dalka@ihuxe.UUCP (Ken Dalka) (07/03/84)
I like to use cages for my tomato plants. This works well except as the season goes on the tomatoes tend to get taller than the cage. This results in the top of the plant falling over and sometimes breaking from its own weight. This year I made an effort to get taller cages, but I can already tell that it won't be enough. What do other people do about this? My cages are currently 4 feet high. (Yes, I know I could stake the tomatoes but I like cages better) Ken Dalka ihuxe!dalka
gef@invest.UUCP (Gene E. Fowler) (07/04/84)
I use concrete reinforcing wire to make my cages. It comes in 5' wide rolls which I cut into 7' lengths. This will make a 2' diameter cage. Yesterday I had to make an extension to 7' as some of the plants are now 6 to 6-1/2 feet tall. If they get much taller I will have to put another extension and guy wires on the cages. My largest varities are the Sweet 100, althought my Supersteaks are almost as big. I feed them lots of compost and liquid fertilizer (15-30-20 bi-weekly). Gene Fowler ihnp4!invest!gef
gap@drutx.UUCP (PetersEA) (07/05/84)
When my tomato plants get to growing above the tops of their cages, I start trimming them back to cage-top level. That allows the plants to expend more energy on producing tomatoes rather than increasing the plant size.
nosmo@pyuxqq.UUCP (P Valdata) (07/05/84)
I just pinch my tomato plants back so they don't grow taller than the cage; this makes them fuller and we get a lot of tomatoes from them. I have a different problem--deer are eating my zucchini, spinach, and lettuce. I don't want to put a real fence up until the fall, because it will be a major project. Does anyone know if deer would be deterred by something makeshift, like a rope or wire around a couple of stakes? Pat Valdata pyuxqq!nosmo
patel@uicsg.UUCP (07/06/84)
#R:ihuxe:-71100:uicsg:4800001:000:458 uicsg!patel Jul 5 17:41:00 1984 I presume you use the three or four ring basket. To get a taller cage, I put an inverted cage on the first one and tie them with wire. Looks something like this: / \ / \ Inverted Top Cage / \ \ / \ / Bottom Cage \ / ------------------- Ground -Janak Patel, U of Ill, Urbana ihnp4!uiucdcs!uicsg!patel