How do you anchor your tomato cages?

[wsmoak]

They should list another 'con' to the livestock panel on that first site I linked to -- the panels are a heavy, floppy 16 feet long, how are you going to get them home?

No problem for me with the truck and the 20' flatbed trailer, but good luck if you have a minivan!

-Wendy

 

[thistlebloom]

We just had them loaded in the pickup so they were arched and used tie downs to secure them, but, yeah without a truck you'd need to be very creative!

 

[vfem]

wsmoak, nice!

I don't know where the link is now, but Digits had a great suggestion too on tomato rows from one of his friend's blogs. It was what I wanted to try this year, but did not remember until it was too late. I have got to find that link again!

 

[wsmoak]

wsmoak, nice!

I don't know where the link is now, but Digits had a great suggestion too on tomato rows from one of his friend's blogs. It was what I wanted to try this year, but did not remember until it was too late. I have got to find that link again!

The one with the livestock panels set horizontally in layers? Yes, that looked interesting too.

-Wendy

 

[Dave2000]

When a local electronics superstore nearby decided to remodel, they were throwing out a large (tractor-trailer sized) dumpster worth of shelving and misc hardware. Among what they threw out were ~ foot long metal posts like you see blister carded merchandise hanging from in stores, with a 90' bend at the end where they hook into the store racks.

These seem to work great for anchoring cages and I'm all for free, though I suppose you can't so easily insist your local store do remodeling so you can snatch some up.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

My brother taught me how to stake tomatoes. The cages are made from heavy fencing wire, shaped into a circle. Then on the end or each row you drive a metal stake and one in the center of the row. Then you run twine from the stake through each cage all the way down the row (rapping the twine around each the wire on cage and anchoring it with the center stake and the end stakes. It works very well.

 

[Rozzie]

They should list another 'con' to the livestock panel on that first site I linked to -- the panels are a heavy, floppy 16 feet long, how are you going to get them home?

No problem for me with the truck and the 20' flatbed trailer, but good luck if you have a minivan!

-Wendy

Or a subcompact car.

1) Make friends with someone who has a good way to haul them.
2) Rent a truck. $20 per hour at Lowes or Home Depot.
3) Rent a U-haul. $20 per day, roughly, but you'll want to pay the additional insurance (or check with your insurance company to see if it will be covered.) Schedule the UHaul rental for a day you can do lots of heavy work: hauling in an annual supply of mulch, for example.

I find it is far better to rent a truck 2-4 times a year than it is to own a second vehicle or deal with daily costs of having a truck, such as reduced gas mileage over my subcompact car.