Our Stake-A-Cage method – we even make smaller ones to hold up our peppers.
You can see the tomatoes by mid summer have filled the cages to the max!
Over the years we have tried several methods of staking and tying up our tomatoes. As the tomatoes start growing by leaps and bounds, you don’t want to risk the plants becoming damaged by leaning over and touching the ground, allowing disease and infestation to occur. So do we use a stake or a cage?
Well, we now use what we call our stake-a-cage method to support the tomatoes as they grow. No, we didn’t find this on an infomercial, rather, we developed this method by pure accident. Last year at this time, we had just moved the chickens into their permanent home after completing construction of “The Coop”.
Inexpensive, thick, super soft and flexible yarn is a great way to tie them up.
We had left over fencing wire from building the outdoor run, as well as large stakes that we had used to stake out the area where it now sits. With some wire cutters, u-nails, and a hammer – we built the ‘best of both worlds’ for our tomatoes.
We simply attached an 18″ wide x 30″ high wire grid cut from the fencing to the 4′ stake with the U-nails. We now had the support of a strong stake, but also the support that a sturdy wire cage provides. Whala – The Stake-A-Cage was born!
With the open cage and yarn – it’s easy to tie them up and get at the tomatoes when its time to pick
The best part – the cage is open in the front, allowing us to easily tie up the plants to a broader area, it also allows for picking the tomatoes without dealing with the hassle of reaching through a cage during harvest time.
The staking system makes it easy to pick and tie up tomatoes
We then use a super soft and bulky piece of yarn to tie the tomato vines to the Stake-A-Cage. We simply cut 12-18 inches of the yarn, tie it around the stalks and wrap the piece around any of the metal grid area as it grows throughout the season. The yarn is really an inexpensive way to tie up your tomatoes (we spent less than $3 for 86 yards of material), but there are other benefits as well. Your family members aren’t missing their favorite old t-shirts anymore and the pantyhose that your wife needs for that fall wedding will still be in her dresser drawer! You can even buy your yarn in a green color so that your garden ties are camouflaged in the background, allowing for a neat and clean appearance to the garden!
For as simple as it was – it is amazing how much it has helped in our tomato harvests!
Jim and Mary
If you would like to receive our weekly DIY and Gardening Posts – be sure to sign up to follow our blog via email, Twitter or Facebook in the right column. Be sure to check out all of our past gardening tips on our blog.
We just did this with our beans, but did not think about it with out tomatoes. We had old some old dog wire and we (our, the boys did, I should say) put it up. So far so good. I’ll have to tell my hubby about it for the tomatoes next year!
It really helped us out last year with the whole picking and tying up process – and the open cage made it so much easier to get at the tomatoes! It’s funny you mention the peas – because we did it backwards – after using these for our tomatoes last year – we used a few this year for our peas
Great idea guys! I needed a different method for staking my tomatoes and this just might be it!
Thanks Marie! – let us know how it works!
What a simple and elegant solution! We bought some cheap tomato cages at the gardening store at the beginning of the year, and our tomatoes outgrew them almost instantly. We’ll definitely try this next year!
We have always had the same problem with the cages – they grow right out of the ground! Let us know how it works out and thanks for stopping by!
we use a similar method–stakes with fencing along it with tomatoes spaced along the fencing….works well, you really do need to tie though.
I would love more details on how you did this. I have tried so many methods to keep my tomato plants up, and none have satisfied me (nor the plants). I have enlarged your picture and it looks like a large rectangular piece of wire is nailed to the stake. Am I seeing that correctly? How large & long is your stake? I’m excited to try this for next spring.
I agree – they need a “before” pic. Even enlarging the pic, I can’t tell if fencing is straight or has a bend in it. Probably doesn’t matter, but curious minds want to know!
I do something similar, I use the metal fencing like that but I put it in a complete circle and cut the ends that go into the ground off so that they are like stakes, then I use re-bar stakes next to the cage and zip tie them together. I don’t have to tie them up but I do have to keep the branches inside as it grows up. Works great and I don’t have anymore plants falling down.
That’s a great idea! It is amazing all the ideas that people come up with to keep the tomatoes upright. Thanks for sharing!
i love the rebar idea. as i have been reading these posts i have been trying to think of where i could possibly “find” some stakes. rebar we have lots of. thank you for the great idea.
I have a question. I had a similar tomato bed last year now I have to start over when I rotate the tomato bed. Do you rotate yours? Going by my experience, it was quite a bit of work to set up taking into account the number of tomatoes I grow.
We do rotate our tomatoes from year to year – from the top beds to the lower beds. It helps to keep out soil borne diseases and also keeps the soil replenished. The stake a cages we use are pretty easy to pull and save and then use again.
So are the cages “U” shaped then with the stake in the center of the wire (at the bottom of the “U”) ?
The stakes are in the middle of the wire with about 12″ inches of the wood showing to go in the ground. When you use a round roll of the wire, it tends to curl a little giving it the curved shape – but it’s okay if they are flat as well. JIm
These look great! We are going to try them on our 200+ plants this year. Thanks for the idea.
Heading to the store to buy the wire. Excited to try these. Just stakes or traditional tomato cages were NOT good last year–our tomato plants get way too big! What kind of yarn is that? Looks larger than regular knitting yarn. Where did you get it–that many yards for $3?
Thanks.