You guys need to see the tomato cages from Cedar Ridge. They are unbelievably sturdy and well-made.
I was trying to find them locally and they told me some are sold at Friedman’s, but that’s a long drive for me and they will sell direct.
They are smooth and do not have any pokey spots that would snag a shade covering or insect cover and they fold and unfold so easily.
I had to return the green ones from Burpee that were also made in the USA, but I’ll be darned if they are not hard to open and they have snaggy spots that would catch garden covers.
I’m not saying the Cedar ridge cages are easy to afford but they’re definitely worth what they’re asking, and it was cheaper to buy from them than the stores that carry them.
The standard ones are so wide that if you’re using a pot, you will want a 19 to 20“ diameter if using a round pot.
Haviland makes some pots that are squat and 15 gallon that I think would work perfectly.
I also feel the squat containers will be more secure on windy days.
Last year we had those cheapo circle tomato cages and the standard taller pots and had a problem with things blowing over and collapsing due to the tomato cage, not being sufficient.
We will not have that problem this year.
They also make a 9 inch cage that is 40 inches tall that would be easier to find pots that they fit in. They said they created that one specifically for container growers.
They can fit 10 in one box for shipping of the 40 inch tall and six in a box of the 56 tall.
If I can end up with enough of these for my yearly garden, I will never have to even think about tomato cages again I’m sure they will outlive me.
I have some made out of cattle panel… 50" tall… very stout. And some very old ones my dad made from concrete wire… he passed in 2004 and I am still growing sungold cherries in his cage.
I’ve used just about anything for tomato cages. Concrete wire, cattle panels, 4’ field fence/woven wire. I even have a couple tomato cages made out of old bed springs.
If you don’t have any field fence, you may be able to buy cheap 4’ field fence off Craigslist or Ebay. We stake the cages with T- posts, so there’s an extra $6.50 in cost per cage, if you can’t find any used T-posts.
Here’s some of our cages + T-posts. The field fence/woven wire has the disadvantage that they sag a little bit on the side opposite of the T-post. But the sagging isn’t bad. We’ve used some of these cages for over a decade.
I can’t get past the price on those! I use a 3 or 4 foot T-post with that green velcro type tomato “tape” (or similar) I find the tomato tape is reusable for two years (so far.) It works super well and some of my T post are going on 10 years old.
I don’t spend a lot of money on my garden and I have so much organic produce that I end up giving it away after I can and freeze everything I can possibly use.
Cattle panels would be sturdy but that would not be easy to store in the off season and would require work and not as space efficient.
I don’t think cattle panels are as cheap as that near me but I do know I can’t get them to my property.
I can’t fit them in my car and I don’t have a physical address because we bought bare lane and it’s 80 miles round trip to town so even when I do talk people into delivering with crazy directions, the cost is high due to California gas prices.
I didn’t want 30 big circle hanging out in our yard getting buried in snow every winter either.
I bet cattle panels would cost me more because of all that above.
All I can promise is, if you got to examine one in person, you’d want to take it home.
Super smooth to open and shut too, whoever makes them takes great pride in their work.
Might be Amish people, they are made in PA.
I got them cheaper than getting from the hardware stores that carry them.
Last year, Opalka just fell over and kept growing. It was a giant huge monster that I had in a cheapo circular tomato cage, kind of funny now that I think about it.
You have to have a pretty wide pot for one of the bigger tomato cages, but with the low center gravity in one of those squat pots Combined with that sturdy tomato cage, all my tomatoes won’t be blowing over this year.
