We've always used commercial tomato cages and they always seem to do the job poorly. Too short, and the vines simply out grow it or start sprawling sideways out of it. Last year we had seven* plants, two early girls, a black krim, two roma, a yellow pear cherry, and a regular cherry, and while they were all productive they were a bit of a mess to deal with for harvesting, weeding, and just plain working around.

I want to try something different this year. I was thinking of either a trellis, a florida weave, or one of those narrow tomato "ladder" things from gardener supply.

I'm only going to have four plants (1 early girl, 1 big beef, 1 super sweet 100 cherry, and 1 brandywine). I'm thinking the florida weave might be a good option, with two end t bars and two wooden stacks inbetween in the middle. What do you guys think? Is 18" adequete spacing using a florida weave? Should I consider other options?

*edited after I realized I can't count, we had seven, not six.

Found a picture online which is pretty much what we do:

Here's what my garden looked like last year in June.

Follow the link below for much more information.

I like the PVC cages because it looks like you could pull them apart for storing. Right? If they are glued together, they would take up lots of storage room. We make ours with concrete reinforcement wire and use them for tomatoes, fruit trees and beans. We store them outdoors but space isn't a problem for us here at our farm.

Seems to be working so far; everything looks happy and lush and I have some flowers. Not monster 12ft x 4ft plants like some people grow, but I'm thrilled. :)

They don't easily come apart sometimes. I have to pound
them with tools to undo them every fall. They're surprisingly
strong considering they're just pushed together.

I'd store the uprights in 5-gallon buckets, with the horizontal squares around the buckets (think ring-toss). [If I stored them indoors, I'd use cardboard boxes rather than buckets.]

Do you set the bottom connectors over rebar, so the cages don't fall over? Or tie them to the fence, or otherwise stabilize them?

I've read that the gray tubing is more UV-resistant than the white tubing. How do your cages fare, UV-wise?

My storage situation is in a very low crawl space under
the house. Only about 4 ft tall and access is through
a small window which is about 1 foot by 3 feet. It's
easier for me to break them down and store the uprights
horizontally.

I've put them back together so often that it only takes me
about 30 seconds to assemble each horizontal bit.

I pound the uprights into the ground 12 inches deep. Never
had one blow down yet. Of course, no hurricanes here in
SoCal either. But I did have an email from one guy who
did have a tropical storm (a real one downgraded from a
hurricane) come through. He had 3 different cages and
my design fared the best. The cages are actually quite
flexible, but sturdy.

I'm not sure what you're asking about the UV-resistance
of the pipe. Most of my pipes are over 20 years old and
they're holding up well. A few of them don't fit quite as
tight as most though. Could that be due to UV damage?
I just slap some tape on them to thicken them just a tad.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_353630-46086-737624_4294692213__?productId=3351530&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar:1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar:1&facetInfo=

I used two sheets, spaced 18" apart, held them up vertically with PVC pipes, zip tied... The 4ft tall height kept up with the plants until August, and even when the vines exceeded that height, letting them flow over the top/sides, worked out just fine. Plenty of strength. A 7ft length of CRW should be enough to hold 4-5 tomato plants, spaced 12-16" apart.

My side bed is in plain view of the street and I think my fussy neighbor across the street would have a conniption if I used PVC. Any suggestions for painting them? Or have you tried copper pipe? It's 10x more xpensive but if it's durable I don't mind! Maybe I'll make a copper stake this year and see how it weathers.

I bet that design could be used along with some trellis netting to make a tower for pole beans.

I've had no durability problems with the PVC. Some of
the pieces are over 20 years old.

I reuse those too every year. I have a big bag of them
just sitting there waiting.