Last year, and for at least a few years now, I've bought plants from Dixondale, I haven't planted seeds in many years, and those seeds were always started indoors. Most of my plants were about pencil thickness, a few were thicker and most were thinner. All were planted on a 6'' spacing grid, single plants. There aren't many plants around that one because they were pulled last year or lost to weeds or other competition, I've only pulled a couple others that flowered this year. I've had Ailsa Craigs that had doubles in the first year and am familar with those type doubles, however, they are like a large bulb with a smaller one attached to it. These are in their 2nd year and nearly equally divided with flat areas where they touched, like shallots. They seem to only have single flower stalks, each start at the neck and are about 1 to 2 inches wide about midway up the stalk, which seems hollow, ending in a flower ball about 3'' diameter atop 4ft tall stalks. They don't appear to have alternating leaves like onions or garlic usually do, and the stem/stalk seems hollow like walking onions, which are present in many places in my garden.

Its annoying getting it on my and my 6 year olds hands and clothes and if I could avoid it I will. Plus I need only 25 and they will last til I'm dead so I might as well get what I want (although Texas Tomato is too much) I also think 7 foot width would be nice. I'm pretty sure I'll stick with CRW and just find the right "paint/coating". I would like the 7 foot width though. I found it in Oregon but not yet in NJ area.

mrs.b_in_wy Maybe it was last year (could be the year before that) that a Garden Webber showed pictures of his tomato cages, and he'd made them triangular from CRW, not round, so they could be folded flat and stored for the winter. I don't recall if he gave the dimensions, but probably around 3 feet to a side. They should be easier to store than round ones. Maybe easier to make, too. Just three pieces of 5-6 foot tall CRW attached at the sides with plastic zip ties and the bottom wire removed so the vertical wires could be pressed into the soil. I think he used one fence post to keep it all stable. You could make a square cage the same way, maybe with two fence posts for stability. They could be two-foot lengths of CRW connected with plastic zip ties. If you decide to go with round cages, maybe the following information will be helpful. Apparently a 23" diameter round cage is optimal for tomato cages. ttlight posted these helpful dimensions for cages made of CRW last year or the year before: If you want to explore other cage-materials, this lady has some ideas for non-round tomato cages made simply of PVC, and it appears that you can take the square one apart. Have fun making your decision!

Fist question - how are you defining 'cages'? The 3 ring junk things? Then Florida weave by all means. Real 5-6' CRW tomato cages? They will beat Florida weave hands down. Second question - how much pruning do you plan to do on a regular basis? FW requires detailed attention to pruning. Good cages don't require much at all. Third, spacing in Dad's 13x5' bed? FW allows for more plants in a straight line than cages and closer spacing IF you do extensive pruning (which sacrifices production). 1 row of cages in a 13' bed = 6 plants with standard 2' spacing and 3' is better where 1 row of FW could be 10 plants. But staggered cages in 2 rows could = 12 plants. Fourth, all are indeterminates but are that about the same size? ie: cherry plants can get 3x as wide and tall as others and San Marzano is 2x as big as the average Brandywine but they are all indertminates. With varying sizes cages work better than FW. Personally, if I was into pruning regularly, I'd do 2 rows of 6 plants each on individual stakes. Since I'm not an advocate of pruning I'd do 2 rows of 5 each staggered with good cages. JMO Just some thoughts to consider. Dave