Climbers for tomatoes ... on a budget (free!)

RenoHuskerDu

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I ordered up 10 tomato climbers from Jeff Bozos, $8 each. Then I got to thinkin, why send money to that weasel if I can build my own objects for the tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers to climb.

Voila, a look around the old ranch, a call to a neighbor, and zero dollars later we have one tomato bed ready and planting, plus the cucumber bed all ready for next week.

Cattle ranchers have a LOT of this stuff lying around. The locals call it Cattle Wire.
CattleWire.jpg


Once it's old, cut, and bent up, they may hang onto it, but rarely use it. My neighbor gave us an 18' length of it, just high enough for cucumbers. All we had to do was stand on it, straighten it out, then bend it into a big zzz form. Then we stood it on end and staked it down firmly.
CucumberPatch.jpg


Isn't that a nice climber for cucumbers?
CucumberClimb.jpg

Here's how we staked it down to support it.
CucumberClimbStakeDown.jpg


For the tomatoes, I found some old movable cattle pen sides that were rusting out in our field. They might not be strong enough for cattle, but they're fine for tomatoes. They have their own feet at the bottom, so all we had to do was step on the low rail and drive the pipes into the tilled ground. Check it out.
TomatoCattlePen.jpg


And the CEO (chicken executive officer) is already laying in tomato plant starts. Zero dollars spent.

The Amazon stuff arrives next week, and we'll use it for the next bed over. I'll let y'all know which work best, Bezos stuff or recycled free stuff.
upload_2019-3-29_18-51-43.png
 
I ordered up 10 tomato climbers from Jeff Bozos, $8 each. Then I got to thinkin, why send money to that weasel if I can build my own objects for the tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers to climb.

Voila, a look around the old ranch, a call to a neighbor, and zero dollars later we have one tomato bed ready and planting, plus the cucumber bed all ready for next week.

Cattle ranchers have a LOT of this stuff lying around. The locals call it Cattle Wire.
View attachment 1719280

Once it's old, cut, and bent up, they may hang onto it, but rarely use it. My neighbor gave us an 18' length of it, just high enough for cucumbers. All we had to do was stand on it, straighten it out, then bend it into a big zzz form. Then we stood it on end and staked it down firmly.
View attachment 1719293

Isn't that a nice climber for cucumbers?View attachment 1719294
Here's how we staked it down to support it.
View attachment 1719286

For the tomatoes, I found some old movable cattle pen sides that were rusting out in our field. They might not be strong enough for cattle, but they're fine for tomatoes. They have their own feet at the bottom, so all we had to do was step on the low rail and drive the pipes into the tilled ground. Check it out.
View attachment 1719295

And the CEO (chicken executive officer) is already laying in tomato plant starts. Zero dollars spent.

The Amazon stuff arrives next week, and we'll use it for the next bed over. I'll let y'all know which work best, Bezos stuff or recycled free stuff.
View attachment 1719300
This is actually really smart!!
 
Free is always worth more in my opinion... and there's the added plus of sticking it to Jeff. ;)
I'm inspired to do my own diy for our tomatoes, though I live in the city I doubt anyone here has cattle fencing!
 
Oh I used pvc poles with tomato cages. Pvc was lying around. I had extra from making the chicken run.

We had a neighbor in France who used simple wood stakes. But he and his wife had to laboriously tie up stems every day ... all summer.
 

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