Everything’s Bigger in Texas including Tomato Cages

You really should have planted your tomatoes over a month ago if you live in the Houston area. But if you didn’t, then buy the biggest tomato plants you can find.

Did you know that you can plant a tomato deeper than it is in its original pot? Take the lower leaves off of the tomato and plant it deep. The main stem will grow roots and will create a stronger plant.

Everyone has their own prescription for growing good tomatoes. I grow tomatoes in a raised bed and amend my soil every year with Black Cow Cow Manure and Natures Way Compost (or my own if I have enough). That’s about all I do and I have more than enough tomato production. Last year I added some cottonseed meal about halfway through the summer and it was the first time I had plants make it to the fall and produce (could have been a fluke, but it was fun).

Now, on to the discussion about tomato cages. I have found that my vegetable gardens produce better, the older they are. The first couple of years did not produce as many tomatoes or as tall of plants as later years. So, if your beds are like mine, you can get away with the largest of the cheap cages at the big box stores in the beginning. But, as your beds get more fertile over time, you will need a Texas-size tomato cage.

First, let’s look at what tomato cages are not.

These are the small conical shape cages. In my opinion these are not good for much. I have a few that I picked up along the street before heavy trash day that I use as a barrier to my dogs stepping on newly planted flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the small-medium sized ones. Still not big enough, not to mention the insane color. I have used a size a little bit bigger than these for pepper plants. They work pretty good even though my plants tend to get tall and start to droop down the outside and all over their neighbors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are labeled as a “tomato trellis”. I bought some of these several years ago, again for peppers, they work ok, but I like the larger conical ones better. Most of mine have fallen apart by now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, on to what a tomato cage is…Sturdy and Tall

I really like these cages that I bought from gardeners.com. (This is not a paid endorsement). I have both the Tomato Towers and the regular Tomato Cages. I prefer the regular tomato cages because they are taller when you stack them on top of each other (about 64” vs. 56” for the shorter ones). I have mine attached to each other with twist ties. Another advantage of these cages is that they are collapsible (if that is important to you)

This picture was taken about 3 years ago. I am 5’ 7” to give you a sense of scale. The middle tomato plant is a sweet million and is probably a foot taller than the tomato cage.

I was at a local garden supply store and found this interesting cage. I thought it was similar to the “Texas Tomato Cage” I had read about, so I thought I would give it a try. Since then, I have realized that it is not similar and not that great. It is collapsible, but is really hard to balance all the rings and get it in the ground by yourself. I only use it as a last resort now. I don’t have any experience with the true Texas Tomato Cage, but they have good reviews online.

 

 

 

My newest cages are courtesy of the local community garden. They bought several 100’ rolls of galvanized 5’ tall fence material with 6”x6” openings and were kind enough to let me purchase 24’ of it. I do wish it was a little bit taller, but that is just me being greedy. You will need bolt cutters for this project. Each of these cages are 6’ of fencing. Fold the cage material into a cylinder and bend the cut ends over the other side. Then cut off the bottom ring to create the stakes to hold it in the ground.

Another option is to use fencing material from the big box store. My Dad did this, his cages are 10 years old and have withstood hurricane force winds. They do rust, just consider it a little extra iron for your soil.

Besides the two online stores I mentioned, I have seen nice tomato cages at Wabash as well. I think I may have also spotted some when I was picking up my compost at Nature’s Way Resources last month. Make sure you give either place a call before you make the trip to be sure they have some in stock.

2010 Vegetable Garden Winners

The winners are:

1. Sweet Millions (tomato)
2. Lemon Boy (tomato)
3. Big Bomb (pepper)
4. Orlando (eggplant)

I planted all of these plants in February and March of this year. They were given one application of cottonseed meal in the middle of summer, but that’s it as far as fertilizer (and no pesticides were used!). They all put on a great show in the spring, survived a Houston summer, and produced into the fall and winter.
Tomato plants in Houston will often get as tall as the cage you have around them. Both the Lemon Boy and Sweet Millions grew up and over the 5 foot cages they are in. In mid-summer after the other tomato plants died, these still had some green leaves and were producing new stalks from the base, so I cut them back to about one foot tall and let them keep growing.
My favorite is Sweet Millions, pictured on the left after I cut it back and it again grew up and over its cage. I’ve picked about 200 Sweet Millions in the past week. Yes, folks that’s right in December!

The first Lemon Boy of the fall crop was picked a couple of days ago. There are a few more starting to blush, but tonight's low is expected to be 35, so they probably won’t hang in there much longer.Why can’t we get one of those weird Houston December warm fronts? I really could use some fresh tomatoes…
I bought the Big Bomb peppers in hopes of recreating an awesome tapas dish I had in Auckland, NZ last year. It was basically peppers stuffed with cheese, but it was really good.
While this one was the right size and shape it was way hotter than the ones in New Zealand. Too hot for me, but my husband loved them. He dried them in the food dehydrator and pulverized them in the coffee grinder. Now he has hot pepper powder for the year.
The Orlando eggplant is amazing. It has been producing heavily all year long. It is about 4 foot tall and almost as wide. Many online sources say you can pick the fruit when it is a small as 2”, but I picked mine anywhere from 5”-8”.
On a side note, I also planted an eggplant variety called Turkish Orange. I have to say, that I was not very impressed. It was growing next to the one in the picture above, but was eventually overshadowed, so I pulled it up. It may be because I didn’t know what to do with the little orange tomato looking eggplants, but I probably won’t try them again.
In the foreground of the above picture is broccoli. My Saturday harvest included broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant…all at the same time!