What cages are you using that are "worthless"? There are tons of discussions here about all the various types of supports - CRW cages are the most popular, Florida weave, string lines, Texas Tomato cages ( great but expensive), and many other commercial cages etc. The only truly worthless tomato cages IMO - which really aren't tomato cages - are those 3-4 ring things they sell but even they can be made to work when stacked and staked.

Dave

Tomato cage discussions

Tomatoes grow last year 15' ft. high, and some even 20 ft.

I will echo what Dave said about those flimsy commercial cages. The largest are too small. But you take a medium size one, and invert it on top of a large one (there are matching diameter rings, which you tie together with twist-em wire) and you have a decent six-foot high cage. They are extremely portable, from season to season. Not great, and still a bit small (especially for cherries), but if you know someone who has invested in a set of those and decided to move on, grab 'em.

If you don't want to take the trouble to build something, stacked commercial cages are pretty much all ready to go. Just buy 'em and slap 'em together.

Daniel has a nice set up/ system.
I just use wooden (cedar) stakes, mostly about 5ft tall. Then I weave between them too. After that I just let them drape.

I use the CRW suspended between 8' T stakes. It works fine...but there sure is a lot of tying and clipping to support the plants. I want to pull the trigger on the Texas Tomato Cages...but they are not cheap!

Fireduck, I bought the Texas Tomato cages about 10 or 12 years ago and they are still in perfect shape. They are expensive, but have been a great investment. And they fold up and store very nicely. When I switched to container gardening a few years back I bought the extensions, which add another 2 feet. If I grew a lot of tomato plants it probably would have been cost prohibitive. But in any given year I only grow at most 12. Here's my set up without the extensions on yet.. But I still have to do some tying.

Here you go - hundreds of pics of various types of tomato support structures.

Tomato support ideas

Wow Dave! Great pictures and hundreds of ways to support them!

Thanks Dave,
From that link I got this picture.
That is almost how I do it, Staking and weaving combination

jenniedhs - very nice setup you have there! Are those the brown boxer Root Pouches? What size are those? I have been looking at those very items.

Wormgirl, yes they are the boxer brown root pouches. I just got them this year and was surprised how sturdy they are. I got the 20 gallon, but debated for a long time on 15 or 20. 20 gal. takes a lot more potting mix, but I am not watering nearly as much as I thought I would have to. If you decide to get these, the ones with handles are the way to go. The handles are strong and sturdy enough to move a pouch filled with wet mix to another spot.

Thanks Jennie, that's incredibly helpful. I had been eyeing the 15 gallon ones but I love how the 20 gallons fit in your cages. I suppose hooking up a watering system would be the ultimate!

What kind of mix are you using in them?

Thanks Wormgirl. I am sort of flying by the seat of my pants this year with these fabric containers. It's a real learning curve after using #15 nursery pots before and having that down pat. I have a drip system, but I have only watered by hand so far to see how much water these need. I tried the 5-1-1 mix years ago. In my hotter climate that mixture would dry out way too fast and it was just too much work. I switched to Miracle grow the last few years and was really happy with that. This year our local nursery started carrying ProMix BX in compressed bales. When expanded, it worked out to be cheaper than Miracle Grow, so I bought that as these 20 gallon pots take a lot of potting mix. I sometimes wish I had gotten the 15 gallon because of this. My totally unscientific mix this year was 3 parts ProMix BX (to make the mix more water retentive) to 1 part pine fines, sold by my local nursery as soil conditioner for only 3.99 for 2 cubic feet (which reduced the over all cost even more). This mix seems to be more water retentive than Miracle Grow, so I think I will be happy with this. The tomatoes sure are loving it. Probably in your location, you don't need to worry so much about water retention as I do in the southeast.

Nourse and others sell Agrigel, which is the ticket for water retention. Just a quarter cup mixed with 10 gal. of PromixBX helps me avoid constant watering of potted tomato plants that I sell. The Agrigel is an essential preplant dip for barefoot transplants like strawberries.

For tomato support a high tunnel frame might be a cheaper per plant alternative than many of those expensive panel cages or lattices. The frame provides a "Skyhook" to allow a simple stringline to provide needed plant support.

barrie, that is quite a nice set up. I haven't heard of Agrigel. Did a quick internet search and it is pricey. Do you mix it into the ProMix dry? I have been reading on the container forums about calcined diatomaceous earth that is good for water retention. Rather than jump right in with my tomatoes, I am trying it on my window boxes which are under the eaves and get little water and the flower pots on the covered back porch. I am pretty impressed with the results so far. But I need to learn more about it before I use it in my tomato containers.

barrie, niiiiice.

what varieties did you plant ?

What do you use to affix the tomato vines to the support structure?

Oh and Daniel, those setups you have are truly amazing.

L.G.

Jen, the Agrigel does seem pricey but a 15 lb. box will go a long way. You want to use it sparingly and mix well (I prefer dry) .I believe it will hold 100 times its volume in water, just an amazing material.

Dan, that structure has 73 varieties, mostly hybrid, 540 tomato plants. An adjoining structure has almost as many varieties, all heirloom with only 92 tomato plants. I'm selling potted plants of over 250 varieties so I just can't list them all. Should start picking some within a week while still have not planted determinate varieties in field (37*F here an hour ago).

Lynn, tomato clips, little black plastic " hickies" (@ $.01) hold vine to stringline. Stringline is attached and wrapped around tomahook, a hanging wire hook that allows tomato plants to be lowered to reachable heights as they grow. Maybe I can show a better pic:

Barrie, ..You have a nice high tunnel and stringing should work fine.
You you prune ?

Sey

Everything is suckered to one stem. When planting at that density suckering is not an option if one wants to prevent foliar diseases. One extension horticulturist who stopped by thought density was still too high but it has worked well for many years and it utilizes every square foot of space inside that have cost me 4 cords of wood to heat (+ 40 # propane) this spring.

Suckering has other benefits. Picking ripe tomatoes is much easier and less time consuming and overall fruit quality is better.

Thanks Barrie, that is what I thought.
I grow in raised beds, densely too. I stake and prune to about 2 (maybe 3) stems. Also all the leave branches lower than the first truss eventually are pruned.
Of course, the above is for indets. With the dets I just prune the very lowest LB and the laterals, for better air circulation.

Sey