If you would like the very best tasting tomatoes you can grow, Cathy Isom has a few great tips about how to build your own tomato cages. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
How to Build Your Own Tomato Cages
There is no better taste than your own home grown tomatoes. So why not give your garden the very best by building your own cages to help them grow properly. And to save yourself some money, do it yourself by building your own tomato cages. This will help your plants grow vertically, keep the plants off the ground and save space in your garden.
Wire cages are your best bang for your buck, ideally five foot high with six inch squares. Cut a 3 foot piece of fencing and roll into a circle, overlapping the ends and fastening them together with twine or old bread ties.
Another option, stick cages. They can be even cheaper (even free) and can be composted at the end of the growing season.
Another ultra-cheap, short-term method is to use four five-foot stakes, either scrap lumber or sturdy sticks.
A great tip for growing tomatoes well in cages is to put a five-gallon composting bucket in the center of the cage. Drill a few holes in the sides of the bottom third of the bucket, and bury that section underneath the soil.
I’m Cathy Isom…
Image credit: Flickr/Oregon State University
(bottom right) Flickr/by arpent nourricier