Your tomatoes sound right on track, if not better than on track. I transplanted mine about two weeks before yours and they are starting to top my 5' cages, which is normal for mine - you must have much better growing conditions than I do :)

You could top if you're worried about them getting smashed in your enclosed area and let the sucker growth lower down grow. I generally don't pinch suckers or prune much other than to remove leaves hitting the ground or diseased leaves, so I'm not sure what people who train a stem or two normally do as to topping.

If your plants are healthy (and they sound like they are!) - I wouldn't worry about starting over, there's no reason to. Also, from what I've heard from Texas gardeners, and what we deal with somewhat here, you're going to have a summer lull in production when the heat really kicks up, so you might be setting yourself back quite a bit restarting now.

If possible, you could take the mesh off the top of the enclosure and temporarily extend the top with some cheap bird netting and 2x2 supports. And next year, if you must plant in enclosed beds, then you might want to consider dwarfs and/or determinate types of tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes regularly get 6+ feet tall.

Rodney

My trellised cherries are already at the seven-foot level. Natch. This isn't about over-fertilization. It's just exactly what they do down here in decent soil. I agree that option 3 is the way to go. Once they start fruiting, the energy will largely go into the fruits and not into expanding the foliage. The vines will still grow over the top of your cages and hang down the sides. No big deal.

Yes, tomatoes here will largely stop producing in July and August. You can rip them out and start over or you can baby them through the heat and hope to get another crop in the fall. Be advised that the "fall" growing season is shorter than the "spring" growing season though. So it will be a challenge to get new full sized plants to start producing before the weather gets cold in the fall.

You don't mention the type or variety. If they are indeterminate varieties then the more you prune them the taller they get. That is the nature of vines. Plus you lost all the fruit that would have been produced on those branches you removed.

It is quite normal for indeterminate variety plants to reach 8-10-even 12 feet tall, especially if aggressively pruned, so a 7' tall enclosure ill always be a problem.

So you are assuming that if you cut the tops now, new branches will develop down low on the plant. That may or may not happen, odds are no, but what will definitely happen is new top branches will develop to replace the ones you remove and will likely grow even taller. It is all in understanding how plants grow.

So consider this instead. Take cuttings from your existing plants, root them (tons of discussions here about how to do that) and start new smaller plants. Let the fruit you have ripen enough to harvest at the color-break stage and then pull those plants and replace them with the new ones grown from cuttings. Your growing season is plenty long enough. Do not remove the so-called suckers from those new plants. You will get more fruit and they won't grow so tall - average 6-7' depending on the variety.

Dave

Digdirt2s suggestion to go for a second plant out using suckers AFTER you harvest all your blushed fruit on existing plants sounds like a workable strategy. I plan to do the same. I am in a warm 8b climate and planted out nearly same day as you. My plants struggle with fruit set, even while showing great vigor. I choose not to prune because the extra leaves can help prevent sun scald on the tomatoes tender skin. They sun burn easy. Some of my plants are very bushy as a result. For one I have added a second cage next to it, well behind it, so it can stretch out. We have a long growing season with a pause in the middle. When temps/humidity get bad (late June for me), flowers keep blooming but there is very little pollination,. I pull all fruit as soon as it blushes, so after middle July my plants are just idling. I can try to keep them going, or do like Dave suggests, since I have a sucker factory, just start sticking the suckers in cups of moist rich dirt in the shade about 15 days before I think the last fruit will blush. If there is a prize fruit out there, I will use some common sense. Those suckers should be ready in 15 or 20 days. They are not starting from seed.

I am not sure Dave meant to use suckers or growing tips. I don't want to put words in any body's mouth or mislead you and then you have beautiful green growing suckers that won't fruit. I plan to check the other threads on rooting cuttings to keep myself on the right track.

Sounded to me like she has already removed most all the "suckers" (man I hate that word - they are lateral branches) she could use. I read it as tho he/she has already started cutting off growing tips and plans to cut off more so might as well use them to grow more plants. The odds of getting new lateral branches to sprout down low on the plant now are slim as the circulation there is already compromised and the pith is turning woody. But if some do develop they'd make better cuttings to root for new plants IMO than leaving them to try to produce a few fruit with the circulatory system compromised.

Dave

So far I have not cut off any growing tips. Only pinched out suckers, especially lower on the plants. I've let the last few suckers higher on the plants go.

Sorry I failed to mention types. All indeterminants, all heirlooms. I am growing Brandywine OTV (decent fruiting so far), Carmello (same), Kellogg's Breakfast (early fruiting with a couple of lovely large ones in progress, but then lots of dropped blossoms), San Marzano Redorta (decent, continuing fruiting), Goldman's Italian-American (slow start fruiting but now starting to take off), Marianna's Peace (slow start fruiting but now showing signs of promise), Clint Eastwood Rowdy Red (okay, this one is setting fruit like crazy), and in pots I'm growing Stupice, Black Cherry, Camp Joy, and Blondkopfchen (all fruiting nicely).

Thanks for the advice so far.