Easy DIY tomato, cucumber & squash PVC pipe cage

6/30/2016

Tom and I just got wood fired pizza where the menu stated..."good food takes a long time so be patient." Good blog posts work much the same way. Time and lots of it to create quality work. The time Tom spent researching alone! But these tomato cages are worth the wait. Promise. Tom made these tomato cages for our garden to replace some of our old cages and what a difference! They can be left in the garden all year long so storage will never be an issue. And you know how it is with those flimsy wire tomato cages, they last one season, maybe two and then you toss them in the garbage. The cycle of buying, tossing and re-buying the following year was getting pricey and annoying. Now we have stable trellises that will last a lifetime and surprisingly look sharp too. Use these on your tomatoes, eggplant, squash, peppers, cucumbers and even beans and peas. Best of all, you'll be shocked at how easy they are to make.

Why make your own PVC cages?

After just one year, this is typically what happens with those cheap and flimsy wire cages. Make your own PVC cages and be set for life! After all, your big, vibrant plants deserve some good support. Don't we all!

Supplies needed to make one 50" heavy duty PVC tomato cage

Sharpie to mark pvc pipe, yardstick, and pvc cutter

work gloves while cementing

*A note on the PVC cement. The cement is used to permanently hold all the fittings as shown below to the pipe. If you choose to cement the whole tower it will be a stronger structure. Or, you may just want to cement the bottom portion of the cage which will allow more versatility to adjust the height or disassemble at the end of the season.

20 1/2" elbows for each 50" cage

4 1/2" tee's for each cage

16 1/2" crosses for each 50" cage

20" wide (40" and 50" heavy duty tomato cage)

48- 10" pieces for the 40" cage 60-10" pieces for the 50" cage

50" high and 14" wide heavy duty tomato cage

40 7" horizontal pieces & 20 10" vertical pieces

You can customize these cages to meet your growing needs. Tom optimistically thinks he can get our tomato plants to grow 5-6 feet which is why he built several 50 inch towers.

I am not so optimistic so I wanted a few tomato towers to be a bit shorter. Plus, these ones work quite well for your peppers, eggplant, squash and cucumbers. You just don't need quite the height.

Remember this post on growing the biggest and best tomatoes? Quick refresher: Tom planted four tomato plants around a buried water tube. He needed an extra-wide cage to accommodate four tomato plants hence the 20 inch wide tomato cages.

Step-by-step assembly instructions for your PVC tomato cage

Mark all your 10" and 7" lines and then cut

Organize all your parts for easy assembly

Cement vertical and horizontal pieces to four crosses

Add and cement elbows

Add four tee's

You may just want to cement the bottom square of the cage, especially if you are unsure of how big you want them to be. This gives you more storage options as they can be taken apart at the end of the season. It also allows you to adjust the height at any time.

Add horizontal pieces

Repeat steps 1 and 2 and then add tee's on the top square

Connect elbows

Push down the cage gently so you can see where the four pipes enter the ground. Pull the cage out and then take a metal stake and sledgehammer so the cage easily slides into the ground.

See how neat and effective PVC tomato cages are in the garden?

Tomato cage showdown. It's clear who the winner is!

Now that we're growing the biggest and best tomatoes, we need heavy-duty cages to support these budding plants.

How do you prop up your plants? What do you use?

16 Comments

Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy link

6/30/2016 09:02:20 am

These look great and I love how much time you put in to researching it. My garden and I are not friends at the moment - something has eaten nearly everything we have grown :(

Kathy @ Beyond the Chicken Coop link

6/30/2016 09:38:46 am

We always struggle with tomato cages. These look great and look like they will support HUGE tomatoes :) How will you store the cages in the off season? Right now we use stakes at the end of each row and use string to trellis our tomatoes.

Laura

7/1/2016 07:20:12 am

The cages can be left out all winter! And that's our our plan =)

Gary

5/7/2020 03:46:44 am

Walmart has heavy duty Tomato cages about that are close to 6” tall. Use a long piece of pipe or rebar to anchor each cage about 6”, drive them into the soil & tie off with strips of bed sheet, twine etc. if done right the rod will support one cage so do the same for all plants. My cages are about 5 to 10yrs old now & still going. After the season I drive a pipe / rod etc into the ground and stack the cages into each other. The rod or pipe should support about 8 cages if driven securely into the ground. Been doing it this way for 30 or 40 yrs now. The tomatos might go over the top of the cage but no problem as my pipe will hold it up easily.

Cucumbers; I made a PVC frame with 3 in pipe I bought and a nylon net at the garden store. You can put the frame into to your raised bed or the ground. Now cut the top pipe about 6ft or 8ft long & the vertical end pipes about 4 or 5ft and then drive stakes into the ground so the 5ft vertical pipe will fit over them to support the trellis in a vertical position.
Then string the nylon net over the top pipe. I have a helper to hold it over the top pipe then I wrap string thru the net starting in the middle of the top pipe going each direction to the bottom of the left pipe and then to the right pipe & tie it off at the ground. Now at this point you should have lashed the net securely to the pipe. The cukes will climb up the net. The net will last 3 to 5yrs before you need to replace it.

Demeter | Beaming Baker link

6/30/2016 11:06:25 am

"Good blog posts work much the same way." So true!! The better the post, the more effort you put into it. So thanks to you and Tom for spending so much time researching and testing to share your knowledge with us. :) The time and effort you put into this pvc pipe cage is so obvious. Well done! :)

Ashley link

6/30/2016 03:53:07 pm

I couldn't agree more!! This is such a great tutorial! Maybe for next year when we actually plant things again! haha Happy July 4th Laura!!

Tandy I Lavender and Lime link

7/1/2016 12:04:23 am

I love how industrious Tom is. It's nice having a handy husband around 😀

Amy (Savory Moments) link

7/2/2016 06:51:45 am

Your backyard must be an amazing place full of gardens! These are such a neat idea and must be so much better than the thin wire ones.

Christine @ Run Plant Based link

7/5/2016 09:19:07 am

These look great, very sturdy for the long term and fun to make. Thanks!

Bonnie Clyne

8/15/2016 03:43:25 pm

These look cool and we need to do our tomatoes right next year. Do you have a cost estimate for each cage? Thank you for your site.

Barbara Brooks

9/25/2016 10:45:55 pm

Thank you for the great ideas and great instructions. Will be better than metal tomato cages.

Jennie

2/22/2018 05:58:12 pm

These are a good idea. My favorite are some that were handed down to us from grandparents, made out of sturdy metal fencing.

Rick

3/3/2018 10:50:15 pm

Great idea. I was toying with cutting up some welded wire, but it seems too cost prohibitive.

Rick

5/17/2018 11:39:35 pm

A friend recommended using hog panel and training the tomatoes as they grow. We're going to give it a spin. Looks nice with tiny plants but who knows.

ellen beck

7/2/2018 11:19:08 pm

I love the look of these. I have the rottenest lick with wire cages and they are always getting bent up. I also almost always have to stake he tomatoes anyway. I am going to have hubby make these or I am. The problem though would be storage. I wonder if they have to be totally glued or how rugged hey are over winter?

Mary Bacsar

4/23/2020 01:08:45 pm

HApproximately How much does it cost to make these cages - the smaller ones.