What are the Best Tomato Cages?
Sturdy ones. We like using the sturdier thick cages, but they're a little harder to find. If you grow tomatoes, they're probably one of your favorite crops, like ours, and you want to ensure that the plants are healthy and supported so you get a great harvest.
What kind of Tomato supports do you use?
Those darned flimsy wire "tomato cages" that are sold at hardware stores are useless once a tomato plant gets large, as you can see in these photo above and below! Flop!
If you do use these type of flimsy tomato cages, you could use a sturdy wood stake or two and attach the wire cage to it to help keep it upright when your tomato plants get huge!
What are the Best Tomato Cages?
Here are some examples of sturdy tomato cages. Thick gauged metal cages make the best tomato cages. Tomatoes are HEAVY plants, and, as they grow bigger, they are often top heavy and need a lot of support.
Those darned flimsy wire "tomato cages" that are sold at hardware stores are useless once a tomato plant gets large, as you can see in these photo above and below! Flop!
If you do use these type of flimsy tomato cages, you could use a sturdy wood stake or two and attach the wire cage to it to help keep it upright when your tomato plants get huge!
What are the Best Tomato Cages?
Here are some examples of sturdy tomato cages. Thick gauged metal cages make the best tomato cages. Tomatoes are HEAVY plants, and, as they grow bigger, they are often top heavy and need a lot of support.
We found these Powder coated Extra Heavy Duty Tomatoes at a local True Value a few years ago, and we love using them year after year! The reinforced feet are genius, so they make firm contact with the ground and never topple over. The cage is made from galvanized steel, and made in the USA in Rockford, IL. We don't see these particular cages on the manufacturer's website midwestwireworks.com, and haven't seen them at our local stores since.... maybe they're discontinued? That would be a shame as these are some of the best tomato cages! It looks like you can find them on a few third-party websites, but it would be great to find them locally as we're sure they're expensive to ship being the size that they are.
These square type cages also seem to work well for tomatoes, and can be found at many garden supply stores.
We've also seen people use tall heavy duty wooden stakes to build "cages" around their tomatoes, or use single stakes and tie the tomato leader to it, keeping it well pruned.
These v-shaped heavy-duty Tomato Ladders also seem to be quite sturdy, and we've seen several gardeners use them to support their tomatoes with good success. With these, you may have to be more diligent about making sure you wrap or support the vines to keep it growing up and through the ladder. These are also great for cucumbers.
TOMATO TRELLISING AND OTHER METHODS:
You can also use trellising methods, or pruning well and/or attaching the tomato plants' leaders to a strong metal or wooden stakes. We've also seen people build their own tomato cages using wooden stakes to build "frames" around the plants to hold them up.
Whatever you do, give your Tomatoes some support! And if you use a cage, use only the Best Tomato Cages!
Don't just leave your tomatoes to ramble on the ground, they will not thrive, and will be more disease-prone, and the tomatoes will be more likely to rot or get munched on if sitting on the ground.
And forget about using those flimsy tomato cages that just end up falling over just as your tomatoes are starting to come in strong and heavy! Find heavy duty cages, or use wooden stakes to support weaker cages, but whatever you do – don't NOT cage your tomatoes or just use a flimsy wire cage... you'll regret it later in the season as your tomato plants topple them over!
And forget about using those flimsy tomato cages that just end up falling over just as your tomatoes are starting to come in strong and heavy! Find heavy duty cages, or use wooden stakes to support weaker cages, but whatever you do – don't NOT cage your tomatoes or just use a flimsy wire cage... you'll regret it later in the season as your tomato plants topple them over!
Grow our Favorite Tomato Seeds!
We have picked our favorite heirloom and hybrid tomato seeds that are easy to grow in your garden. These will all grow to be huge, loaded up plants, so be sure to pick the best tomato cage to support them! Even though they start out as a tiny seed, tomatoes are surprisingly fast growers and become beasts later in the season – so give them good support!
