Well... I have yet to decide just exactly what I want to do... My primary intention with this grow, aside from the loads of fun, is discover which varieties do well in my local conditions, seek desirable phenotypes of each of those varieties, and save seeds from those. So in that sense it would be good form me to grow out decent numbers of each variety. However, as my grow list increases, its becoming difficult to imagine how I can take care of so many tomato plants regarding the staking and caging. My main tomato garden this year will be the spot that last years pepper patch was on:
On that plot I have 9 rows 100 feet in length... my most extreme plan would involve there being 50 plants down each row (5 plants each of 10 varieties down each row.)= 450 plants
450 plants would correspond to 450 tomato cages that I dont have currently. I am probably going to make my own cages using some cheap source of wire mesh with a large gauge. My ultimate dream would be to actually run 9x 100 foot fences down the rows as permanent trellis. Last season I planted a whole bunch of tomatoes in a dense row along my mom's new fence... the tomato plants interwove themselves along the fence perfectly, and it was the most productive tomato patch last year. If anyone has an idea about how to (relatively) cheaply cage 450 beefsteak tomato plants, please pass it on!