Not Tomato Cages, Not Stakes: These 3 Modular Systems Are What You Should Be Using to Support Your Tomato Plants
Don't let rusted, broken tomato cages or flimsy stakes jeopardize your harvest. Better supports mean healthier plants and tastier tomatoes.
Indeterminate types of tomatoes can grow incredibly tall and flop over under their own weight. The traditional conical metal tomato cages are often too weak and too short to support the full weight of a productive tomato plant, especially, if it’s a larger variety like a beefsteak tomato.
Staking tomato plants with a support rod is another option that also leaves a lot to be desired. They are easier to store than the spiky metal cages, but require gardeners to tie the plants onto the stakes which can pinch off the stem of the plant leading to vine death.
Luckily, there are some really great modular tomato support systems on the market these days so you don’t have to compromise!
1. Snap-Together System
This snap-together system, available from Amazon, is a personal favorite of Gardening Know How Senior Editor Liz Baessler. Liz was tired of fussing with metal tomato cages that get tangled, rusted, and don’t quite fit in the shed, so she decided to give this adjustable trellis a try.
Sturdy stakes get pushed into the ground around your plant and you build the trellis with snap-in pieces as the plant grows. You can make the cage triangular or square and as tall as you want! It’s also really nice to not have to worry about trying to weave parts of the plant back within the cage. I can’t tell you how many times I have accidentally bent and snapped a healthy tomato-bearing branch trying to coax it inside the cage so it can get proper support. With this system, you can add a support bar wherever you need it. No more broken branches.
Possibly the best part of this tomato support makes itself known at the end of the season. All these pieces pop apart and you can store them in a fraction of the space that a traditional tomato cage takes up. Liz stores hers in a reusable grocery bag. Nothing better than a clean shed at the end of a busy growing season!
2. Flexible Growing
I am justifiably obsessed with the clever FlexGrow tomato cage system from Vego Garden. These strong, adjustable tomato cages can support up to 33 lbs of tomatoes and stack on top of each other to grow with your plants. Not only is the height adjustable, you can also form the pieces into an A-frame, a trellis, or a fence. Mind blown. This means you can grow perfect tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, or flowering vines with the same 4-pack of cages.
Vego Garden also designed these cages so they open wide and can be installed around a mature tomato plant without damaging it. I needed this a few years ago when I left town without caging my tomatoes and came back to plants that had doubled in size and couldn’t be shoved into the cages I had. I put on my problem-solving cap and built a strange string trellis system with leftover wood from refinishing my deck. It barely worked and my tomatoes were a messy jungle the whole season.
The modular panels are made from powder-coated galvanized steel that will resist rust and stay sturdy for years to come. This clever system grows and changes with you and your garden through the seasons and folds completely flat for easy storage.
3. Stacking Ladders
The stacking tomato ladder from Gardener’s Supply Company is another fabulous, modular tomato support system. Made of powder-coated steel, these adjustable supports can stack up to 6.5 feet tall and hold over 100 pounds of plant and produce! They are open on one side so they can be slipped around a mature tomato plant and their patented “plant cradle” design gently supports your tomato plants. No pinched stems here!
I think the red tomato plant ladders are absolutely adorable and they will look great for years to come. These ladders come in a set of 6 and you can use one for dwarf or bush tomato varieties or stack up to 3 for those big indeterminate plants. Last summer I had one indeterminate plant that grew up and over my traditional, conical tomato cage and continued to vine through the rest of the vegetable garden. It was a mess and the plant was so heavy that it eventually crushed its cage. All the fruit ended up on the ground and was eaten by animals and pests. This might just be the perfect solution for those jumbo indeterminates!
These tomato ladders have almost 900 5-star reviews, so clearly Gardener’s Supply Co. is doing something right! The ladders nest inside each other for clutter-free storage over the winter.
So go ahead and recycle those flimsy, rusty tomato cages that clog up your shed and try out a modular tomato support system. The flexibility, ease, and effectiveness of these modular systems will make your tomato garden happier year after year.
