Hi Mark, are 6-ish-foot cages too small? Lowe's has those. We have two from last year which worked great for our maters. Will be using them again this year; my maters are just 3-inch seedlings at the moment :)

Mark,

Howdy from Indiana, where we Hoosiers enjoy the best soil and weather conditions in the world for growing bountiful crops of wonderfully delicious tomatoes.

Here in the Heartland we have no stem breaking problems because our deep, fertile prairie soil contains all the essential elements for sturdy plant structure. The stems on our tomatoes are like grape vines in Sicily.

Our biggest problem is finding the time to harvest transport our tomatoes to friends and neighbors as by the time we reap one day's bounty, another boatload has ripened on the vines. It becomes a full time job! And even hobby tomato growers in Indiana routinely beef up the suspension on our pickup trucks.

Here even ten foot cages are barely sufficient for determinate types, and we use salvaged CB and HAM radio towers for caging our indeterminate tomatoes. Best of luck with your tomatoes back in Joisy.

and new jersey has the best tomatoes.

*****

And Bill has just told you how wonderful the tomatoes are in Indiana with their superior soil, weather, and all else such that Indiana tomatoes are THE best. LOL

But Mark, I have to love all my Jersey friends who still go back to the good old days reputation in Jersey when they were the prime shippers of tomatoes to New York City and Philly.

Now those were the good old days and those days were back in the late 1800's thru the early part of the 20th century. LOL

And that's when Jersey got called the Garden State and that's when the reputation for Jersey tomatoes was at its acme b'c they were one of the sole sources of tomatoes to the surrounding areas.

These days most of the tomatoes you find at road stands are your typical hybrid varieties, with a few folks offering some of the older OP commercial varieties as well as some none-commercial OP varieties.

And time and time again someone will ask here or elsewhere where I post.... I want to grow Jersey tomatoes. I now live in CA or AZ or FL or Mexico and I remember the tomatoes of my youth in Jersey and I must have those Jersey tomatoes.

So all one can do is to point them towards the varieties that were grown back in the late 1800's to maybe the 30's to 40's , mostly all commercial OP's, and hope for the best. LOL

Notice I'm not saying NYS grown tomatoes are THE best, but over the many years I've been growing them I sure have had some great tasting ones.LOL

Carolyn

The smart people in Jersey cross the bridge to buy the best tasting tomatoes in the world right here in tiny DELAWARE! LOL

Mark,
I grow my New Jersey tomatoes in cages that are only five feet in diameter, and, with some effort, they are usually pretty well contained; I don't see why you would need 10 foot cages. Of course, I am in Northern Jersey, and my plants might be considered stunted by your standards.

Jim

I've had two Jersey tomatoes in my life and they BOTH broke my heart. To hell with New Jersey, LOL!

ANY tomato will taste better if it is grown in New Jersey!

I wish I had all the B.S. in this post on my garden!!!!
YOPPER

I grew Jersey Devil two year ago. It sucked.

Actually I grew Jersey Devil a couple of years ago ( along with some other excellent paste tomatoes.) They were extremely late bearing for me, but productive and great tasting - not to mention wickedly cool in shape Lol.

I grew Jersey Devil two year ago. It sucked.

*****

Jersey Devil is not an older NJ variety. It was developed by the then Tomato Seed Co of Metuchen, NJ.

They moved to GA and were there only a few years before they went out of business.

Well I remember their newspaper type of catalog which was printed in mostly red and green. ( smile)

Jersey Devil was resuscitated by Tomato Growers Supply a few years ago, no doubt Linda got the seeds from an SSE member where the variety has been occasionally listed by those who got it years ago.

It's a typical long red of which there are many similar varieties as to shape such as Howard German, Sausage, Opalka, Sarnowski Polish Plum and more.

Carolyn

Jersey Devil is one of my favorite paste tomatoes even though it comes in late.