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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 115,424
Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 115,424 |
Need some advice on sturdy tomato cages. Ive used the stupid hoop things for years but the pants get big and pull them over and the wind blows them over. What are the best heavy duty cages to get? I grow about 16 plants per year fwiw. You should build some heavy duty tomato cages.
Trump being classless,tasteless and clueless as usual. Sorry, trump is a no tax payin pile of shiit. My young wife decided to play the field and had moved several dudes into my house
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 6,297
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 6,297 |
The reason I use individual circular cages is so I can move the cages each year and keep a substantial distance between each one. The blight can spread too easily in tight spacing. I got blight bad for a couple years in a row with some Bradley pinks I pulled all my cages one fall and while I was BBQ’ing about 15 butts, I slow-rolled all my cages through a scattered bed of hickory slab coals on the ground. I switched up varieties also. Not sure if helped anything but I had a hunch those rusty cages might be holding virus too. I have used these cages for years. I burn them every fall when i put them up. I’ve rolled them in a fire and also used a weed burner when I didn’t have so many. I think this is an important step in disease prevention, along with rotating areas of the garden in which they are grown.
Buy once, cry once.
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 13,292
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 13,292 |
That R2D2 on the porch? organic or miracle gro? That’s my grow house (if youre replying to my other pics) 2 MH. 1000W 1 sodium vapor 400W Pulled out for hardening-off and wind tempering 2nd transplanting to bigger pots, won’t set out till May 5th or so That is bad ass. Hah Miracle Grow. I have been mixing a half cup each of Bone and Blood meals and a half cup of clean wood ash for 5-7 gallons of soil. 2 parts perlite to three parts peat moss. This year I will only have 6 tomato plants. We just make salsa and use em for salads so 6 good plants will do it .Some cucumber and squash plants for fill. Miracle grow works for sure. Lot easier to use on small plants. I have seen setups like that in Florida. A small gator we were feeding Cheetos was still hungry after we ran out of cheetos and chased us through a commercial Tomato operation. 30 feet anyway.
Last edited by rickt300; 04/21/21.
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 261
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 261 |
I make my cages from concrete 6x6 wire. Just unhook em' when your done & hang em' flat on the side of barn!
Scott
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,069
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,069 |
Can you weld? I used 4 48" 3/8 rod for uprights. I welded 2 24" 1/4" rods on each side as crossbars (3 would have been better). I stick the legs in the ground about 4 to 6" and it goes nowhere.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 13,917
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 13,917 |
A fairly easy and inexpensive to make support for tomato plants is 1" wood or metal stakes of desired length driven into the ground midways between each tomato plant and cross pieces of like material added about every foot or so "ladder style" attached to upright stakes via string, wire, zip ties, duct tape, etc., as plants grow taller.
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 18,927
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 18,927 |
I stake mine.
Years back before chit got higher than giraffe puzzy...
I bought several bundles of 1/2” emt/ conduit.
10’ long , cut in half.
Made a driver for em. Hammering will bend them.
Tie up each limb with bailing string. Biodegrable kind. It’s earf day. Or it’ll wrap up around bush hog when seasons over.
When they get taller than the stake and bend over, I’ll lop em off.
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,398
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,398 |
Buy a roll of 6” concrete mesh and hog ring yourself some cages. It’ll be they last ones you ever buy.
This. Cut the bottom wire off so the remaining "spikes/ pins" can anchor into ground. If necessary one "T" post can give even greater stability. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Oh, tee posts are great, but a very economical alternative for this "light" application, is get 1/2" EMT conduit, comes in 10' lengths. You can cut them in half, or any length you want where you can use a long and a short. Hammer one end flat and drive it in. They work in many places! Let’s see some pics of this and your garden.
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 3,193
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 3,193 |
I got the ones from Gardeners and plan on double stacking them this year. Had to order 4 more this year to make it 8 plants.
It would be good if you can get the 4X4-5 foot wire, but I didn’t want to pay for the 150’ roll. Only needed about 12 feet.
Cages will be about 6-1/2 feet high doing it this way. I had 12 of these cages I got super cheap about 10 years ago so I had to buy 6 more this year to get the 4 I needed. Hard to believe they cost as much as they do now.
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 60,281
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 60,281 |
Cattle/bull panels work well.
These premises insured by a Sheltie in Training ,--- and Cooey.o "May the Good Lord take a likin' to you"
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 60,281
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 60,281 |
It this what you are aiming for?
These premises insured by a Sheltie in Training ,--- and Cooey.o "May the Good Lord take a likin' to you"
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 23,640
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 23,640 |
Mennonites a mile up the road have a 10acre vegetable operation and roadside stand. I’m starting to think I’d be better off stopping twice a week instead of growing. July 1st we can legally grow 4 dope plants so might forget about the row of Indian corn and sunflowers and make some $$
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 23,640
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 23,640 |
It this what you are aiming for? Wabi, that’s some tasty looking tomatoes. Some toast, Mayo and a slice of American cheese would be spot on with those.
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 60,281
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 60,281 |
These premises insured by a Sheltie in Training ,--- and Cooey.o "May the Good Lord take a likin' to you"
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,398
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,398 |
Be mid July before our determinates come in I still went back with cages this year. (Last year’s pics)
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,398
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,398 |
Cattle/bull panels work well. I use calf panels for my speckled butter beans
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 3,018
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 3,018 |
Those Speckled Butter Beans look happy there. I take it that's a hot wire with the insulators (?) you're using, seem short for keeping much of anything but a dog out. How many hours a day do you run the grow lights? Your starts look to be pretty stocky, much unlike the weak starts most often seen at the local stores for sale. It suprises me to hear you need to cage your determinates. My main production tomato is a Celebrity, I've never needed more than a stake for support. They have fat stalks and hearty stems that support themselves with a few ties here and there. They grow to about 40 inches and start pumping out fruit.
Padded VA Hospital Rooms for $1000 Alex My ignoree,s will never be Rock Stars on 24 hr campfire.....Like me!!!! What are psychotic puppet hunters?
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 2,729
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 2,729 |
Patron member, NRA, Life Member SCI,
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 3,018
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 3,018 |
Padded VA Hospital Rooms for $1000 Alex My ignoree,s will never be Rock Stars on 24 hr campfire.....Like me!!!! What are psychotic puppet hunters?
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 9,742
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 9,742 |
Been a long winter, a vine ripened tomato would taste good about now.
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