Sorry we were typing at the same time. In ground 3-4 feet apart would be best by far. For support, not the best but quick and easy to find, get a couple of those extra tall and heavy duty 4 ring tomato cages you see at some stores (usually in bright colored paint) as the small 3 ring things are too weak. Also buy four 5-6' tall stakes of some kind that you can drive into the ground and tie the cage to to keep it from falling over. Dig a hole about 6-7" deep and mix some slow release fertilizer in with the dirt in the bottom of the hole (follow its label directions), and plant them and water them well. Place the cage and the stakes now so the roots aren't damaged later. Then go over to the Growing Tomatoes forum here and do a bunch of reading. Good luck. Dave

Mike, I have a small garden with limited sunny areas, so can't grow a lot. I wish I could plant dozens just like many of you. This year, I have: In ground: - Pomodoro Red Pear sel. Franchi (large Italian piriform type) - Cherokee Purple - Malakhitovaya Shkatulka - Black Beauty (Brad Gates's new variety) - Big Beef F1 - Black Cherry - Coyote In containers: - Dwarf Mr. Snow - New Big Dwarf In smaller pots: - Lime Green Salad - Red Robin OP - Hahm's Gelbe Topftomate

Ok... I am back. I appreciate everyone's advice. So 1 week later my tomatoes look better. I took all the yellowing leaves off and I don't have any new ones coming back. Last weekend I added tums powder to the soil and fish emulsion. My 3 opalkas are still producing tomatoes with bes and the plants are pretty small. My 3 Hungarian hearts are producing tomatoes with no bes now. So I can only pray they stay like that. I did not water anything since sunday... then I just watered today. And we had a good rain mid-week. I am a little crazy about watering I must admit and it's something that I believe has hurt my garden in the past. My soil is clay, I really do not think water requirements are that great. My dad has never watered his veggie garden ever. Whole summer... no manual watering. If I had to guess, I would say maybe too much water is the culprit here. This all has made me want to invest in a moisture meter. Anyway, the plants are better but I do still have the bes on half and bad leaf curl on all. They still don't look healthy but they look better than before. I'll have to see what is to come. Do you think I should fertilize again this weekend?

Okay, I'll leave it and see what happens. Too late to root anything..our summer has been cold and awful so far...frost last night! I haven't even put my peppers in the ground yet...our summers are short anyway, but this year we are way behind.