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Re: Tomato cage material?...

At 11:29 AM 3/13/97 -0600, Dennis L. Whitehead wrote:
>Howdy hi,
>
>I just started eight varieties of tomato plants.  I want to build some
>sturdy cages.  The local building materials store has 10 guage concrete
>reinforcement wire on sale.  It's 6' wide, has 6" squares and comes in a 50'
>roll.  It's not galvanized.
>
>My hope is that someone wiser and/or more experienced than I can tell me if
>this would make good tomato cages?  My two initial concerns are longevity
>due to rust and the "abrasive" action the oxidized wire might have on the
>plants and fruit.  My plan is to make supports for the cages using steel
>fence posts.
>

I've had the best luck using galvanized pipe that (I believe) Mel talks
about in his book.

I bought some 3/4" galvanized pipe at a recycle yard, cut it in 8 foot
lenghts and paid to have it threaded at a hardware store.

I attached three pieces of the pipe using threaded elbows to make a
three-sided square and pushed the legs down into my square-foot plot over my
tomato row.

I tied a lateral string between the legs and then vertical lines from this
lateral to the top cross-bar at each tomato plant.

Now as the plants mature, it's imperative that you remove any "suckers" and
tie the main stem to the vertical line (using panty hose, I recommend).

The tomato vines will grow vertically (no muddy, rotten fruit) and picking
and inspection will be a treat.  Also, if you mulch well, Mel (I believe)
says that blossom-end rot will be controlled.

The best part is that next fall you cut away the vines and strings, unscrew
the connections and store your sturdy, rust-proof, rot-proof tomato trellis
for next Spring -- using much less room that cages.

Has anyone else tried this?

W. T. Wilson
Knoxville, TN
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