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Sorry in advance Mrs Rucks for somewhat posting off topic.
A tomato cage of a sort is easy enough to make from pig/stock netting, but I've found it certainly doesn't work well here for me. Left to grow as nature intended, tomato plants get far too large and bulky for the average greenhouse, particularly if you want to grow several varieties. With the UK's lower light intensity, high moisture and lower airflow of indoor growing, I find too much leaf just doesn't work. Fruits are smaller, take longer to start ripening and health issues abound.
Using cages outdoors works ok on bush types to helps lift the fruit off the ground, keeping them clean and out of the worst of slug attacks. But generally for cordon types if used without pruning it just doesn't work here for me. Pretty much for the same reasons as growing inside, not much point having huge plants with lots of fruits if they never get to develop and ripen.
Even though I'm not a cage and unprune tomato fan, I am thinking of caging some Crimson Crush tomatoes with a partial prune to see how they manage. I've only one years experience with these but they do seem very able to crop well outdoors, if only they were a bit more Late Blight resistant.
A tomato cage of a sort is easy enough to make from pig/stock netting, but I've found it certainly doesn't work well here for me. Left to grow as nature intended, tomato plants get far too large and bulky for the average greenhouse, particularly if you want to grow several varieties. With the UK's lower light intensity, high moisture and lower airflow of indoor growing, I find too much leaf just doesn't work. Fruits are smaller, take longer to start ripening and health issues abound.
Using cages outdoors works ok on bush types to helps lift the fruit off the ground, keeping them clean and out of the worst of slug attacks. But generally for cordon types if used without pruning it just doesn't work here for me. Pretty much for the same reasons as growing inside, not much point having huge plants with lots of fruits if they never get to develop and ripen.
Even though I'm not a cage and unprune tomato fan, I am thinking of caging some Crimson Crush tomatoes with a partial prune to see how they manage. I've only one years experience with these but they do seem very able to crop well outdoors, if only they were a bit more Late Blight resistant.
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