What About Tomato Cages?

Created on 4/20/2009

So tell me this. How are you going to stake your tomatoes this year? It seems the sprawling vines just keep growing all summer. Which, in fact, they do. Indeterminate varieties will keep growing, branching, producing leaves, producing suckers and flower clusters until frost or disease stops them. If you don’t figure it out those ‘Dinner Plate’ heirloom tomatoes will be languishing on the ground. Now is the time to think about it; the frost free date and time to set out the plants is just weeks away.

I can tell you what I am not doing. I am definitely not using those flimsy circular wire cages. First of all they are too... small and weak. Second of all, and this may be the most important consideration... they look ugly.

Last year I found large tree branches on my property and tied three of them together at the top with twine. I then twisted twine horizontally around the branches with the young tomato plant in the middle. This worked fairly well and I liked the rustic look in my garden.

A friend of mine doesn’t even use anything. She grows her tomatoes on a four foot retention wall. Her monster wall is filled with good garden soil. She plants the tomatoes on top and the boisterous vines just flow down the stone face.

Another friend peeks over her neighbor’s fence and admires his neatly staked plants. He pounds hefty six foot stakes in the ground and trains the vines to grow up them. Most afternoons he can be seen puttering around those vines meticulously pruning them, pinching and tying. He prunes all but one leader so his plants look trim. You get less, but larger fruit with this method.

This year I am using willow tee pees. I ordered six of them. The whole look is reminiscent of an English garden. These willow structures are about six feet tall and expandable at the bottom. They sit on top of the soil so I devised a way to fasten them to the ground. I cut a wire coat hanger into two pieces. That bent wire becomes the tent stake to hold the willow in place. I just pounded it into the ground, over a place where the willow wood is connected. I used three per tee pee. This is really a fancy tomato cage. I will still prune the side shoots and prevent the branches from drooping on the ground, but my hope is the willow ‘cage’ will allow my tomatoes to branch and spread all they want and still support the plant. My willow trellises are all set up and waiting for the tomatoes.

The elegant willow looks a lot cooler than feeble wire cages. I’ll let you know how it works out.