HELP Please

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Rosebud

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As most of you guys know, bud, my sweet husband broke his knee. He is and has been in a wheelchair for a month. He is my wingman in the garden and I miss his help. Bud was going to build me cages. So... I need a cage or something that i can EASILY put around my plants to train them out not up. Can you guys help me think of something easy? I am thinking a big cage... HELP. Thank you in advance. I have outgrown the tomato cages so it has to be bigger.
 
you said yourself 'train'.. that's what does it.. unless you're thinking of doing an OD scrog.
all a cage does is hold and support them, not train them.

i thought you grabbed some of that netting last year? no good?
bamboo and garden twine may just be the best bet.

need something like this.. but good luck ;)
1414639491807_wps_8_IMG_0216_JPG.jpg


*never knew MR RB's name was bud.. how fitting :D
 
The "training" i have done is to take the biggest branch and aim it North with bamboo, that really made them spread nice, I want to keep doing that but don't know how...
 
Rose they sure look nice. Instead of Fence. I use tent stakes in the ground and just keep tying them down. Time consuming but easy and cheap.
 
good idea word hippy :)

you just got the regular small mater cages eh :(
they do make big green ones (but they shape them wrong, goes fat to small.. so i modify them to go small to big ;) )
if you want i can snap a pic of the ones i'm talking about (i use them for my blueberries & maters)
*still end up with the same problem, just on a larger scale ;) :D

someone posted about training plants horizontal with bamboo.. i'm timid of this route and don't think i'd recommend it.. but do you remember the thread i'm referencing? he had them all tied up to a sort of horizontal cross bamboo.

maybe could gather some ideas from them/that?
...it's just too early to go too horizontal though, without a scrog setup i fear.. i worry branches breaking under later weight.
 
How about if you make a teepee? Maybe 4 pieces of 8 foot long 2x2 wood tied together at the top and stuck into the ground a little at the bottom just to hold them from slipping.

Maybe drill some small holes in them about a foot apart and later you can run twine or whatever to support the plants between the 4 corner posts. You could train them up or down or whatever... as long as the basic structure is solid.

I have never grown outdoors (you guys are soooo lucky) so I don't know the weight and support problems you have but 2x2's are pretty heavy duty. Make like a square pyramid. You can get 8 foot lumber everywhere and if you need taller, they have 10 and 12 foot (at a premium price, usually).

Maybe some of the fence rails that they use with chain link fence. They are 12' and pretty strong. I'm not a big fan of galvanized steel in the garden (looks ugly) but it's an idea.

Like I said, I have no experience outdoors so I'm just tossing out logic stuff.
 
Another thing that I just thought of.....

Pot seems to be pretty trainable. Why not just get a pretty garden arch at the garden store and train it on that. LOL Something simple like the first picture.

Or, go crazy and make an arbor like the second picture.

How cool would that be to sit under your plants with buds all around you. LMAO

View attachment Image1.jpg

View attachment Image2.jpg
 
Sounds like all you need is a SCROG of some kind. Could be just a square frame larger than the expected size of your plant and then just weave some heavy twine into a net. Support it with some stakes and keep poking your growth down below until flower time. Then just let it happen. That's pretty much what I'm going to do with my outdoors garden.
It looks like those tomato things are meant to support the weight of tomato juice way up high but not gonna help spread it out much.
 
Rosebud, why not just hire somebody to make whatever kind of cages that Mr. RB was going to make? If you need help putting them up, there are always high school and college kids looking for extra money in the summer.

Or, I saw these tomato trellises made from PVC. You might consider something like this as you can make them any size you need. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/487162884663614505/
 
hiya rose, wish we were closer. i am buying a deer fence for that purpose. it has varying size hole openings as the fence gets taller.( i really liked the 6 by 6 inch concrete reinforcement wire although it's very rusty)....my deer fence is 300 feet long. 78 inches tall... . manuf. by louis e. page..... if i make 4 foot diameter circles (cages), around each plant. 4 x 3.1416(pi) = a little over 12 linear feet per plant. times 12 plants equals about 150 linear feet of galv. fence that should last many years. price is $280. bucks for 300 feet. which seems pretty costly but will last many years and i only need half of it for all 12 plants. i love that it's galvanized....
i have always used the 1inch dia. by 8 foot tall green garden stakes from lowes. then made varying height cages or baskets tying around the stakes using (1) inch green flexible garden tape. this worked faIRLY WELL but was time consuming. i loved that the green tape stretched under stress. the taped cages did protect the huge plants well. just my 2 cents. wish u were closer rose..
 
Believe me I wish you were closer too. Thank you for your good idea. That is what bud and I were talking about I think.
 
I would use a piece of pcs or something similar bang it into the ground or dig a hole place it in fill it up do 2 on each side of the plant then use some kind of string nail a nail to the fence then tie the string to the nail then go to the pvc the to the other pvc pipe then to the fence again do it a few times and your have a cage and can tie the plant off and train it to widen out instead of growin up..... Post a comment if you need more information of what I'm talking about
 
Or as grasshopper said you could use a piece of fence instead of using the string you can get a piece of mesh fence at Lowe's or home depo
 
lowes and home depot fence have mostly 2 by 4 inch hole size openings.

i found louis page while hunting for 6 by 6 .. or 8 by 8 inch openings. hole size changes as you get higher up on the fence. i went with 14 guage as was cheaper but plenty strong for reinforcement.

click on the 14 ga. (blue lettering).. then see SKU FFDR14786 ZA @$282.
78 inch high by 330 feet long. i need less than half. wish you were closer!!

http://www.louispage.com/fences/deer-wildlife
 
Thank you GH I really hope i can do this. He had a break in the cage so you can go in and work on the bottoms of the plants. and get to the middle, maybe. It was too hot to do it today, i will do it in the early morning. Thanks again. If i do a good job i will post up a pic.
 
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