and 4 tomato plants that grow with 1 stem in 1 sqft each You would not have 1 sq. foot each. The minimum recommendation for even a single stem plant is 2 sq. foot. So the comparison would be 2 plants (not 4) vs. 1 plant and the 1 unpruned plant would still win the production challenge. Again, as I suggested above, this is frequently discussed over on the Growing Tomatoes forum and many of those discussions include links to documented studies done on this very question rather than just personal opinions. Please understand that much of the pruning done by its advocates is for aesthetic reasons only, for appearance, for garden eye-appeal, and for convenience for the gardener. It is not done for the benefit of the plant or for production, They may live in a climate where sunscald of exposed fruit is not an issue. For you, and for us in the south, sunscald of exposed fruit is a very real problem. And given the predominance of some of the diseases we in hot climates have to deal with, the health of the plant so it can better resist those disease is vital. Drastically reduce the photosynthesis ability of the plant by pruning it aggressively can easily reduce its over-all health. That is a lesson many of us have had to learn the hard way over many years. A caged or staked or trellised plant grown in the proper spacing can still be lightly pruned as needed - any branches that touch the ground, any large leaflet branches that block access to the fruit can be trimmed back or removed, and late season sprouting suckers or bloom rellis can be pinched off, etc. But that in no way justifies radical pruning. Dave This post was edited by digdirt on Thu, Jan 23, 14 at 11:57

I made one out of PVC and slid it over some rebar that I hammered into the ground for support. After I slid it into the PVC opening, I strapped it on side of the bed. It has been standing for two years and went through Hurricane Isaac last year. No problems.

"Bottom line". - So now we're back to pruning huh? Yet another tangent. reason I brought up this subject b'c you keep saying a single root system can support 4 or unlimited number of fruit bearing branches And you keep referring MANY studies but have not referenced ONE yet. You keep saying "10000s of tomatoes are grown this way' or that way '!! Don't need a link to any study to prove that. Anyone who has ever grown a tomato plant without pruning it or pruned it to 4 or 5 or 6 branches knows that is true. Any commercial grower knows it is true. Do you really think they prune acres of tomatoes? But just for you the link below - hundreds of pics of of 1000's of acres of fields of unpruned of tomatoes growing. You can click on each photo and go to the page that tells you all about it. And here are hundreds of pics of home garden unpruned tomato beds. Clicking on these photos takes you all kinds of personal blogs where the growers discuss why they do or don't prune their tomatoes. So I said in that case 4 plants (each pruned to single stem) should do better even in a confined area(Soil Volume). And that follows how? The discussion was about pruning not number of plants i a hole. So how is it even relevant to a discussion on pruning? But you want to argue that 4 plants in a hole of a specific size will do better than 1 plant planted alone in that same hole? Ignoring the question of why anyone would even plant 4 plants in the same hole in the first place, you claim that overcrowded plants, even pruned to a single stem overcrowded plants, will do better, produce more, than normally spaced plants, pruned or unpruned? That defies logic and common sense! It totally disregards what is common knowledge about how plants grow, what they need in terms of nutrients, water, air circulation, soil O2, root development, sun exposure, etc. You going to find a way to quadruple all those things in that single whole too? The only way your claim could make any sense at all is if you thought those 4 root balls were feeding all four plants when you said The fallacy lies in your conclusion: that one root system is better than four. And concluding without any back up evidence that ONE root system can provide more nutrients than FOUR.. Roots in a hole feed the plant they originate from period. Nothing else. The only way 4 rootballs in the same hole - which would be silly to do to begin with - could even come close to matching the performance of a single root ball in that same hole is if you quadruple the available nutrients, water, available room for root development, available soil O2 levels and maximum air circ and sun exposure above ground. How the Closeness of Plants Affect Growth The Effect of Growing Tomato Varieties Too Closely Spaced The minimal spacing for trellised tomatoes is two feet apart in a hedgerow. Research has demonstrated that crowding plants will not increase yields, but will increase disease problems. Colorado State University Extension. Planting Density in Field Production of Organic Tomatoes Effects on Plants of Growing in Overcrowded Contitions Want more - Physical Effects of Overcrowding on Plants Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Fields of tomatoes pics

I never tried the single stem method, but there's some good videos out that show how to prune. I put one or two tomatoes in my SFG, but prefer to use the space for other veggies like peppers, eggplant, and such. I found that if the tomatoes are near the side of the box, the mass of growth can sprawl onto a support outside the bed. In the photo, the box is against a wall and a trellis supports the tomatoes. I love tomatoes so grow others in the ground of in large pots. My best tomato was a Barndywine I planted in the former location of my compost bin. It must have liked the nutrients left in the soil.