tomato cages/pictures

13 years ago

Here are two of my tomato cages.

My tomatoes are in large pots with 5 foot cages. They are not tall enough, so we have to make provisions for them from this time in the year until fall. But until now they have worked out fine.

After my husband cut the concrete wire, we put them around the pots, and secured them with the ends. When we are finished, we can lift them over the pots or unwind the wire. We made them a little large so that the wide part of the pot would not catch them.

I have two sections of the yard with 10 of these cages in each. I have been happy with them because my time in the yard is limited. Today I must water. I can easily spray them off or water them, and not worry about their sitting in a puddle of water. If you look carefully in the top picture, you can see 3 of the drainage holes that my husband drilled. These are spaced all around the lower outside of the pot. The bottom of the pot can always get clogged.

I just thought I would share.

Sammy

Comments (11)

granygreenthumb
13 years ago
Sammy,

Thanks for sharing your pics with us. They look great. Nice healthy plants.

Teresa
joellenh
13 years ago
What a great idea! To the left of and behind my little statue is my system. These particular plants are stunted (blight) but you get the idea.

{{gwi:1117706}}

Jo
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sammy zone 7 Tulsa
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks, Teresa.
Jo, I love your statue.

I forgot to mention that this is our second year to use them.
marcy3459
13 years ago
Good idea, Sammy.

As Carol mentioned, I have my tomatoes planted between two cattle panels set about 18 inches apart. The tomatoes are planted about 18 inches apart from each other. The panels are zip-tied to 1/2" electrical conduit which is $2.00+ for a 10-foot length at Lowe's. It can be cut to length with one of those hand-held tube cutters. The plants have hidden a lot of the contraption. Hope you can see the idea.

The first picture shows you my other two cattle panel arches, the first of which holds an heirloom rose and the second one holds my Savor Charentais melons, which is an experiment this year. I plan to bag the melons with bird netting as they become heavy and tie them up to the panel. Hope this discourages the coons and possums. We'll see. I'm skeptical.

Anyway, I LOVE CATTLE PANELS!! And for you gals who are concerned about handling them by yourselves, it can be done. Just be careful and get the right tools.

Marcy
crm2431
13 years ago
Sammy
I can't tell for sure but I assume those are 5 gal buckets?

Charlie
sammy zone 7 Tulsa
Original Author
13 years ago
They are 20 inch pots. They are very close to the size of the 1/2 whiskey barrels. They do look like buckets, but they are really quite large and expensive. LOL

Sammy
joellenh
13 years ago
Those arches are GORGEOUS!

Jo
sammy zone 7 Tulsa
Original Author
13 years ago
Marcy, could you show more pictures of your cattle panels?
We used rebar that we tied together, and put hardware cloth over the top. Now we have 2 bird nests, and some corn cobs sitting on the hardware cloth. I also am lost when it comes to pruning my climers that are on that structure.

Sammy
swokiedokie
13 years ago
Marcy, what do you have growing on the arches? They are beautiful.
Kathy
marcy3459
13 years ago
Sammy and Kathy,

I took some more pictures. Hope I am letting you see what you want to see.

We took 4x4 posts and buried them, leaving about 42-48 inches above ground. Then took the chain saw, and made a groove in the middle of each 4x4 to tuck the ends of the cattle panel into, then bolted them in. That gave me 8 feet of clearance underneath the arbor..

As you can see, I don't have anything but the panel holding the rose. Whenever a branch needs weaving or tucking, I weave or tuck, but that's it.

You can see how I planted the rose just at the base of the panel, but the panel is about three feet above the ground, so had to twine the rose until it reached the panel. This rose is a Francois Juranville, Sammy, and has very flexible canes. The best part is it is self cleaning, so I don't have to trim spent blooms. No BS, no JB's on it, it is carefree to the ultimate. And this plant in the pictures is in its second year, planted last spring as an own-root BAND!!! And I mean a stick. That's why I protected it by burying a pot in the ground with the bottom cut out of it. Can you believe it?!!

And Kathy, here is what is on the downhill arbor, Savor Charentais melons:

I took more pictures, but didn't want to post them all so if you have questions, let me know. Oh, by the way, there are two roses planted on each side of this arbor, Sammy.

Marcy
owiebrain
13 years ago
Marcy! How incredibly beautiful! I hope you don't mind if I save one of those pics (the one showing the two arches) to my computer in a "inspiration" folder I keep of idea I'd like to copy?

Diane