!

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No cages and the panels just held upright by two wooden stakes. They're VERY sturdy and stable. I tie my tomatoes (in the background) to them as well as my melons. In this arrangement, the panels are four feet wide by 8 feet tall, more height than is actually needed. This year I'm going to use them turned the other way, though I'll elevate them about a foot on the stakes so the plants can get at least five feet sky-high before having to head down the other way. With one 4 x 16' cattle panel, you can support 8 tomatoes, maybe more, if you plant on both sides of the panel.

Here are the tomato plants before they grew ten feet tall!

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anney ~ Thx for sharing photos of your set up. I'm still sold on the cattle panels and your photos support that notion. How price-y are they? I haven't sourced it out here as I need to find a supplier ( probably a farm co-op ).
I take it the standard size is 4'X16' panels. Obviously they serve your purpose well anney. And no rust either right!?

Kanuck

The 16 x 4' panels cost about $20.00 apiece in this part of the states. And no, no rust, and the openings are large enough that only melons can get stuck in them if you don't guide them away from the open square. But since the melons were mostly eye-height, they were easy enough to spot and redirect if they looked like they were permanently settling in one of those squares!

anney ~ Alright that makes it final. You've made up my mind for me. LOL ... about the melons!! You grow a great looking garden BTW.
Thanks for sharing. You've been a great help & inspiration.

kanuk

The cattle panels seem like the way to go for pure economics and ease of storage and less exposure to rusty sharp edges. It is easier to store a flat object than a round one. A few T-Post and a cattlepanel and you can grow several tomato plants on it. I would think 7-9 indeterminate plants.
Tractor supply has some nice 52'x16' panels for ~20 bucks

Great idaes.