It seems to me that six plant in one tank is far too many. I have a bed that is about 7 feet by 4 feet and six plants was terribly overcrowded, last year I only set 4 plants and it still was crowded. Since you cannot go too tall, I would suggest 3 plants using a wire system that is shaped like a inverted V. It is not vey tall, but will give some support. Good luck and send pictures.

Unless you're pruning heavily I agree that 6 plants is an awful lot in a tank that size. As for support, you can pound the stakes directly into the ground on the outside of the tank (the tank is 2 feet wide, right?) and attach the cages to them. Although for this to work I suppose it would depend on the diameter of the cages and how close to the sides the tomatoes are planted.

Rodney

An idea for next year would be to find some "compact" varieties to grow in your stock tank as they take up less room and only need shortish stakes.

Linda

Agree it is too many plants for the average stock tank and I'll admit to wondering why you would grow Romas anyway - blah and a waste of space IMO.

But that's your choice of course so to answer your question, drive a stake into the ground outside the tank on each end of the tank and run a Florida weave from one end to the other to support the plants.

Dave

I appreciate everyone's suggestions. We'll see how it goes. The stakes on the outside of the tank is a good idea. This is all an experiment, so we'll see how the 6 of them do. I grow that variety because they are so easy to freeze (easy to clean/skin) and I use them in soups and stews. I do grow 3 San Marzanos too....but they are in the ground. I also grow Rutgers in the ground. I'll let you all know how it turns out. I have other stock tanks that are mostly for onions/kale/broccoli/lettuces/beans. Last year, I had a couple volunteer tomatoes grow out of one of the stocktanks for beans and kale, and they did great. So we'll see.

Depend on how wide the tank is . Never seen one.
If it is like 2ft wide, 4 plants (staggered) should be fine.
In my raised beds I give my plants about 2.5 - 3 sq-ft. But I do systematic pruning.

Sey

Ha! I knew they would do fairly well, in spite of their being so close together. They would have done even better if we hadn't had monsoon after monsoon this summer, and they developed leaf spot. I just picked some and there's probably just as many or more left to ripen. I know some of you think they are tasteless....which might be true, but if I hadn't gotten these, I probably wouldn't have gotten hardly any of the others that were planted in the ground (Rutgers and San Marzano). They'll still be perfect in soups and stews.

Here's the ones I picked today.

Wow catherine! Congrats! Another kind and conscientious grower has come back to share what happened! Thanks, that is so helpful to others to share in your harvest experience! If you get a chance to get a pic of he plants that would be so interesting to see:-) Tasteless or not, everyone has their faves. But it's fun to see what else is out there. My season was over in June but I kept plants on life support and the maters keep trickling out. Here's a fun variety called Speckled Roman. Just as tasteless as Roma, but it a magnet for everyone walking their dog to come by and gaze at (while the dogs are unimpressed, but take advantage of the break lol). Costoluto is also a sweeter option and has a good fruit load. Sweeter but hard to peel. Then there's Rio Grande, a superb tomato with a little tangy-ness great replacement for some Romas and even better for chunky salsa, and out produces it here.

Cheers,

PC

Thanks PupillaCharites. Sorry, the plants are sooooo bad looking, I dont' want to show them. haha But they did produce tons of tomatoes, for which I am very grateful. Thanks for your suggestions about other varieties!

"Sorry, the plants are sooooo bad looking, I don't want to show them"

Yesterday I took the clippers to the mini "mold tunnel" removing all the leaves mold had attacked from my spent plants. The only things left were a few tomatoes on what looked like naked long-stemmed roses. Today the plants themselves in the mini tunnel have to go.

It's because the plants gave it their all?!

:-)

Happy growing

PC