Tomato trellising that actually holds

Cattle panel arches beat tomato cages in every way that matters, and they cost about the same once you count how many flimsy cages you've replaced.

The setup

A 16-foot cattle panel, bent into an arch over a bed and secured with T-posts on each side. Plants go up the sides, and by mid-July the whole thing is a tunnel of vines.

Why it holds

The rigid welded-wire panel doesn't sag under a fully loaded indeterminate tomato plant the way a cone-style cage does by August. We haven't had a single plant topple since switching.

What we'd change

Space T-posts a little closer than we did the first year (ours flexed slightly in a bad windstorm). An extra post every six feet instead of eight would have prevented it.

If panels aren't in the budget

The cheap version is T-posts and construction line with the vines woven between them, see a tomato trellis for the price of a roll of string. It costs a fraction of this, stores in a bundle, and asks for more upkeep in exchange.