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

[RenoHuskerDu]

OK campers, the Bezos tomato climbers came in and here is the report.

For $8 each, it seems like a fair deal. BUT, we discovered while living in France that some Chinese stainless steel is actually ... wait for it ... radioactive! The French version of Consumer Reports revealed that.

Now, these may or may not be radioactive, but man look at that black grime that was on them. I think I'm going to scrounge up more used, bent, cattle panels for the remaining beds and not buy any more of the Bezos climbers.

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled programming...a good night's sleep.

 

[21hens-incharge]

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

I love using found/repurposed things in the garden.
That zig zag will be great with cukes!

OK campers, the Bezos tomato climbers came in and here is the report.

For $8 each, it seems like a fair deal. BUT, we discovered while living in France that some Chinese stainless steel is actually ... wait for it ... radioactive! The French version of Consumer Reports revealed that.

Now, these may or may not be radioactive, but man look at that black grime that was on them. I think I'm going to scrounge up more used, bent, cattle panels for the remaining beds and not buy any more of the Bezos climbers.

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled programming...a good night's sleep.
View attachment 1725479

Maybe a good scrubbing with simple green will clean them up.
I think they are to small for tomatoes. Might work for pepper plants....

 

[henless]

I love cattle panels! I have some that are straight like a fence and others I make into trellises. I grow pole beans, cucumbers, pumpkin & cantaloupe on my trellises. Makes picking easy.