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Re: Tomato cage material?...

>Did anyone else see the March *Mother Earth News* article on PVC cages?  It
>looks super cheap to build and quite storable.  Haven't built these yet,
>but I plan to in the next few weeks.

I haven't seen the article, but I had an enlightening face-to-face
conversation yesterday with my favorite nurseryman, Guy Hayes, owner of
Tidewater Tropicals in Gloucester, VA.  Guy sings the praises of PVC piping
for all sorts of grower-related uses.  For instance, I did not know that PVC
pipe actually *bends* if you don't buy the really big-gauge sizes.

Guy and a pal went over to a pipe distributor's place in Gloucester and
asked if they could bend some different sizes of samples.  The guy said they
could as long as the paid for any pipe they broke.  Guy and pal went out
back and began bending everything in sight.  Three-quarter-inch-diameter PVC
pipe was the biggest that husky men could bend.  Apparently once bent it
retains its curved shape pretty well.

Guy has made entire greenhouses out of curved PVC pipe with plastic sheeting
on the top!  He also says this material will make fine supports for reemay
(row covering, sort of like lightweight Pellon).  He says the PVC-based
greenhouse cost him $45....

We intend to set up curved PVC pipe structures over at least one of our new
raised beds.  With a plastic covering for the cold months, we'll have sort
of a poor-man's greenhouse; with reemay over top in the growing season,
we'll have a barrier against buggy enemies.

I can see doing this by attaching flagpole support brackets to the wood
framing the beds and then sticking the pipe ends (after precurving) into the
round bracket receptacles.  Wouldn't even look bad and would be a snap to
remove the piping for aesthetics in the dead of winter.

It sounds to me like PVC piping (unbent) would make a terrific tomato
support structure, too.  Very likely it would last a *long* time.

Does anybody know, from actual use in this application, if it is feasible to
break down the squarish cages at the end of the year for storage in parts?
That is, do the pipe fittings that plumbers use easily come undone for
breakdown?

--Janet
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Janet Wintermute             jwintermute@ids2.idsonline.com
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