Last year I bought a roll of concrete wire, a pair of bolt cutter. I already had a heavy duty pair pliers. I think the roll was about $120 the bolt cutters were about $15. I made 10 cages for myself. I forget how many more I made from the roll. I sold them for $10 each on craigslist . It pretty much paid for the wire, and tools.

How do you store them off season?

In a corner of the lot behind the compost pile.

I store them standing up in the garden. I can put them over anything I grow in the off season. I can keep my cats from digging into areas I planted seeds in as well. I have a 4 month off season here. During that time I tend to go with cabbage and beets. I move the cages to harvest them.

I bought a crw roll, I believe from lowes, almost six years ago. It took me two years to make all my cages, I believe I got 18 or so from one roll. I took my time, it is good excercise and a little dangerous . There is a lot of recoil on the roll as you unwind it. Plan carefully (don't get speared). Once made, the crw cages are indestructible. I tried to make two sizes, wide and narrow, so during offseason I can double stack the narrow ones inside the big ones. I keep mine in corner of my fenced yard under a tree during fall/winter. They are nearly invisible from a distance.

Like the poster above pointed out, if you sell half of what you make, you can recover nearly all material costs. I like mine too much to sell them. And I am slow as Christmas making them, not really cost effective. I can make money quicker other ways (doodling).

I did the crw roll cages and bolt cutter system too, think I got about 20 cages from it. I use them in the garden year round so no need to store them for me. But I have been toying with the idea of making collapsible square crw cages, with each side being separate and then attaching them at the corners with zip ties or something so I'd only have to store them in flat panels. In my imagination I'd cut the bottom horizontal wire so that there would be "legs" to stick into the ground to help with stability. Haven't tried it yet, though.

Another vote for CRW cages. If you can't store them right in the garden for some reason just use hog clips or plastic tie wraps to tie the ends together rather than bending the wire. End of season snip the clips or tie wraps and store them flat piled on top of each other.

Dave

If I were going to make CRW cages I would make them slightly conical so I could insert them into one another. That would make storing easier.

Sey

Dh made CRW cages in 1987. I used them for about 15 years. They were a pain to store and looked like c*** after a few years. When we redid the garden in 2009 I bought 6 Texas Tomato Cages. They're incredibly easy to store (still using the original box) and haven't rusted. I've thought about ordering six more. I'll need a new cold frame next year and may treat myself to more cages at that time.

Another vote for buying a roll of crw and making your own. This way, you can make them as large in diameter as you see fit. I store mine back in the woods, on their sides, stacked on top of each other.

Like Janice says, you have to pay attention to the recoil when unwrapping the roll.

To avoid recoil roll it out longer and lay a heavy board on each side with two sections in between them. Wear gloves, long sleeves, and pants. Let the cut one roll up on itself, then pull it open. Use pliers to bend the wire. There are more than a few youtube videos on how to do it.

"What are other options that would require minimal storage in the off season?"

Why not leave the cages in place during the winter? The old tomato plants are easier to remove from the cages after they are dead and dry, in the Spring.

"The old tomato plants are easier to remove from the cages after they are dead and dry, in the Spring."

Because allowing the plants to overwinter in the garden provides survival fodder for many of the bacterial and fungal diseases. Good fall garden hygiene is one of the basic tenents of garden disease prevention and pest suppression.

Dave

Also, having to look at a yard full of dead plants and metal cages is exactly what op is trying to avoid.

Dont know what to tell you for cages, but for storage of large, unsightly garden things, I suggest either a collapsible shed (put it up in the off season for storage, take down in growing season) or find a spot in the yard that you can't ordinarily see and stack them there.

"Because allowing the plants to overwinter in the garden provides survival fodder for many of the bacterial and fungal diseases"

Oh no! I let my grass overwinter on my lawn!

Anyway, you are assuming that I don't rotate crops.

I use 3/4 inch PVC pipe. They are strong yet flexible and break down easily for storage. I get 20 cages in three 5 gallon buckets (not counting the long pieces). Here's a link to a page all about them. Or just put PVC in the search engine on this site.

PVC cage link

There's also a youtube video (not by me).

Even if you do rotate your crops, the dead plants ares still infecting your soil and the pathogens will be ready to attack your plants once you come back to this space. In addition, pathogens can migrate from one area of the soil to another, especially during hard rain.

Green manure does not infect my soil with pathogens. What's the difference?

Generally the diseases that affect your cover crop are not the ones that infect your tomatoes. Leaving vines to overwinter can lead to reinfection the following year.

I used CRW cages and instead of using one length to form the cylindrical shape, I used 3 shorter 'panels' and 'tied' them together with tying wire. Each panel is 3 squares wide, they are bent enough that when the 3 panels are put together, they form a nice circle.

In the winter the tying wire can be untwisted and the panels can be stacked flat on the ground, or leaned against a wall. They take up minimal space.

Downsides are that they take longer to make, and you don't get as many cages per roll of CRW. I saw one guy do it similarly by making each panel flat and tying them into triangle cages. They can be folded by just untying one corner of the triangle. I like the circles better, but to each their own...

Thanks for all of the input. I like the CRW cages but I think I'm going to try to go with cattle panels cut 18" by 18" squares and then I can hog ring the corners or zip tie and collapse for the winter. I do have a spot i could store them under my deck too.

Is 18x18" a good size or should I go different? I think the typical panel is 5' or 5'6" I'll have to look.

rgreen , .. That is the idea I was entertaining. Triangular, hinged .

Cage does not need to be round. The reason they make them round is for the ease of manufacturing.

Sey

I built some triangles out of rebar and I think square would be better, I'm not pleased with the triangle and pain to store, but strong. I think I'll sell those on craigslist

An old member here - korney - had some great cages made that were triangles made from cattle panels and some sort of galvanized fencing. They looked and worked great per the photos he posted. But 18" is too small IMO. It ends to compress and compact too much of the plant inside and breaks branches and makes harvesting difficult. I prefer 30" width but have a few that are only 24". They work ok in containers with some additional pruning.

Dave

PS: "Generally the diseases that affect your cover crop are not the ones that infect your tomatoes. Leaving vines to overwinter can lead to reinfection the following year."

Agree. And it is tomato plants and their issues we are talking about here, not lawn or ground covers so those arguments aren't relevant.