Yardenman, A 26" spacing is plenty, even if you do not prune. Most space requirement is just to accommodate top growth, not the roots requirement. It also served GARDENER'S CONVINIENCE. that combined with a big cage, the gardener has much less work to do. But say wit 18" spacing, one has to do a lot of pruning and tying. We all express our views here. In my opinion, a HUGE towering plant, left to grow on its own, does not meant that it will produce HUGE crop. Definitely, if we plant 2 identical plants,, one in 9 sqr-ft and other in 3 sqr-ft., the first will produce more fruits, FOR sure. BUT will it produce 3 times as much of the one planted in 3 sqr-ft ? that is quite debateable and I personally don't believe that it can happen. Twice as much ? maybe. It is an expectable probability. The bottom line is that if land resource is no an object, by all means space them @ 3 ft., install a 2ft diam. cage and sit back, relax and enjoy your drink:)

It's too late to do anything this year, IMO. But all is not lost, not by a long shot. Make the best of a bad situation and resign yourself to let them bend over and grow/come back to the ground (if you've got the room), they'll bear tomatoes going down as they did going up, but it's a mess, and you won't be able to just go 'pick' tomatoes, you'll have to 'forage' for them. Learn from it and make the proper adjustments next year. And don't forget to throw the fertilizer to them. [edit to add] If worse comes to worse you can always go in and hack a couple of them out to make more room for the other three. This post was edited by sidhartha0209 on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 20:57

Indeterminate varieties do just that - outgrow their cages. ;) What type of cages are you using? Can you easily add some additional stake supports without damaging the plant or its roots? The 3 ring "things" sold as tomato cages are of little use with an indeterminate variety and most indeterminates will easily outgrow even the 5-6 foot CRW cages many of us use. But with the bigger cage you can just let the plant drape down over the sides with no problem. Lastly, some judicious pruning might be of help. A search here on "caging staking tomatoes" gives you many discussions to review on the problems and offers several possible control suggestions. Good luck and enjoy your tomatoes! ;) Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Caging/Staking Tomato Discussions

That is the question...First off, know your variety! Never prune a 'determinate' type tomato, or you will lose production! Indeterminate varieties vary in their response to pruning, some reportedly have increased yields when the young plant is pruned back to three or four vines. Experiment with your favorite varieties to see how they respond. Also,removing new flowers and immature fruit near the end of the growing season can help speed ripening of mature fruit. Is pruning necessary at all? No. Tomatoes will do just fine left to sprawl, though fruits that touch the ground are far more likely to be lost to insects, disease or rot. But if you have the memory of your ancestors' glorious 7-foot-tall staked tomato plants and want to grow them that way, you'll need to prune a bit. By pruning, I mean removing the excess vines, which form where a leaf meets the main stem. A simple pinch does the job, but if you use pruners be sure to disinfect them with bleach to prevent spread of disease. When plants are large enough to begin staking, you'll want to remove all but 2-3 vines, and tie them to the stake, with supports about every 10 inches. You'll likely need to remove some top growth later, to keep the overall weight down. On some varieties, pruning and staking will result in larger, cleaner fruit, but yields will be lower, and subject to sunscald due to losing the protection from the foliage. A good compromise is growing in cages. The fruit stays clean, no pruning is necessary, and yields are large. Building or buying tomato cages is a bit of an outlay initially, but well-made cages will last many years. Another solution is growing on wooden ladders or trellises, some time is required each week to work the vines between the supports.