If you are looking for a simple , strong and easy way to stake your tomatoes this year – then you are going to eff today ’s feature on how to make your own DIY Stake - A - Cage love apple supports !
Not only are they extremely tough and durable , the supports are casual to assemble and stash away . Even considerably , they go up promptly in your garden or raised beds and last for years and twelvemonth . Perhaps best of all , they wo n’t cost you a circumstances to make either !
voice too skillful to be reliable ? Well , the good intelligence is that it is n’t ! We have actually been creating our own tomato supports for days , and I can honestly say our latest DIY version really does incorporate strong point , ease of use , long term durability and overall price into consideration . ( Be sure to check out the video below to see why ! )
Our new Stake-A-Cage tomato supports in the ground and ready to go! It is important to get your tomato supports in early – before you plant. This way you won’t disturb the roots of your plants later which can injure or hinder growth.
have ’s face it , commercial love apple support can be ridiculously expensive . And even with that high cost , they do n’t always work very well when it comes to hold up your tomato plant – or let you to harvest them easily .
Tomato Cage can run upwards of $ 10 to $ 20 or more . Not only are cages infamous for coming out of the primer coat and toppling over plants , they also make picking your tomatoes sturdy . Anyone who has ever tried to pass on through the batting cage to pick tomatoes knows precisely how hard that task can be !
There are , of course , other options for keeping your tomato plant off the ground . Tomato stakes , tomato towers and collapsible metal straight cages are three of the more common . For us , the stakes have just always been so heavy to tie off to .
Tomato cages can make it hard to access plants, especially when it comes to harvesting. Even worse, they are so flimsy they often grow out of the ground and topple over with the plant.
As for the tomato towers , metal cages and other fancy options , at $ 40 to $ 50 or more a piece , they just are n’t executable for multiple plants . After all , if you plant more than a few plants , you could drop a minor luck just in keep going your crop , permit alone planting and fertilizing it .
We faced the very same dilemma some 12 + years ago . After plant more than forty plant in our garden , we realized quickly that we had to come up with a more affordable and sustainable solution . And that is when our very first DIY stake - a - cage idea was accept .
As you will see below with this class ’s updated DIY version , we have made some neat change that make the wager - A - Cage support even secure , more long-lived , and definitely longer lasting than ever . But it all started with a few wooden stakes and wire fencing some 12 years back .
For our very first DIY tomato plant stakes , we used a simple wooden bet and a small 18″ wide x 48″ section of welded wire fencing we turn out from a roll . Next , we used “ U ” nails to attach the wire fencing to the post . It make the perfect low - monetary value , open - faced tomato funding .
The open face made it easy to wed off plant as they grew . Definitely well-fixed than trying to connect to a single wooden stake . But even good , it made pick a breeze ! Since the cage portion was clear , there was no need to extend to through the metal to harvest .
Because it had both a stake and a form of a cage , we aptly named it our homemade Stake - A - Cage . And , have been using an ever improving variant as the years passed to corroborate both our love apple and pepper flora ever since !
Our original stake-a-cage DIY tomato supports we made in 2011. We made it with an 18″ wide section of welded wire rolled fencing and a thick wooden stake. They worked like a charm and were a fraction of the cost of store-bought stakes or cages!
The New DIY Tomato Support – The Ultimate Stake-A-Cage!
Our first upgrade to the funding came a few years back . In place of the welded wire fence , we begin to apply galvanized feedlot panels .
Instead of cutting and attaching welded wire fencing material for the John Milton Cage Jr. constituent , we opted this prison term for galvanized feedlot or cow fence panels . The wire fencing material did well , but it would loop a bit and also would transgress after a few years .
The feedlot / cow fencing panels , with their 4 gauge metal twist were much secure . Not only that , they are completely flat , make them easy to attach to the stake . At $ 50 for each 16′ long x 50″ tall control panel ( depend on where you buy ) , they are a bit more expensive than the weld wire , but with 4 gauge twist , they last almost forever !
Using bolt cutters , we cut the panels down into 16″ wide incision for most plants . For really large tomatoes , we cut them at 24 inch wide . We hold back the 50″ duration for big love apple and capsicum pepper plant plants , and cut them in half for little Lycopersicon esculentum and common pepper varieties . Product link : Easy Grip Bolt Cutters
The long 50″ sections are perfect for staking heavy heirloom tomato plant . The 25″ improbable panels on the other hand ferment well for small love apple form and peppers like jalapeno and banana . It also allows you to make even more from a undivided cow panel !
To make attaching the panels to the forest light , we started using zip ties . They go on fast and are well-heeled to remove in the autumn as well . They are also very strong and hold the wire panel to the post very well .
Up until last year , we still used wood stake as the support to confiscate the moo-cow dialog box grid to . As most folks bang , wood became increasingly pricey . In addition , we were start to break more and more of our Mrs. Henry Wood posts with each passing year – so we decided to go all metal .
It is a bit more of an investment up front , but the metal t - situation last forever . Now , we simply tug in the tomato plant stake without any cage attach . Next , we take one of our stout cattle control board and use two reclaimable zip ties to secure it the stake . One zip tie at the bottom , and one at the top .
secure , spry , and ultra efficient . Not having the panel sequester means driving the stake in is easier than ever . But good of all , it makes fall cleanup and storage a cinch . When the Lycopersicon esculentum industrial plant crop is done , the zip fastener ties get take away , and the panels and stakes can be stored singly .
So what is the overall price to post each tomato flora ? For the heavy - duty metal liothyronine stake , they tend us the right way at about $ 5 for a 6 foot tall wager . It ’s actually a slap-up investiture . Not only are they faithful in price to heavy obligation wood posts nowadays , but like the galvanized feedlot panel , they are most indestructible .
We get 8 to 10 full - sizing supports , or 16 to 20 smaller support out of a individual 16′ part of a feedlot dialog box . That get the per - grid cost anywhere from $ 4 to $ 6 per section .
Overall , the entire cost to bet on each Lycopersicon esculentum industrial plant still bring out to about $ 10 to $ 12 . And that is an amazing bargain – study the galvanized grids and the T - post can be used almost indefinitely !
Here is to create your own awing Stake - A - John Cage DIY love apple supports , and to having a great crop of tomato plant this year too ! Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary .
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing horticulture , DIY and recipe article and volume for over 15 years from their 46 Akka Ohio farm . The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to move around in their spare time .
