Customer Reviews

Ultomato Tom Cage

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the world's best tomato cage, hands down. As another reviewer stated, if you've forgotten to stake or cage your tomatos, you can snap this one around an existing tomato without doing any damage to the plant. Try that with a wire cage! I also like that the side arms are movable so you can adjust it to support different branches (like if one is heavily laden with fruit, etc).

It is VERY sturdy. I have had wire cages burst open somehow due to the weight of the plant and this Poly cage won't. The stakes also are pretty tough to bend. (I once tried pounding a stake into a slab of cement hidden under the soil and only after several hits with the hammer did I notice any bending in the pole.)

You may be a little put off with a price of $5 when you can buy slightly smaller wire cages for $1, but it's well worth it. You can reuse for years without any noticable changes, it stores flat, unlike wire cages that take up a lot of space and rust, and if you are growing something larger than your average tomato, you can combine two or more sets of stakes to create a hexagon. It's also taller than your average cyclone type wire cage which is great for indeterminate tomato types.

I purchased one at Home Depot 3 years ago and was so impressed that I went out and bought 3 more (one for my sister, two more for me!) I also use it to stake cucumbers, and this year will try to trelis mini pumpkins with it. Honestly, if you make the move to the Ultomato cage, you will be thrilled with your results and revel in the day you throw away your rusty and bent wire cages.

I purchased 6 of these Ultomato "cages" from a local home improvement store garden center with lots of orange shelving and shopping carts. I had already planted the tomatoes in the garden and needed to assemble the cages and get them around the tomato plants. Assembly of the cages was not difficult at all. Disassembly of the packaged product took longer than the assembly of the cages. There must be about 10 or more plastic twist ties wrapped around all the components in the package in every conceivable combination of wrapping method known to man. After untwisting all of the twist ties included inside of 6 packages of Ultomato cages, I think I now have carpel tunnel syndrome.
I got them all assembled and realized that after sticking the pointed ends of the three vertical 5 foot stakes into the garden soil about 8 or 10 inches, the "effective" height of the cages was not tall enough for the tomato plants I usually grow (with only about four feet of the Ultomato cage remaining to support the 6 foot tall tomato plants I normally grow). The material used to make the product is superior. The design of the product is wonderful. The ease of assembly is great. It needs to be offered in a taller version, about 7 feet tall. Also, additional horizontal support clips need to be available at the place of purchase to help support the plant at more locations as the plant gets taller. Overall, a fantastic product design. Five stars if it was taller and additional support clips were avaialble.

These tall cages are so much better then the traditional cages. They are much taller, the tomatoes can grow up instead of all over the place and causing the cages to fall. The best part is you can cage them at any point, my plants were about 3 feet tall when I finally got around to putting them up. The side parts can be moved up and down to accomodate where the vines are on the plant.

I totally agree with the other reviewer in every way. I wrote my review before seeing theirs:

This was rather hard to assemble, and much easier with two people. The best thing about them is if your tomato plant grows outside the cage you can just pop off one of the side bars, gently push the plant back in, and pop the side bar back on. No more tying plants for me! Currently my plants are very bushy and approximately 5' tall! We get hefty winds where I live and these have not blown over and seem quite sturdy once they are in the ground.
UPDATE 9/16/11
The stakes are quite sturdy and last several seasons. The plastic crossbars break after about 1 season. At this point I'm using them as stakes because most of my crossbars are broken. They work OK for indeterminate tomatoes but honestly.. the tomatoes outgrow them fairly quickly, and I'm finding the wind eventually blows the cage and plant over. I've downgraded my star rating from 4 to 3 stars.

I planted more tomato plants this year than usual and forgot I had thrown out some rusty wire cages. I have very little garden room, so I plant in pots and had used everything I had available. My plants were well on the way and I was franticly trying to stake with what I had around and then went looking on the internet for cages to order. I ran across these, decided to try, and the most wonderful thing about them is after you have scragly plants, you can pull 'em in as you attach the side arms. The second great thing is they can be put away neatly when I'm done with them, and they won't ever rust! I'm going to order more! I only wish I could buy extra side arms.
Whoever invented this ULTOMATO was a genious!

The prices listed are high and include additional cost for mailing. Home Depot carries the same product (new) for $5.99.

These are the best tomato cages I've used. The three sturdy stakes make them extremely stable, even late in the season when the plants are really big. The adjustable cross supports aren't just a gimmick-type feature: they're very handy as the tomatoes grow and need some help higher up to support fruit-laden branches (or if you don't get around to putting in the cages until later in the season).

A tip for installation: put one stake in the ground at a time. Snap on the bottom two supports each time, and that'll tell you exactly where to plant the next stake. (Common sense, maybe, but something I was missing the first season I used these cages. :)).

I found this tomato cage when we were living in Georgia. I used it for one tomato plant that was already rather large. Because of the design, this cage went easily around the plant and continued to support the plant better than other cages I have used in the past. After moving back to Pennsylvania, I couldn't find this product and was glad to find it available through Amazon.

I wanted to believe in this product, really I did.

I used them for three heirloom plants two years ago with the highest of hopes, but when the plants grew heavy, the Ultomato failed all three times. The cross supports will slip under excess weight and in extreme cases (I can grow some big tomatoes) the support posts themselves can even bend.

They're simply not strong enough to do the job. As a gardener of more than 30 years and a gardening author, I just cannot recommend this product for heavy duty use. It may work for smaller varieties, but beefsteak tomatoes need sure support and the Ultomato is not it.

Ideally, if i could afford it i'd have tomato cages made out of PVC pipe. But of all the other products out there in the marketplace i find Oz-Bo's Ultomato the best. Cleverly designed and easy to put together, then break down at the end of the season and store, these sturdy 3-sided cages control sprawl and give my tomato and cucumber plants excellent support, better than the ubiquitous wire spirals that often bend and are never tall enough. Ultomatoes are also cheap! Home Depot used to carry them but now you have to go online. My experience through Amazon has been swell. One caveat: don't lose any of the horizontal connectors which are necessary for stability and come 9 to a cage, because they can't be replaced individually. I highly recommend this product.