I don't know if there are new studies out, but the ones I read all had to do with the amount of perfect market sized tomatoes, from determinant varieties. That got twisted into things for home gardeners to do, IMO. My own little experiments one year with twenty pairs of indeterminant heirloom varieties showed me that on unpruned plants over half of the fruit number develops on the main stem and its spits. If a plant is staked and sucker pruned to just the trunk and its splits it will develop slighty more total fruit than the trunk of an unpruned plant. But the fruit were not bigger on the staked plants. Suckers did produce smaller fruit, on average, than trunks for beefsteaks. So fitting two pruned plants of eight total 'branches' in a cage produced noticably more than a single unpruned plant that had eight 'branches.' I did not test brix or solids of the fruit, which might be commercially important, but the taste was the same to me, pruned vs. unpruned. There is also the problem with disease (septoria and early blight) in a cage crammed full of leaves and suckers. I top the plants and pinch buds starting six weeks before first frost because until a leaf is a certain size/maturity it does not furnish enough photosynthesis to support its growth rate so it is a drain on the plant or at best neutral. The baby leaves that are left on the plant when I top it will be almost full-sized when frost hits, all pumping energy into the fruit. Bud pinching also stops small fruit from developing that will never ripen so I end up with very few green tomatoes when frost hits, and the ones I do get are large and ripen inside nicely. Finally, topping the plant stops it from falling over the top of my cages and off the top of my stakes. So I will take two sucker pruned plants to one unpruned plant any day, as long as I can control for sunburn by planting a north south row instead of east-west.

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing (HRS) of the vegetation is a "non-destructive" screening method for identifying bio-physical variability in the plants. We are in still in research and development mode. I have tested this concept last year at Noble Foundation for Medicago mutants. It shows some interesting variability among the different phenotypes and also response to NPK treatments. I have shared few graphs for your information... I hope same concept should work for identifying tomato phenotypes/genotypes. Its almost certain that I am going test this concept when my tomato plants. I also believe that we can able to detect plant stress conditions due to disease/disorders much before they appear or show-up. So that we can take early measures before to any physical damage! Thank you -Chandra Here is a link that might be useful: Medicago Spectral Graphs...

Cindy, I just went and measured both my CRW and my Texas cages. My CRW are 5' before I stick them in the ground 6". The Texas Cages are 6' before and 5'6" after I stick them in the ground 6". I guess you could stick them in the ground 1'. I never have a CRW. To get the 7' CRW in the past I would have to special order it or go to somewhere like Amarillo. I haven't checked in several years though. The shipping has went up since I ordered my Texas cages I think. I will check. I know she said something was going up soon. I didn't realize it was that high now. Of course all shipping is high. Shipping alone has added over 200 dollars to the cost of my greenhouse. I have had plants go over the top several feet in the past. If they get out of the cage enough they will head back down. It isn't too hard to make extensions to go on the CRW cages if needed. I have used several different styles of cages in the past. I know one grower who uses the galvanized cattle panels. Can't remember the length he cuts them. Then makes a triangle and uses plastic zip ties to hold them together. Then when he removes them they lay flat. So many ways of doing it. The galvanized will last longer. Field fencing would work. I would make sure I got the biggest openings I could find. Makes picking the maters easier. There is no one way that is best. We just have to find what works well for us. Jay

Scott, Don't you love it when the harvest rolls in? So far, my favorite tomatoes taste-wise have been Brandywine Sudduth's (as always), True Black Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter and Valena Pink. They are also the only ones that have been in the same size range as yours--mine are running from about 12 to 20 ounces, which is remarkable in a year when we've only have 14" of rain here. The plants I planted earliest (and managed to keep from freezing) also have been the heaviest producers. Every year, I plant as early as I can (sometimes, perhaps, unreasonably so) because I fear having exactly the kind of weather we had this year....from "too cold" to "too hot" literally overnight. Planting early carries a lot of risk of freezing but it also gives you the best chance of getting a big harvest.....or any harvest at all. Big Beef and Royal Hillbilly are both putting out loads of red ripe ones now in addition to the varieties I already mentioned, and so is Fourth of July, which I grow solely to give away.....they aren't the best-flavored (but the heirlooms have me spoiled) but there are tons of them to share with people who are perfectly happy to have ANY tomato that is home-grown. My biggest producer is a tiny red currant tomato called Tess' Land Race Currant. The plants are about 9' tall and 4' to 5' wide and I have never seen anything like them. Each is covered in hundreds and hundreds of tiny red tomatoes. I believe we will get thousands of fruit per plant from the two of these that I planted--they make Sweet Million and SunGold look like low-producing slackers. I didn't even pick them on Tues., but will today. When dried, they are smaller than a raisin and very tasty. I also eat them by the handful when I am in the garden. My Black Cherry tomato plants are just as tall, but only 3' wide, although I like their tomatoes more. Some of the plants for which I had the absolute highest hopes, like Porterhouse and Cherokee Green, were eaten by the deer and haven't produced a single tomato because he ate all the growing tips, blossoms and small fruit. Maybe they'll produce later in the summer now that he has been kept out by the new fence and the plants have regrown some. I cannot believe you sold your Brandywines.....I don't even give them away to our closest friends!! Well, one year I gave some to DH's best friend, who promptly branded it the best tomato he'd ever tasted. I'm glad the kids are all enthused about helping. Feel free to send them here to pick tomatoes after you wear them out there! : ) Dawn