My first year in the garden, a main objective was maintaining natural beauty. I thought that using bamboo poles to stake the tomatoes would be oh so much nicer than an ugly metal cage. Ah, ideals, they sound so nice in theory. I did have some prize tomatoes that year, which I believe was the year that you could hardly buy a tomato in the store because of the major recalls involving e.coli in produce. As we were feasting on tomatoes in a year where most of America could hardly buy them, I realized how valuable it is to grow your own food. It was a vivid wake up call in how fragile the industrialized food system is and how much we take it for granted there will always be food to buy. Yet another plug for watching Food, Inc. if you have not already done so!
The bamboo worked well when the tomatoes were tiny.
The bigger the tomatoes grew, the more work and less stable the stakes were. Have I mentioned my quest for as much self maintenance as possible?
It seemed I was constantly tying up the tomatoes and the end result was just a mess. That is when I started making plans for the next year. The standard cage is too small and weak to support a thriving, indeterminate tomato plant. I have read about making your own cages out of concrete reinforcing wire, but I was not tackling that one solo and Matt wasn't feeling like donating a weekend (because projects that take others an afternoon, take us a weekend) to help me in making them. After much internet searching, I decided that investing in Texas Tomato Cages was the way to go. The online reviews did not lead me astray, they are worth every penny!!
Here are the cages with newly planted tomatoes. They are protected by floating row cover which I try to leave in place as long as possible to protect the plants from cold, wind and bugs. The cages are two pieces and I add the top half as they begin to outgrow the first half. In my 4'x8' beds I can fit 8 of the medium cages. I squeeze onions, basil and whatever else I can in the space around them.
This was taken near the end of the growing season last year. The tomatoes had spilled over the top of the 6' cages and grown at least 2-4 feet back towards the ground. Because I experimented in growing my own tomatoes from seed last year, I ran out of my good cages and used several of the flimsy variety. Even with the very strong wind we can get in North Texas, my Texas cages have never fallen over. The same cannot be said for the other variety. As a matter of fact, I had a volunteer tomato that I put in the smaller cage because I have always read that you shouldn't allow volunteer tomatoes plants to grow. Well it turns out that my very best plant last season was the volunteer. Literally the night before WFAA came out to film our first interview, we had very strong winds and wouldn't you know that the cage tipped leaving my prettiest tomato plant looking rather bedraggled. Fortunately it recovered and produced like crazy nearly all season long.
If you plan to grow tomatoes, the investment in Texas tomato cages is one that you will not regret! And no, I have received absolutely nothing from the company in return for a commercial for them. They have made my life in the garden that much easier that I want to share my successes.
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