I don’t use much in the way of cages either. I only have one cage, and just use it to mark the space between tomatoes and peppers.
I do sometimes tie them to a stake, when they are kinda young and need a little help to stay out of the dirt when the wind blows.
“I dont use much in the way of cages either.”
I will get one more 13 inch across barrel with the plastic cage in it for another T squash in spring. That cage on the one I have, was a super thing to have to control the T squash to keep it upright and off the deck. It grew all the way up inside the cage then grew down all the way to the floor. I think it’s got to be 9 feet long now.
I used metal stakes covered in something green from Lowes to attach tomato plants to and will get some more of those for spring since I will have more tomato plants. This time, I’ll plant the tomato plants I grow from seed the right way as I screwed that up this time by not planting enough of the plant “underground”.