05-28-2008, 04:13 AM
welded wire mesh used to reinforce concrete slabs makes great tomato cages but it is too expensive to buy it expressly for that purpose. If you know of any contractors who have scraps of the stuff laying about then it would work. I've got an assortment of wire plant cages made from the stuff welded into different diameters of cylinders. Different heights too so I can grow beans on them as well as tomatoes.
Fences also make good growing supports. We have lima beans covering a good chunk of our backyard field fence. It might be nicer to have a pavilion roof made of fence wire so the bean vines would grow overhead and make shade and dangle the bean pods below where they would be easy to reach. Hmm, growing lima beans on the pavilion would go well for a couple years which would give the grape vines time to fill in and eventually be a grape arbor. Guess all I gotta do now is build the arbor.
Since tomato plants stick around for quite awhile around here, you could build a cage of sticks lashed together. Many folks have waiwai sticks or bamboo growing so those would be free sticks. It is a bit more effort to lash the sticks together but the cages should last for several years.
Fences also make good growing supports. We have lima beans covering a good chunk of our backyard field fence. It might be nicer to have a pavilion roof made of fence wire so the bean vines would grow overhead and make shade and dangle the bean pods below where they would be easy to reach. Hmm, growing lima beans on the pavilion would go well for a couple years which would give the grape vines time to fill in and eventually be a grape arbor. Guess all I gotta do now is build the arbor.
Since tomato plants stick around for quite awhile around here, you could build a cage of sticks lashed together. Many folks have waiwai sticks or bamboo growing so those would be free sticks. It is a bit more effort to lash the sticks together but the cages should last for several years.
Kurt Wilson