3d spool tomato root tunnel, and dog cage upcycle question

This morning I took on two additional projects.  The first is using empty spools of 3d printer filament as a root bullet for tomatoes. The idea of that toys will be created when in contact with soil.

I shimmied the plant through the hole, although this is a step that I would do while the plant is younger ideally.  Filling the center with diet each time, I stacked four on top of each other.

These being plastic, I don't have many concerns of them laying in the garden.  I do have a bunch of cardboard spools, which I am hesitant to use. Thought is that it should be okay, and might degrade by the end of the season.  Not sure if the cardboard ones are worth the attempt.

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My second project is the need for trellis for my beans.  A dog rescue place was throwing away a bunch of cages, and I grabbed the good pieces that I think I can use for a trellis.

Where I need help, is I am not sure where to start off with the trellis.  Perhaps I should do two pieces standing like an A frame against each other. I am attaching pictures of my bean row that is overgrown with beans, and the dog cages.  

Where would you start? Any response is appreciated.  The main issue is that I don't have anything to support with.  

I also hope to use some cages to trellis cucumbers, but the main need is the beans

Hi William - Can you explain more about your tomato tower? I'd worry that the roots will dry out, or am I missing  something?

Nice pile of cages! I'd have snagged them too!!
If you have no other support, you want to use the cage parts to be as tall as you can, and hook them together at the edges, so they can free stand.
If it were me, I'd be standing them up tall ways, wire two in a row, then set the third one up higher so there is more climbing height, and continue like that, zigzagging or curving the row to make it stand up. I sketched it very badly :D
I'd vote for zig zag it through the line of beans, cutting across it so it's structural, and you can reach the most.

Are the beans for fresh eating, or as dried beans? If you want fresh, then yes, you need to organize the trellis not only to be stable, but to leave good spaces to get your hand in for picking.  For dried, so long as you can easily dismantle it while you harvest, it's less critical.

Yes, I'd have snagged those too - they look fine enough to exclude the bloody rabbits that are known to cut my beans off at the base! Making the bottom a square that excludes such things may or may not be a design criteria you need!

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi William - Can you explain more about your tomato tower? I'd worry that the roots will dry out, or am I missing  something?

Drying out is a concern, but I have also considered mulching the entire thing.  

Each of the spools have a center area that I am filling with soil.  I am not too concerned about them drying out, because ai intend to water the plants as normal.  If I surround the spools in mulch, this would stop them from heating up as much from the sun. That is likely the biggest danger of drying out.

The spool that I shared is cardboard, but have the same basic architecture as the plastic ones.

Jay Angler wrote:Are the beans for fresh eating, or as dried beans? If you want fresh, then yes, you need to organize the trellis not only to be stable, but to leave good spaces to get your hand in for picking.  For dried, so long as you can easily dismantle it while you harvest, it's less critical.

Yes, I'd have snagged those too - they look fine enough to exclude the bloody rabbits that are known to cut my beans off at the base! Making the bottom a square that excludes such things may or may not be a design criteria you need!

Right now the issue is that the beans are over crowding themselves, and that I need to expand their growing area.  Dried beans are just ones that got missed.  

Most of the cages are too close to fit my hand in between.  I will look for ones that are wider that I can harvest through, and use the smaller openings more for structure.  Not sure it will work that way, but it's just an idea.

I like the previous comment about zig zag shape, with the sketch.  The difficulty is getting the cage pieces to stand, as I don't have t-posts or such to facilitate building structure. I do have a few handfuls of zip ties.  

The neighbor above me is a maintenance guy, and there's often wood laying around. If I purchased a saw, I could perhaps rip the wood into stakes. It feels a little dangerous to do without a table saw, though..... And so I have stayed away from it.

William Wallace wrote:The neighbor above me is a maintenance guy, and there's often wood laying around. If I purchased a saw, I could perhaps rip the wood into stakes. It feels a little dangerous to do without a table saw, though..... And so I have stayed away from it.

A hammer and a couple of wedges might allow you to split stakes off scrap wood safely.  Yes - please don't do dangerous things that risk fingers and other body parts!

Sometimes scraps of rebar can be found cheaply, and I use them for at least stabilizing the bottoms of things if they're short. I've also watched for old swing sets and used pipes salvaged from those as the vertical supports.

The dog cages are nearly perfect.

Most of them stand up by themselves, as cages for my tomatoes and cucumbers.

What a great find.
I don't know how tall they are, but what about zip tie two or three together to make it tall, then do a second set like the first. Then either tie the top together making a large triangle, or use one panel on the top making a tunnel. You could put rocks, or what ever you have that's heavy so it doesn't blow over.  This way the beans will grow through the wire, making them easy to pick.  
Good luck, I like what you have done so far.

Yep, I have a bunch of bricks that get used for various tasks in my garden.  When I am resetting an area, I use those bricks to hold down cardboard before I get a layer of dirt on it.  

Zip ties will definitely work to make it taller.

The tomato tunnel with the filament spools seems to have worked well also