Make Your Own Tomato Cages

I started making these cages after being frustrated and disappointed how the small cages you purchase fall down or collapse under the weight of the plant. These cages are made from steel mesh generally used for concrete and can be purchased at most home improvement stores. They are simple and hold up well.

You will have to determine how much mesh you need based on the number of plants you wish to support and how large of a cage you would like. I made this one a bit tighter than my last ones do to the size of my new garden and number of plants I have.

Things you will need:

Roll of steel mesh
- I have used this in the past an in this build but you can use other material such as wire fencing.

Tools
Small bolt cutters for cutting the wire
Pair of pliers for twisting wire
Tape measure
Gloves are also recommended

I this step we cut our steel mesh to the length we need to surround our plant. To find out how much you will need you will have to solve for your circumference C=(Dπ). I have chosen to make my cage around 14" in diameter. So 14*3.14=44" (rounding up for easy figures).

Now that we have our length we can cut our mesh to the desired length. We won't cut right on our measured 44" but to the nearest center of the square mesh. Keep in mind we don't need to be exact for this. We will be using the extending wire to tie this all together.

In this step we will wrap the cage around to itself. The mesh will naturally want to coil up making this pretty easy. Next you will bend the extending pieces around closing the ends to make the cage.

Here we will cut the very bottom ring off. In this step we will want to cut as close to the bottom ring as possible. This will give us the longest possible wire to force into the earth to secure the cage.

Center your cage around the plant and press it firmly into the ground. You can use the rings to step on to force it into the ground.