GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

Dennis Mayer · 13-08-2006, 02:55 PM posted to rec.gardens

wrote:

I am rather new at gardening and I put quite a few tomato plants in my
small garden and they are taking over the whole thing. Someone told
me I need metal tomato rings. Yeah, I know what they are. But 2
problems. First off, I think it may be too late to install them. But
maybe I can still move the plants (maybe). The other thing is those
rings are quite costly and I am on a very tight budget. This garden
is supposed to save money not cost a fortune. Can I make them out of
any sort of recyclable item? I have a scrap metal pile, any ideas?
Maybe just wooden sticks?????

Finally, for some reason, some sort of squash or pumpkin, or
watermellon is growing in the garden. I know it's one of those type
of plants. It is growing on it's own. However, I did toss some old
squash and things in there in spring. They had gone bad to eat, so I
just tossed them out there. I assume one of them is what I am seeing.
They are fortunately growing near the edge of the garden where I put
some lettuce which the rabbits ate, so I may as well let them grow and
they are getting flowers already. Whatever they are will be a
surprise. However they were growing into the tomatoes. I pulled them
off and got them going over onto the lawn now. Is there some sort of
thing I should put on them to climb? If yes, what?

Thanks

Mark

Yes, you may be too late to install 54" tall tomato ring cages....

The small ring diameter end is 10" Dia. on a 54" tall cage..

54" units (4 rings with 4 vertical wires) come in two price ranges:

$5 ea thick wire units at Fleet & Farm or Menards home supply.

$2 ea thinner wire units at Home Depot (made in China).

I use a bolt cutter to remove the 4 'spiked ends', invert the cage
with

Big end down, & bend the cut spike wires 180 Deg to hold a cage
down.