I stake my plants using 5/8" thin wall conduit which is
available at Home Depot for about $1.50 for 8' lengths.
It can be cut to desired length with a tubing cutter.
I paint mine green to blend in with the plants.
They last for years. Just tie the plants to the pole
as they grow.
__________________________________________________




"Pat Meadows" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 21:29:20 -0700, "Dwayne"
wrote:

If you live in a high wind area, you may still have to put two posts into
the ground on either end of the row, and run a wire through your cages
for
additional support.


We don't live in a high-wind area, but we've found two
stakes in each cage to be necessary to keep the tomatoes
from collapsing the cages - just from their weight.

Last year, our wooden stakes broke and the cages collapsed .
They were made of tomato cage wire, made as specified in the
post above (in the part I snipped).

This year, we're getting some pieces of rebar (not the mesh,
the bars) to use for the stakes. *That's* not going to
snap, no matter how big the plants grow. I used these for
my pole bean teepee last year and they worked very well for
that purpose also.

We have a cooperative lumber yard that will happily cut the
rebar to our desired lengths. The lumberyard is just at the
head of our street, and we bring the folks who work there
zucchini and tomatoes when we have an excess. I don't know
if lumberyards normally do this or not.

Pat
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