How to Make Affordable Tomato Cages

Have you ever tried one of those flimsy tomato cages at the store. You know the ones I'm talking about, they are really small with maybe three concentric rings with the bottom ring the smallest and three prongs to stick in the ground. The main problem with these besides their minute size is that they don't form a stable base. If anything you'd want the bottom to be the same width as the top for support. These poorly designed tomato cages are ubiquitously sold throughout the United States. Luckily there is a very affordable alternative, making them out of wire mesh used for reinforcing concrete. Yes these will look rusty, but they wire is sturdy yet easy enough to bend and form a cage. Galvinized fencing wire is more difficult to bend to form the cage and more expensive, go with the affordable wire mesh instead. If you want you can even use plastic zip ties to assemble them quickly and cut the extra wire mesh off the roll. They come in long rolls of about 50-100 feet and will probably make a lot more cages for the same price as a couple of those flimsy $15 cages.

Just push them down over a small plant with the prongs in the ground.

Here is picture of how you can bend the extra wire around to connect the edges of the wire cage.

Here is another great article about how to make them at Mother Earth News, Using Wire Mesh In The Garden.

Here is wooden type of tomato cage Woody’s Folding Tomato Cages.