I’ve tried the tomato cages; I find them unsatisfactory. They are cheaply made; the welds break, and the plants eventually grow so big that the cages fall over. I’ve tried various types of cages…I want something else.
How can I effectively support my tomato plants with something that will actually work. I’m willing to build what I need if I have to; but it would be nice if it was economical, since I have 28 plants to support.
I’ve seen a couple of methods that work well, one employed by my father-in-law. Get some welded wire, just make sure the openings are large enough to reach through for harvesting. Roll off enough to make a cage the diameter you want, roll it into a tube and faster the ends together with twisted wire. He never did anything but sit these on the ground around the plants, maybe there’s some interplay between variety of tomato and this style of cage.
My brother, nick-named “Build it Bulletproof” took hog wire and affixed between two wooden posts, and planted the tomato plants at the base of the wire. He also took sections of galvanized pipe, woven them vertically through the hogwire them drove them into the ground every three feet or so for extra support. And just to add some more structure to this apparatus he then took lenghts of 3/8" re-bar and ran from the top of one wooden post to the other and tied all the intermediate pieces of galvanized to the re-bar. Did I mention he tends to over build things? But, ain’t none of his maters hitting the ground unless he throws them there.
-rainy
The best tomato cages I ever had–and still have out in the garage, 20 years later–were the ones that I made out of 6" concrete reinforcing wire. It makes cages that are six feet tall and are capable of supporting even the most rambunctious beefsteak tomatoes. And they have huge spaces for you to reach your hands through for harvesting, picking off bugs, etc.
You have to buy a roll of it at the lumberyard and cut it up with bolt cutters or a hacksaw so it will make 2-foot-wide cylinders, which, the circumference of a circle being equal to pi times the diameter, means that you want to cut it up into about 6 1/2 foot lengths.
You have to unroll it out in the driveway or on the lawn, then hold it down with something while you measure and cut. It’s easier to unroll it if you have another person to help you by standing on it at strategic points to hold it down.
You fasten the chunks of wire together to form a cylinder with your choice of whatever wire you have around (baggie ties won’t work, it has to be Serious Wire). And then you stand them up around your baby tomato plants, and weight them down with bricks on the bottom-most wires, because until the plants are big enough to grow through the wire and support it, they’ll blow over during thunderstorms. But by the time the plants get about 3 feet tall and start growing into it, those things are rock-solid. And they last forever. Just ignore the rust, it doesn’t seem to weaken them.
If you find the need to tie up individual limbs, I have found panty hose to be an excellent choice. Spread them out a bit and they won’t cut into the plant.
Last year I tried those newfangled tomato ladders - it’s just two sides of ladder, like this . Don’t do it, man! Maybe if you’re a suckering madman with the world’s sweetest neatest tomatoes… but let’s face it, you aren’t. Those things aren’t holding up nothin’ and trying to get in there with your plants is like going up the Mekong.
You know I bet that’s what my father-in-law used. It was tough stuff, he even had one of those tools to twist the wire (no idea what its called) when you are fastening re-bar together.
We use concrete reinforcing wire as well, but simply as a 8 ft stake, about 1 cm diameter. About one third of this lengh is stabbed in the ground, which gives the two-thirds above ground enough stability. One stake is enough for one big tomato plant. The ribbed structure on the stake makes it easy to tie the tomato plants up with little “8” shaped loops of thread.
I must say I like the old pantyhose idea!
IMO it’s the highest and best use for pantyhose, whether old or new. 
You could prune and stake them.
Indeterminate are vining types that can outgrow any cage over time. Determinate are bush types you don’t normaly prune and they have a fixed length. Make sure to buy determinate types if you want to grow them in a small cage. You’ll have to make cages out of high fencing or concrete reinforcing to get large tall cages. Don’t be suprised that you still have to prune off shoots from an indeterminate type. They sprout two shoots at every leaf node.
Most defintely, the concrete reinforcing wire makes the best cages.
I have two sizes; 5.5’ diameter and 6’ diameter. That way, I can store them one inside another. Cuts the required storage space in half.
Also, instead of anchoring with bricks or stakes, I simply cut off the bottom wire. That leaves several wire ‘stakes’ that point straight down. Once you get them in the right location, just walk around the cage and lightly step them down into the ground.
Now that’s smart thinking. But six foot diameter cages!? I didn’t realize that mean green mothers from outer space bore tomatoes!
What variety do you normally plant?
-rainy
I tried this, too, at first, but they still blew over in thunderstorms. Until I got some bricks…
Maybe you Buckeyes just have wussier thunderstorms. [snerk] 
I took the sizing difference a little farther and fit 4 in a stack. It’s pretty important if you have many.
Some thoughts on the concrete reinforcment mesh: There’s no need to measure, just count the 6-inch squares. If you are only planting a few tomato plants, find a concrete contractor. If you tell him what you need, he’ll probably give you a roll end or two for nothing.
It gets pretty darned windy here, once or twice a summer. I drive a metal fence stake next to each cage, and I fasten it to the cage with vinyl clad aluminum clothesline wire. I always keep a reel of that around; it’s really useful stuff.
If a main stem tries to leave the cage, tuck it back in. Cut off any side branches that escape the cage. If you don’t, you won’t be able to find the tomatoes.
It’s tempting to put the cages cheek-by-jowl, but I don’t recommend it. It’s cumbersome at picking time.
It’s no use telling you not to plant too many. You’re going to do it
TOO LATE!!!
The reinforcing wire method works, but it is a pain to work with.
Another option is cages made of pvc plumbing pipe. The double and triple connections (elbows and whatever the triple ones are called) are cheap and premade. And the pipe itself is simple to cut with a hacksaw.
No need to glue. The cages stay together just fine with friction. And they break down for easy winter storage.
Those little three-sided tomato cages that you wrap around the plant and hook together are too wimpy for the mutha “Celebrity” tomatoes I plant every year. But we found a solution: we bought a sturdier type of three-sided tomato cage, two for each plant, and hooked two of them together to make a big, sturdy, six-sided tomato cage. These babies work just fine. And they’re easier to remove, fold and stack for winter storage. And yes, there are differing qualities in three-sided tomato cages.
You remind me that I should get it in gear and do that this weekend before the plants are too big to comfortably work with.
Here&s a link with a pic. (I used a slightly different design, but this alternative
looks good, too.)
I cut some slender stakes, seven feet long, out of cedar, and planed one end of each stake until it was very sharp. I drive the stakes deep into the ground at an angle, so they form sort of a teepee longhouse over the tomatoes. I then wind long pieces of gardening string through this structure from one stake to the next so that the string sets up a grid. I do this at two heights. The plants are free to grow up through the stakes and string pretty much any way they want. Whenever a plant starts to grow outside of the structure, I just wait till it’s grown a few inches and then tuck it back inside.
It’s essentially the cedar n’ string equivalent of the cages other people use. The great thing about cedar is that it never rots and bugs hate it. Doesn’t seem to scare away the bees though, which is obviously important, especially this year.