Rolling cattle panels into tomato cages

Please wear safety glasses. Those panels have some spring to them. Could put out an eye in a heartbeat.

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I Think That Just Driving A Stake In The Ground And Tieing Sounds By Far The Easiest Way To Go To Me. Instead Of Trying To Bend Some Thick Steel Panels.

Here are the tomatoes planted in the reel discs after they have had a chance to grow even though we have been in a drought. They have not been watered manually, neither has the garden been properly attended.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Do the math first. You would need at least 8 feet of a 16 foot cattle panel to make a usable diameter tomato cage. The formula is Pii (3.1416) times the diameter. For a 2 foot diameter cage you need 2 times 3.1416 or 6.3 feet.

We use the rolls of 5 ft high concrete mesh. Since it comes in rolls it already wants to be in a circle.

Have a 16 foot row of tomatoes. Put one panel on each side of the row. All done.

I've posted this info before, but on a different forum: I just can't find it at the moment so I hope nobody minds me repeating it here.

My vegetable beds, all measuring 5' X 12', are set up for a rotational system, to reduce attacks by diseases and pests. Now, each season the two beds reserved for tomatoes are converted to 'bunk-beds'. This is done first by spacing four vertical stakes, each about 5' tall, along each side of the bed. From these are suspended three layers of 4" re-inforcing mesh laid flat, beginning 18" above the ground, and then spaced about 18" apart. The finished structure somewhat resembles a triple bunk-bed - (anybody ex navy?) - but with not much room between the beds - (ex submariners?).

I raise tomato seedlings, keeping them straight with small bamboo stakes, until they are about 12 - 15"" tall, then transplant them into the garden bed, under the lowest bunk. They are left for a couple of weeks to make sure they are well established, by which time their tops are beginning to grow through the first layer of mesh. I also at this time lay down dripper hose along the bed for irrigaton. Beneath the mesh, the plants are trimmed of any side growth consisting of new leaders, then the space is filled with a layer of hay mulch. I use hay made from long grass cutting, gathered when the local council and water authority slashes their grassland. This provides me with a good, cost nothing mulch that doesn't pack down too hard. To this mulch I add a generous ammount of composted fertilizer and sometimes a bit of blood and bone meal.

Tomatoes, and corn, actually send out arial feeder roots, and if you have plenty of well fertilised mulch packed up around the stems, they will take advantage of this and increase your yield tremendously. Don't worry about collar-rot around the stems of these plants - it doesn't happen.

Now I let the plants extend their growth: Up through to the bunk above, and horizontally along each bed. The vertical growing tips are pinched off after they grow through the uppermost layer. As the plants begin to fruit, some will hang down through the mesh, but some I lift a little and place a handfull of straw underneath to support them. Grown in this manner, the tomatoes are kept clean, and are very easy to harvest.

It's winter down here now, but when the new beds are established come spring I'm planning to photograph/video each step of the process to make an educational presentation.

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I've bent panels into an arch and they are hard to keep in that position. I doubt they would make a good circle. They are easy to bend into a square and I've bent several of them at 90 degrees without much trouble. You might consider making square tomato cages.

I made my cages out of hog wire. I've had them for about 15 years and they are still good. Cheaper than cattle panels and much easier to form into a circle. The ends can be cut leaving some wire past the cross bars then bent back to close the circle without having to use any extra hardware.

If you have success using the cattle panels, please post pics along with the story of how you did it.

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We use remesh and zip ties.....remesh is about $100 a roll here. Lots of cages in a roll and they last a long time....replaced a lot of zip ties this year but they are 5 plus years old at least! We've also used remesh to fence the garden...

How heavy are those panels? will WIHH have "fun" moving them around or picking them up after one gets knocked over? Sounds to me like you've been drinking too much get some hog wire.

SO why does it have to be a circle? why not a zigzag, a triangle, a square, a RHOMBUS!

If you're so hot to bend fencing(that's not meant to be bent ) go cut another long stack of that firewood

I think WIHH deserves wrought iron pretty tomato cages. You can learn a new skill and maybe make some dough selling them to the city people. Send one to Martha Stewart and if you're lucky she'll order 300 for her heirloom tomato patch. THat will keep you off the sauce

you could use a chop saw to cut the panels. The kind made for metal cutting. I bet you could sell lots if you made them square so they could be stored flat. I've got the remesh ones and they are OK but hard to store. Usually there set at the end of the garden and when I need them the grass makes it hard to retrieve them.
Happy gardening Sandie Or 5/6

I had the same idea some years ago. I had some scrap panels and decided to make round cages with them. One got away from me while I was attempting to "roll" it and it dang near ripped my eye out of the socket. Of course it was the only eye I can see out of of course. I'd be lying to say that the episode didn't scare me what with blindness sucking so bad and all.

I ended up just making square cages (and wore eye protection while doing so) which worked quite well. It makes a really nice tomato cage but storing them off season is a bit of a pain. it always seems like they're in the way. Sold mine to the neighbor for 10 bucks a piece when I moved and I wish I'd have kept them.

Oh and if you make any, go over them closely with a grinder or file and grind down any sharp spots. You hands with thank you later.

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Make sure you attach a pole to the cage, with a flag on top, so you can find the tomatoes in the snow.....

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Why don't you just grow tomatoes on the ground? When they fall over they will reroot and have more nutrients. Yes, you will lose a few to field mice or insects but you will get a bunch more. This is the way we raise them.

But if you must have a cage. I'd try to bend it then cut it bent. Trying to bend it in shorter lengths will be impossible. Of course you could just hammer each wire and get it to bend that way. The other thing you may be able to do is go to a company that sells precast manholes. They will have wire thats in large spools so it's already round. You could then just tack or wire it together.

I use t-posts and either heavy twine or baling wire. Works fine for me.

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i'm trying to do everything i can to keep the dirt off my tomato plants. let's hope whatever kills mine, late blight, early blight etc., never makes it up your way.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

We have raised beds with 8 foot cattle panels (can be cut with bolt cutters), attached to t-posts. Anything that can climb, I plant next to the panels. Beans, peas, squash, cantalope and watermelon, and of course tomatoes. They can be tied to the panels as they grow, and have great support. You can plant on both sides of the panels, just stagger the plantings by several inches. That is the only way to go from my standpoint. Saves your back and your plants.

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AGMANTOO! Maybe I'm not too bright, but what are those things?

Thanks,
doohap

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Are you growing "heritage" tomatoes or new varieties?

Well, I think I've found a solution that will work for us....pre-rolled cattle panels.

These 6 gauge "panels" come in 100-foot rolls (60" width, 208 lbs/roll).



....now all I have to do is find a source for them!

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