tomato cage
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DIY: How to make tomato cages – large, strong & durable!

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Tired of small, flimsy tomato cages that get swallowed and crushed by your indeterminate tomato plants? In this article, you’ll find out how to make your own DIY tomato cages that are large, strong, attractive, and built to last!


Want to make your own quality DIY tomato cages?

Tomato plants come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. On the small end of the spectrum are dwarf determinate tomato varieties, compact plants that are only a couple of feet high at maturity and set nearly all of their fruit at once.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are indeterminate tomato varieties, which tend to mature into large tomato plants 6+ feet tall, which continue producing fruit throughout the summer and into fall in our growing region (USDA zone 8a).

How to make your own big, strong, durable DIY tomato cages
Mmm, a beautiful ‘Tlacolula Ribbed’ heirloom tomato. This is a large indeterminate tomato variety.

In our gardens, we like and grow tomato varieties of all sizes, from tiny ‘Tumbling Tom’ to large heirlooms like ‘Cherokee Purple’. However, if you’ve ever tried to grow large indeterminate varieties inside the small, flimsy cone-shaped cages you find at most garden centers, you know how difficult it can be.

Good luck trying to grow a large indeterminate tomato in one of those cages! It’s like trying to put toddler clothes on an NFL lineman.

Problems caused by small, weak tomato cages

Tomato cages that are too small to adequately support your plants aren’t just an aesthetic problem. They can cause other problems, including:

  • tomato plants that blow or fall over on the ground, potentially damaging fruit, snapping the main stem, or uprooting the plants;
  • leaves and branches that are stuffed too tightly inside the cage to allow for good air circulation.

Both of these problems can also increase the likelihood of foliar plant diseases that decrease fruit yields and/or shorten your tomato plants’ productive lifespans.

To add insult to injury, many store bought tomato cages are so poorly made that they’re bent or broken beyond use after a single growing season. Surely, there’s got to be a better tomato cage solution out there, right?

DIY for better tomato cages

Now, you might think it’s too good to be true, but what if we told you there’s actually a single easy way to build tomato towers that:

  • look good,
  • are as tall or as short as the specific type of tomato growing inside,
  • support the weight of your tomato plants without breaking or getting crushed,
  • can easily be made into square-shaped cages or circle-shaped cages,
  • last for years.

Below, we’ll show you exactly how to make your own DIY tomato cages that will do all of the above!

Step by step: How to make your own DIY tomato cages

Here’s how to make a sturdy cage to support anything from smaller tomato varieties to larger tomato plants:

Step 1: Get the right type and size of material.

To make the best tomato cages, you’ll want to use a material that’s durable, reusable, and attractive. “Attractive” is subjective, so your tastes may differ from ours…

Here, our preference is concrete reinforcing wire (other names: “welded wire mesh” and “reinforcement mesh”). Get a roll with a 6″ x 6″ grid, which provides optimal support while still allowing you easy access to fruit growing inside the cage.

You might want to call around first for pricing and availability, but you can usually find concrete reinforcing wire at Lowes, Home Depot, and Tractor Supply.

Finished cages made from concrete reinforcing wire. The cage on the left will be used for smaller plants like peppers, eggplants or determinate tomatoes. The cage on the right will be used for larger plants like indeterminate tomatoes and cucumbers.
Finished DIY tomato cages made from concrete reinforcing wire. The cage on the left will be used for small tomatoes. The cage on the right will be used for tall plants.

Concrete reinforcing wire can come in galvanized silver-colored rolls, but we think it looks better and blends into an edible landscape better once the exterior is rusted brown in color (see picture above). This is especially true if you use mulch/wood chips to top-dress your garden beds since the rust-colored wire blends in with the mulch. You can often buy rolls like this right off the shelf.

Note: The color isn’t noticeable once you have a mature plant that’s filled out the cage, because you can’t even see the cage at that point. However, it is a problem with young plants that are much smaller than the cage they’re growing into.

Can you see the plant cages? They blend in very well with the surrounding mulch.
Can you see the plant cages? They blend in very well with the surrounding mulch in these garden beds.

As for the size of the roll of concrete reinforcing wire you get: our preference is the 72″ tall rolls. That way, you can make finished DIY tomato cages that are around 6′ tall.

Step 2: Figure out the size and shape of the cages you want to build.

Another nice thing about using concrete reinforcing wire is that you can cut it to create finished cages of any height, shape, circumference, or diameter you want. For instance, we use it to make:

  • thin 6″ diameter trellises for a small patch of spring peas,
  • stocky 3′ tall pepper and eggplant cages,
  • large 6′ tomato cages, and
  • everything in between, including a square cage or triangle shaped cage (simply bend and flatten the wire into shape after cutting).

If you’re growing large indeterminate tomatoes, we recommend cages with the following MINIMUM dimensions (you can go larger):

  • 5′ height
  • 4′ circumference
  • 16″ diameter

(Definitions: In case you don’t remember that day in math class, circumference = distance around a circle, and diameter is the distance across the circle through the center point.)

Step 3. Make sure you have heavy duty wire cutters.

Concrete reinforcing wire is thick and strong – after all, that’s why it makes great tomato cages! The best way to cut it is to use heavy duty wire cutters (like the ones pictured below) that will cut through the thick wire like butter.

Heavy duty wire cutters - a must when cutting concrete reinforcing wire.
Heavy duty wire cutters are a must-have when cutting concrete reinforcing wire.

Step 4: Go with a “safety first” approach.

Before you start cutting, note that you can very easily injure yourself when cutting and working with concrete reinforcement wire. Please follow these safety tips:

a. Two people are better than one.

This DIY project will go a lot faster and be a lot easier with two people, so include a friend or a spouse.

Making tomato cages together also constitutes an exciting first date, especially if you talk about soil microbiology. Ha!

b. Protect your eyes and body.

Wear thick gloves, protective eyewear, and other protective clothing as-needed.

The sharp cut ends of the concrete reinforcement wire can very easily poke into your skin when you’re rolling it out or bending your cages into shape.

Step 5: Cut cages while accounting for base spikes and side folds 

a. Base spikes:

If you want your tomato cages to self-anchor in the ground, cut off the row of bottom wire to create spikes on the bottom of your cages (see picture below).

DIY tomato cages by GrowJourney - Here, I'm pointing out the bottom cut end of the DIY tomato cage that sticks into the ground. You'll want to push it into the ground all the way to the first level of the cage to help give it stability.
Here, I’m pointing out the bottom cut end of the DIY tomato cage that sticks into the ground, helping to anchor the cage. You’ll want to push it into the ground all the way to the first level of the cage to help give it stability.

However, if the bottom few inches of the cage are below the soil surface to anchor the cages, they don’t count towards the cage height. If you want to build slightly taller cages, don’t cut off the bottom wire to make spikes, and instead use rebar as an anchor attached to your tomato cages via zip ties.

b. Side folds:

Cut your vertical wire to allow for a piece to wrap back around the vertical frame. This gives your cages reinforcement all the way up the cage, which creates extra strength. (See below.)

Tomato cage cut and folded to hold its shape.
Tomato cage wire cut and folded around another wire to help the cage hold its shape.

Step 6. Put your cages over your plants sooner, not later.

Immediately after transplant is a great time to put your tomato cages on, NOT “when they need it.” If you put the cages on later, you risk damaging the plants.

As the plants grow, you can then train their branches through the cage openings. Putting the cages on immediately also helps prevent people or animals from trampling, damaging, or eating the plants.

Step 7: Add extra base reinforcement / additional support as needed.

We also recommend adding extra cage support as follows to ensure your cages don’t fall over during high winds and storms:

a) For smaller cages/plants – Stick multiple garden/landscape staples over the bottom wire where it meets the ground.

b) For larger cages/plants – For larger / tall cages where you plan to grow your biggest plants, you might also want to drive a rebar stake into the ground right next to your cage and attach it to your cage with steel wire, twine, or zip ties.

It’s no fun walking outside after a severe summer storm and seeing a pile of blown over cages and tomato plants – especially when you could have potentially prevented this by reinforcing your cages!

Tomato cage FAQs

Answers to some common questions we get about these tomato cages:

How long will these DIY tomato cages last?

These tomato cages should last at least a decade. However, exactly how long your tomato cages last will depend on your climate and how much abuse you heap on them.

For reference, the tomato/plant cages shown in the photos above are now about 15 years old and still going strong! This despite the fact that they’re constantly outside in use AND we live in a very humid/wet climate (southeastern US).

Eliza (who also works with GrowJourney) has some cages she inherited from her grandfather that are now finally becoming unusable… 40 years after he made them!

Do you have to store your tomato cages over the winter?

No. We leave our tomato cages outdoors in our garden year round, including in the winter. You can do the same – or stack them in a pile for space efficiency. That’s easy storage!

Now get out there and grow some beautiful tomatoes!

Additional tomato growing resources:

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23 Comments

  1. I have grown tomato plants that reached above 7 feet tall so I wanted to make something to be able to handle them.
    I took a lot of what you describe here, with a few other how-to ideas and came up with my own way to make 72″ . Start with 42″ x 84″ sheets of 6″ x 6″ mesh. Along the short end, I cut the first two cross wires to give 12″ in the ground stability and 72″ remaining height. 48″ is the desired circumference, so after bending every segment of the shorter wires, I got it to about an 18″ gap. I bought a 100ft roll of 12gage galvanized steel wire, cut into 12″ segments, the using about 1.5″ on each end to join the two ends almost round. Those I did at what would be the ground level, then every other cross wire at 12″ increments. I can easily add some of the ones I skipped if the need arises.
    Placing into the ground, takes a lot of patient tapping with a hammer just firm enough around the circle to eventually get them all 12 inches deep. I left in place the small pieces left from the cuts I made, which did make driving them into the ground a little more difficult, but will provide more stability.
    Other do-it-yourself ideas include using concrete rebar driven deep and strapped to the cages to make them fully weather proof. I found 36″ steel stakes 1/2″ diameter with holes for fastening to whatever. I used the about 5″ segments of waste wire to attach the cages to two of these stakes. My contraption isn’t the most attractive, but I figure, there’s no entry at the county fair for tomato cages. I made six of these in two days and have three of them fully set in place.
    First look out a window at them, a bird was perched on one. so they are being accepted.

  2. I recently moved to upstate SC from central NH and find the “red concrete” here almost impossible to plant anything. Built raised gardens, (5 now and 3 more coming) and love growing tomatoes. Found 9 cages at the recycle center but they were bent and broken, but worked so far. Your cement re-enforcing wire is a superb idea. I can also use it for my beans as I can burn the dead, dry vines off in the fall without damaging the wire. The visegrip on rebar tip (twisting and pulling from this red concrete) sounds like it might work. Thank you for these tips. I am also going to order from someone the green Italian greens asap. Happy gardening

    1. Hi Rex! Welcome to the Upstate. Yes, we LOVE these plant/tomato cages. We cut them to varying sizes and shapes, and find they work beautifully for pretty much any plant, from vining annuals like beans to large indeterminate tomatoes. Our oldest DIY plant cages are over 10 years old now and still work perfectly. FYI you don’t really have to burn the bean vines off the cages at the end of the season. We cut the bean plants at the ground after first frost (leave those roots in to feed the soil), then store the cages outdoors over winter. By the time they’re ready for new bean plants in April, the old vines are like brittle paper and flake right off with a vigorous rubbing by a gloved hand. (Although it is fun to have an excuse to play with fire.) 😛 Happy gardening to you!

  3. THANK YOU for all your tips! My neighbor and I are trying really hard to be “tomato queens” and we appreciate your detail.

  4. My FIL helped my hubby make some just like these before he passed in ’92 and they are still going strong!!

  5. My father made the same tomatoes cages sixty years ago and I am still using them. GREAT.
    Brenda in okla.

    1. Hi Nathan! Yes, we have that happen here too. We just let the plants cascade over the top of the cages. If you make the cages any taller, the plants + cages get to be really top heavy and are much more likely to blow over in a storm, even when anchored on the bottom.

    2. I add a 2.5 foot extension to the top of my 5 foot cages, attached with black UV-resistant wire ties (aka: zip ties)

      Also, I do now anchor my cages with 3 foot rebar stakes driven nearly 2 feet into the ground. They don’t budge since I started doing that! To remove the stakes at the end of the season, I remove the cage then clamp a pair of vise-grip pliers to the stake. Use the pliers as a handle to give the stake a few spins, and they then pull right out!

  6. Best cages yet . Made out of cattle panels I bought at rural king. You get 4 out of a 20 dollar panel and last forever and don’t rust.

  7. I dispense with the whole tomato cage premise and run fencing between T posts. I plant tomatoes on either side and tie them to the fencing with string. The next year, the same set up can be used as a bean trellis or for cucumbers. I use this for peppers and eggplants, too.

    1. Yep, there’s no single right way to trellis a tomato plant (or any other plant). Since we intermix tomatoes and other edible plants into our front yard landscape, we find these cages to be a good solution. For gardeners growing rows of plants outside of a landscape setting, a more permanent trellis structure works great.

  8. Two years ago, I got tired of flimsy, expensive commercial tomato cages that weren’t big enough and weren’t sturdy enough. So, for a little over $100, I bought a roll of 6x6x10x10 remesh (6″ x 6″ squares, 10 openings wide, 10 gauge wire). I made my cages 6′ in circumference, which is just under 2′ in diameter. To hold them closed, I just use black UV-Resistant zip ties. I clip the zip ties and nest the cages for off-season storage. Instead of cutting the bottom wires to insert them into the ground, I just set my cages on the ground and secure them with 2′ wooden garden stakes driven about 18″ into the ground and use zip ties to tie the cages to the stakes. If the plants get really tall, I just zip tie another 2.5′ section on top.

    This is my 3rd year of using them, and only 1 incident… Earlier this week, after a very heavy rain, one of the cages fell over… But, I just stood it back up, and added more stakes around it and the plant is still doing fine! (I think I might get some 4′ rebar stakes and drive them about 2 feet into the ground.) The one that fell over was in a new raised bed where the soil hasn’t compacted much yet, so it didn’t have much “holding power”. This cage had a 2.5′ extension on it, and the tomato plant has grown a 1.5′ beyond that, so it’s over 9 feet, and is my most prolific producer this year (it’s a Black Cherry tomato!)

  9. Those “heavy duty wire cutters” are more correctly known as “bolt cutters”. That is what you’d ask for at the hardware store.

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