Pvc Tomato Cage

Building a DIY Tomato Cage out of PVC is a simple project with few drawbacks. These are instructions for what you see in the pictures, as well as related notes.

Buy a few long PVC pipes and several corner and T bits at your local hardware store.
Cut several matching lengths of PVC pipe. What you're seeing here in the picture of parts are several matching cut pipe pieces less than 2 feet in length.
Figure out how you wish to support your tomato. In the pictures of pieces there are far more parts than were actually used to complete this project, so don't be alarmed.
Assemble a desired structure. This is as simple as putting together any basic construct, and whatever form you wish to assemble need not match the completed project here. The completed project was shaped this way due to the ultimate realization that there was no need for a three tiered tomato cage, as it would have been overkill.
Don't bother gluing the pipes together. PVC will usually stay together all season long if it is fit together snugly to start with.
Place the cage in the garden and you're done!

Benefits of using PVC cages in the home garden:

PVC is very cheap. The parts used to assemble the project shown on this page cost less than $5.

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This article was last edited on Thu, Jun 03, 2010 at 11:08am EST.

Comment by Admin Ken:
I hadn't considered PVC for potted tomatoes, but I guess it's possible. Try building a PVC "basket" around the base of the pot as an anchor, and use some T sections to spread out at an angle from there, perhaps with extra "legs" that touch the ground again out a bit from the pot to offer support. The rest would simply be a matter of building vertically, while being mindful of the supporting base. I'm imaging something large but amusing coming from this if you do make one! Don't forget that there are many sizes of PVC available, and you might want to start with some extra strong pieces at the base. This also puts me in mind of wondering - if someone wants to grow tomatoes from a hanging basket, could they integrate that onto a PVC frame as the hanger? See the concept art for a PVC pot style cage I just tossed into the wiki.

Comment by emsgrands:
Any tips on using the pvc tomato cage
when growing tomato's in pots.Last summer
we got lots of tomatos growing this way.We used
the cages and tree branches to support
the plants but it didn't stop the plant branches
from breaking.The plants were 6 feet tall.
We live in a manufactured home community and
the ground is really hard,that is why we grew
in pots.All tips will be appreciated.

Comment by emsgrands:
This is a great idea for building a tomato
cage or for anything.I like this because
you can easily store it in winter.Thanks for the
idea.
emsgrands

Comment by Admin Ken:
I've got a LOT of tomatoes going this year, and I'm highly tempted to try a PVC plant cage that's setup so that the open ends terminate in the soil by the base, letting me stick a funnel at the top, therefor creating a method for adding water without disturbing the plant itself.

Comment by GardenGuy2008:
I made one of these last year a lot like what's shown in the pictures here in front of the garlic patch. To expand on it a little bit I used a few more PVC T-bits about 12 inches off the grown for the purpose of sending horizontal support out for long running branches, which paid off when the tomatoes got ripe. If possible, certainly avoid gluing, because it's really handy to be able to adapt the design when your plant doesn't grow to the shape you predicted it would. Can't pull that trick off with the traditional metal cages.