If you are planting indeterminate tomatoes, particularly in an area with a long growing season as I have in Georgia, you will be challenged by how best to support your tomatoes. I have used the standard circular tomato cages, and they sometimes work fine until your plants start bearing fruit several inches above the top of the cage. They can become unstable and require additional stabilization with staking, but that isn’t even the worst of it. The massive fruit will exert enough pressure on the stem to tip it over, and that causes the tomatoes and the remainder of the plant to be somewhat cut off from the main body and root system of your plant. There are some other commercially available cages, but they are expensive.
I found a perfect solution, and at the time I developed it, I had not seen anything like it. I start with 7 foot X 42-inch remesh panels, which you can get at Lowe’s or The Home Depot. The last time I bought them in 2016, they were $6.16 each. I lay each one down and place a 2 X 4 across it in the middle of it lengthwise, and then I pull one side up into a 90-degree bend. It is steel wire, but relatively easy to bend. I then cut opening across one of the ends, which provides wire that will stick into the soil. Here is the finished product.
Here is an image of it standing up.
By cutting off most of the wire along the bottom, you can insert the cages into the ground 6 inches. Two of these complete a square around your plant, and they are 6 1/2 feet tall, so they allow for a huge plant. After I’ve pushed them into the ground, I bind the two halves together with a zip tie. This provides a stable cage, and I have never had one tip over. If you have some of the circular cages too, you can start with those first, as it is easier to weed around those and then add the remesh cages when you need them. Here is the finished product with a fully developed tomato plant.
