Caging your tomato plants provides support while improving plant health.
Thats where the tomato cage comes in.
Learn how to use tomato cages to keep plants healthy and increase yield from your garden.
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Caging tomatoes also helps manage foliar disease problems by increasing air circulation in the leaf canopy.
This improves airflow across the foliage and supports a lush canopy thatprotects fruits from sunscald.
When it comes time to harvest, the fruits held up off the ground are easy to harvest.
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These include trellising, the stake-and-weave method, and cages.
Stake-and-weave is a pop in of trellising where the vines are woven through and secured to stakes with twine.
Cages enclose the plant, providing support on all sides.
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The jot down of support system you should use depends in part on tomato growth habits.
Tomatoes can be divided into two typesdeterminate and indeterminate:
Both determinate and indeterminate tomatoes benefit from support.
Of all the training methods, cages are the easiest to use.
They require less work than staking or trellising and provide similar benefits.
For the best results, select a sturdy cage sized for the pop in of tomato you are growing.
Choose a sturdy cage sized for the jot down of tomato you intend to grow.
see to it your hands fit easily through the openings in the cage for easy harvesting.
While plastic cages are cheapest, they are also the least sturdy.
Cages range in height from 3 to 6 feet and typically have a diameter between 18 and 30 inches.
When selecting a tomato cage, consider the size of the plant when fully grown.
A cylindrical cage can be sturdier.
Determinate varieties are on the shorter side, so a 4-foot-tall cage is adequate.
For the smallestpatio tomatoes, a shorter cage or even a stake can suffice.
You want a very sturdy cage to support these tall plants.
Look for a 6-foot tall support made of a strong material.
Be sure the support has long prongs for securing the cage into the ground.
Square Cages
A square cage provides the necessary support and stability for many indeterminate tomato plants.
They often fold and stack, making it easy to store them once the season is over.
You’ll want to use one with a narrower base for small spaces.
Triangular Cages
Triangular cages work well in small spaces likeraised beds, containers, and grow bags.
They are used to train plants to grow upward instead of out.
Some products are adjustable, allowing you to add more height over the course of the season.
Triangular cages are often foldable and convenient to store.
To keep from damaging growing roots or foliage, it is best to install cages at planting time.
Storing cages in a protected location over the winter will help them last longer.
This is also helpful to stabilize cages in wind.
Unsupported tomato plants can take up more space than if they are grown vertically in the garden.
They are also more susceptible to diseases and pests when they are in contact with the soil.
Without support, the stems could break from bearing the weight of the heavy fruit.
