Knowledgebase
Sterilizing tomato cages #623614
Asked April 13, 2020, 11:12 AM EDT
I remove them from the garden in the fall and pick off any "blighted leaves."
I leave them outside during the winter, so they are exposed to the cold temperatures.
Is this sufficient to destroying the blight fungus, or do I need to disinfect them with a bleach solution?
If disinfecting is required, do you have a suggestion for a trough that is 5 feet long?
Chisago County Minnesota
Expert Response
Thanks for your question.
It is a highly appropriate one since various tomato fungal spores could potentially over winter on the cages. Although I have often wondered if it is really necessary, I treat my cages in the fall after I have harvested my tomatoes and in the spring before putting them in. In both cases, I employ a two-step process. First, I wash the cages with a soap solution so as to remove any dirt and/or grime. Then secondly, I wipe the cages with a bleach solution consisting of one-part household bleach and nine-parts of water. After doing this in the spring, I let the cages sit in the sun for a couple of days before actually using them.
I am somewhat puzzled by your reference to a trough. I don’t know if this is where you will be placing the cages or if you will be growing tomatoes in a trough without cages. If the former, my answer would be unchanged. If you are growing tomatoes in a trough without cages, then be sure that all previous year’s plant debris is removed. It becomes somewhat challenging to disinfect the actual soil.
Here are some other thoughts about this issue:
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-bleach-tomato-blight-34944.html
http://solitarygardener.blogspot.com/2012/03/sterilize-your-tomato-cages.html
Good luck!!
My idea for the trough was similar to the //solitarygardener.... link you provided.
It would hold the sterilizing solution in which I would roll the cages. I just haven't found a suiltable trough. I might use her example and just make something and line it with heavy-duty plastic.
I misunderstood your question. I was thinking you were going to plant tomatoes in the trough.
I guess it comes down to an investment of time and work. It will take both time and effort to build something. But I suspect that less effort would be needed just to wipe off the cages. At least I have found that to be true and I sterilize about 25 cages.
But here's one other thought. Get a large plastic garbage can into which you could just dip the cages. Have never tried that but give it some thought.
Whatever.
Good luck
Thank you!
The plastic garbage can might work, I could dip first the top and then the bottom.
Try the garbage can technique. Keep in mind that in the presence of sunlight, bleach will decompose within a day or so. That is why in the spring I put the cages in the sun without even trying to rinse them. If in the fall you washed them with soap and water, repeating that step in the spring might not be necessary. So if you had the bleach solution in a garbage can, I suspect that it would take less than a minute to immerse the cages (first one end and then the other). You should be able to disinfect all of your cages in slightly over an hour.
Good Luck!!
