DIY Network

Tomato Cages and Ladder Trellis Joe Lamp'l shows several methods for growing tomatoes and cucumbers vertically. From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-308

Joe Lamp'l discusses the basics of vertical gardening as a space-saving technique and explains that vegetables trained to grow up a vertical support are often healthier, cleaner and more trouble-free than their counterparts that are left to sprawl on the ground. Joe then shows several types of tomato cages and demonstrates how to build your own heavy-duty tomato cage out of wire fencing.

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Vertical gardening means training plants to grow up an arbor, a trellis, a fence or any other vertical support.

• Growing vegetables up rather than out is a space-saving technique with many advantages. With vertical gardening, you can save gardening space, grow healthier produce, and have a vegetable patch so attractive that it's the toast of the town.

• It can be as basic as growing tomatoes in a cage or beans on a trellis, or it can be more innovative. You can grow cucumbers, melons, and gourds on trellises, too. You can also espalier fruits and berries against a wall, or you can build an arbor and turn it into an attractive landscape feature.

  Vertical Gardening With Tomatoes
  

  Staked tomatoes usually produce fewer but larger tomatoes, since they are usually pruned to one or two main stems as they grow.

  Growing tomatoes up rather than out is probably the most popular vertical gardening technique of all. There are dozens of ways to grow tomatoes vertically.

  • One tried-and-true way is use wooden stakes. With this method, use a stake that that is at least 5' tall and an inch or two wide and that has V on the bottom end. Place the stake 3" away from a newly planted tomato plant, then use a hammer to pound the stake about 1" deep into the soil. Attach old strips of cloth about every 10" along the stake by tying the strips tightly around the wood. As the tomato grows, loosely tie the stem to the stake. For best results, prune off all but one or two main stems.

  • Caged tomato fruits are usually clean and of high quality The two basic types of tomato cages found in garden stores are the round type and those that fold flat but open up into a square. Both cages are installed by pushing the wire legs into the ground around a newly planted tomato.

  • Tomatoes that are grown inside cages rarely need to be tied. But if you wish, you can give the vines a helping hand by loosely tying the stalks to the cage with pieces of soft twine.

  Making a Wire Tomato Cage
  

  Caged tomatoes don't require pruning, which is why tomato cages are so popular.

  If you're growing a small, bushlike tomato variety, a small cage will be fine. But for large tomatoes, sturdy homemade wire cages may be the better choice. They're easy to make and relatively inexpensive, and they're taller and more heavy-duty than most ready-made cages.

  Materials:

  hammer
  wire snips
  length of pipe
  wire-mesh fencing (heavy-gauge 60" tall roll with 6"-square openings)
  gloves
  safety goggles

  1. Measure off and cut a 78" length of fencing to end up with a 60"x78" piece (figure A). Make the cuts at the ends of the squares (figure B) so you'll have several extra inches of wire to use as a handle to close the cage.
  

  2. To create the cage, lay the fencing out on the ground and roll it up into a circle or column (figure C). Next take a short, narrow piece of pipe and use it as a handle to loop each wire over and through the wire squares on the other side. The pipe gives you leverage to bend the heavy wire, and it protects your hands from any sharp points.

  Figure A

  Figure B

  Figure C

  
  

  3. To anchor the cage into the ground, weave a wooden stake through the wires (figure D) and hammer it into the ground (figure E). If you don't have a wooden stake, use a length of rebar, a PVC pipe or a metal pipe.

  Figure D

  Figure E

  
  

  Plant three or four tomato plants around the base of each cage. As the plants grow, you will need to tie them to the cage.

  Growing Cucumbers Vertically

  Cucumbers feel right at home growing vertically, either on a trellis or in a tomato cage. They are classified as either vining types or bush types. Vining types should be chosen for vertical gardening, as they will grow straight up a vertical support.
  

  Figure F

  One good support is a trellis; you can make a trellis with 2x4 wood slats and garden twine looped up and down and across. You can also plant cucumbers right next to a tomato cage. To get the vine started growing up the cage, use garden twine to loosely tie the vine to the cage. Once the cucumber grows a bit, it will send out small tendrils that will allow the vine to climb up the wires by itself.

  Cucumbers will also grow vertically on a ladder trellis (figure F). You can create your own ladder trellis by making two wood grids, then leaning them together in the garden and lashing or screwing them together at the top for extra stability. Another option is to purchase a ladder trellis.
  

  ALSO IN THIS EPISODE:
  	Tomato Cages and Ladder Trellis
  	Tepees and Espalier
  	Wooden Arbor
  	Three Sisters Garden