You don't NEED to prune tomato plants. Especially when they're caged. Those are very large cages and there will be a tendency of the plants to collapse inside of the cage. Especially when they are loaded up with fruit. So two plants may not be such a bad idea. However, 2 per cage will be inviting cramped conditions which make the plants more susceptible to disease. If you do try it, train or tie each plant to opposite sides of the cage to better open up the airflow around them.

My cages are mostly 21" in diameter. I've gone so far as to make a couple of them at about 25"(13 squares of CRW) but they are the ones that have shown the most tendency for the plants to collapse. When I use those larger ones now I make sure to tie the plants to the cage as they grow. Good luck.

Boy, I bet that Q couldn't have been answered by the FAQ!

I like my toms to have air circulation, so personally I wouldn't do 2 per cage. "Pruning" (?) toms is unnecessary, although I pinch suckers.

Dan

hi, last year I grew two beefmaster plants ina a cage much smaller than yours. If you pinch the suckers and maybe prune s the branches below the first flower cluster to improve air circulation you should be fine.

Many of us NEVER prune and as already said, it sure isn't required for any reason so please don't buy into the "you MUST do it" trap unless you want to.

I have a few cages as large as yours and I still would never plant 2 plants in one of them down here in the heat and humidity even if I did prune. But you might be able to get away with it up north so give it a try and see if it will work for you. You don't have anything to lose except maybe 1 of the plants. You could always cut it out if it gets too crowded.

Dave

There's another thread at another place where I read/post about the exact same subject, with many reponses.

I think that most are saying that they'd only put two plants in any planting hole if the varieties were ones such as Tony's Italian, Perito Italian and many like those that have very sparse droopy foliage.

The rest have made the same points made here that pruning definitely is not required, for any plant, that putting two plants in the same hole, other than the type I mentioned above, leads to less productive plants and often diseases due to lack of air circulation and crowding.

As for me, as I said in that other thread, I'm an equal opportunity tomato grower and will only grow ONE plant in a hole and spacing between that plant and the next one has to be adequate to help ensure lack of crowding and competition for nutrients and water.

Carolyn