Homemade Tomato Cage From The Dollar Store

Starting this out: would I do this again? Well, no. But I’m going to give you directions because this is cheap and if you have some time this is totally achievable.

This is done with things you can pick up at your local dollar store. Thick 36 inch bamboo skewers. (I don’t know what these are for officially. My mom thinks marshmallow sticks, I’ll go with that.) Then you need a bag of smaller 12 inch skewers. These come in 100 a bag and 125 a bag. I’ve worked with both, they are both in the same store on different aisles. I don’t know why. But they’re the same price so get the 125 per package if they are available.

You can make this a whole lot sturdier with some super glue. My super glue isn’t from the dollar store but dollar store super glue works just as well.

Then twine, heavy string, knitting yarn. Whatever you want, but it needs to have some length and strength to it. And scissors.

It’s a low ingredient project. I have found this to be nearly impossible to assemble without two people. Maybe I’m just klutzy. But I recommend that you have someone to hold loose skewers or pots of dirt to stick them in, to sturdy them as you tie them together.

Cut yourself about 12 inches of yarn, twine or heavy string. Sturdy the 36 inch skewers, in whatever way works for you, and add a 12 inch skewer at a right angle. This is where teaching my two Boy Scout son’s knots came in handy. (BTW my Eagle scout is home from college for the summer. I’m so proud of him.) I don’t remember the exact knots but I remember the gist of it. Tie a slip knot to the 12 inch skewer. Start wrapping the 12 inch skewer at a right angle to the 36 inch skewer. Over, under, cross. Do this as it makes sense. It should end up pretty even and very sturdy. Take your super glue and glue the end of your chosen type of string to the ball you just made and glue the skewer to the ball and slide it back and forth a bit to pull the super glue inside. You can build these as tall as you like. They can be as wide in circumference as you like. What they won’t be is extremely sturdy.

I built this for some chayote that sprouted, to see what the plant looks like. This is so flimsy I’m going to run potato vine over it instead and go down to Lowe’s and get some welded wire tomato cages for the heavy chayote fruit.

This is going to be moved. There’s no way this is going to support fruit.

So if it’s so flimsy why build them? I’m glad you asked! Any thin vine: morning glory, four o’clocks, black eyed Susan vine. Smaller flowering vines would love this and it is nice and tall and is much prettier than tomato cages. Will it hold up fruit? No. No it will not. But I have other uses for these so all is not lost. It took me about 10 minutes to make this. I took my time. It was relaxing and stress free and cost literally pennies. So, it’s not a bad project. Just keep in mind bamboo skewers are probably not going to make for a sturdy fruiting vine support.