Debbie, there are other ways to grow tomatoes besides cages, too -- simplest is just letting them "sprawl" (definitely best to use a good mulch underneath if you do that). Or, just stake them, by training and tying each plant to a single stake; this does require some diligence with the tying, as well as removing the "sucker" branches from indeterminate types. Or, quite a few people use "Florida Weave" -- with plants grown in a row and held up by stringing (weaving) twine around them, held by stakes at either end of the row and one or more in the middle (depending on the number of plants). There's a pretty good description of it at this site:
http://modernfarmer.com/2016/0...
Those cages that I have now are a fairly recent development after about 40 years of gardening and looking for a better way to keep my tomato plants growing. I've tried a lot of different things over the years... they all work, some better than others though.
There are also compact plants that need very little, if any support. Lots of options!
