3' always worked for me. I always grow indeterminate,

I do 2' between determinate plants in rows 25 feet long with no cages and do a weave. They touch and grow together and I end up with a hedge of tomatoes. This year I'm doing Roma's (same rows), and Celebrity and Mountain pride together in different rows. Different determinate varieties have different growth habits. most Indeterminate plants I do 3' spacing and cage them with a coned remesh. There are a few varieties I'll give more space to such as Amish paste. I'll also give 4' between cherry and My mountain magic plants so we can pick all around the plant.

It depends. I tried the lean and lower method for my indeterminates last year and really liked it. You can plant them 12" apart since they aren't bushy. My grape/cherry tomatoes I give 3' or so and my determinants 2'.

Edited to add: if you want a space saver beef steak tomato then Atlas tomatoes, only available through Burpees, is the way to go. It is as short and compact as they say and you get a whole bunch of huge tomatoes off 1 plant.

Depends on the plants and where they are planted. Twins and monster indets tend to get around 3' on the fence, untwinned and dainty ones are more around 2' on the fence. Dets in raised or lasagna beds get lashed cages, so their spacing is around 18-24" with six plants per lashing. 20 gallon containers in the container garden tend to get one plant with the occasional twin, but if it's a dainty I'll push it- this year I've got Spoon trio in a container. Hanging planters tended to be 1 per planter.

When I did stringing more, those were spaced at 12-18", but I haven't done that in a while. When I did indets as stand alones, those tended closer to 4' spacing, but they took up too much space that way so I stopped doing that.

18 inch - 2ft, My youngest welded a 7m long rectangular metal frame which sits in my raised beds to about waist height. IIt makes a stable, strong support set-up for the bamboo canes or hazel poles - 12 plants along each side. I nip out all the side branches (on indeterminates)keep the plants as a single vine. (which I stop after 5-6 trusses, outside). I grow the indoors ones in 30litre pots, butting up against each other.

I'm impressed you can get a ripe outdoor tomato, Rosa. Blight gets mine every time. Don't know why I bother.

For me it's all indeterminants at about 30-36" inch apart, all staked and semi-suckered to produce a bit less but larger tomatoes. As for blight (sometimes totally unavoidable) I'll plant more late tomatoes to extend the season a bit.

I am on it with the copper spray/homemade Bordeaux mix, at the mere sniff of a Smith period (or whatever the blight conditions are now called). Needs 48 hours of high humidity and warmth so there is usually time for a rescue...although I don't always bother with the outdoors ones, just do 8 or so in the greenhouse.

Floraluk2, I recommend looking into the mountain series collection of tomato seeds if these seeds can be purchased in the UK. There are 10 in the mountain collection from golf ball sized fruit to big ones.

I've been planting Mountain Magic for the past 8 or so years and these plants are bullet proof! they produce 100's of 2 oz perfect tasty tomatoes which rarely split and can be picked completely ripe and still sit on the counter for nearly a month and still good. I pick 400 to 500 per plant and my brother I give a plant to each year hit 998 with his plant next to his house on the east side and only gets half a day sunlight.

I usually plant in three spots a hundred feet apart, and last year the back spot got hit hard taking out 9 indeterminate plants but the mountain magic wasn't touched and thrived. Many times I've watched blight consume plants next to the mountain magic's and shake my head in disbelief with no trace of blight on the mountain magic.,

I've bought the most resistant strains on the market and they can't hold a candle to Mountain magic. When Iron Lady came out I had to have it as the most resistant plant ever. Well not resistant enough and the tomatoes sucked, abut mountain magic beat it by miles in both resistance and taste.

I've bought two others in the Mountain series, Pride and rouge. They're not as resistant as Magic but still better than most plants, and the tomatoes taste good. Mountain pride is comparable to celebrity but without the cracking. nearly perfect tomatoes in the entire batch. Both are going in again this year to watch and see again how they hold up. But If the early blight gets you very time try the mountain magic for sure.

I'm another fan of Mt Magic--extraordinarily prolific and very good tasting. I like Mt Merit as well for larger tomatoes and great taste.

My eldest swears by Mountain Magic. I used to grow Ferline...also supposedly resistant (it wasn't) and just became a bit sceptical of the label 'blight resistant'. It was really susceptible to blossom end rot, too. Guess I should take closer notice of my son's because I had become so disenchanted with outdoor tomatoes, I was on the verge of totally giving up (although I have been saying this for the last decade but always seem to have a coupla dozen. Have beaten late blight by growing earlies such as 'Matina' but the potato leaf types are a bit puny and feeble...

My determinate types are spaced about 20 inches and is fine and adequate for their development in cages.

Floraluk2, about 15 years ago, blight had completely taken out my tomatoes, been growing 'Defiant' ever since, has that good tomato flavor and balance of sweet and tart, determinate growth makes for easy plant management.

I grew "Defiant" over a decade ago two years in a row and they did fairly well and tasted good but they just didn't have the flavor I was looking for, but I'll vouch for their resistance ability, but can't vouch for late blight resistance for any tomato plant variety.

I read reviews of tomato plant resistance and see constant mention of late blight. I've never had late blight in my county, and most people haven't. Last year it was only in 7 counties of the entire USA. In fact looking back on the late blight tracking map at USABLIGHT.ORG it hasn't hit my area since they started tracking late blight in 2011.

Kevin, I'm always eager for the next best tasting tomato. Several years ago, both myself and a friend had grown one of the touted "best tasting" 'Mountain' varieties, it fell far in comparison to 'Defiant', though 'Mountain Magic' is getting high praise and will give a try. 'Roadster' I'm growing this year. As for late blight, only once in recent memory has it swept through the region, though was devastating for all tomato growers and the potato fields had turned black as well.

So the answers are all over the place. I think what I'm going to do is mark out 4 x 8 foot areas as a starting point for raised beds (common size) and see how I can arrange things, maybe all the tomatoes in one bed (6) or put a couple tomatoes in each bed interplanted with other things. I'm just playing around this year to help me plan the new garden, we have to build it.

re: Mountain Magic: Tried it a few years ago and it does get points for no disease and being prolific, but I didn't like the fruit -- not much taste and very thick skin; neither DH nor I cared for them.

Yes, those potato-leaved varieties are a mess, as are heirlooms -- I won't even bother any more, and even though I do get a few tomatoes off of them that's about all I get before the disease takes them down and become a pile of cracking tomatoes laying in a rotting heap of foliage on the ground.

Amazed at the rarity of blight - we get both alternaria and phytophthera, almost every year. Already, early blight has been reported in the SW and if the summer continues as is, late blight is a certainty.

Mxk3 - I think spacing is very dependent on how you grow the vines (as well as the type. If you nip out every side shoot, it is easily possible to get away with 18inches...but if you grow them in a cage, with all the side shoots, 4 foot + seems about right.

I will sacrifice a bit of flavour for health and vigour - I never grow Sungold because the skins are so thin and splitty, even though they are delicious. I remember being swayed by glowing reports of Mariannas Peace and Cherokee Purple...which were disasters in my garden - MP was neither prolific nor tasty and nearly every CP bud had proliferation (cactiflora??) Then there are the novelties - multiflora, dwarf etc etc. Best to stick to a couple of tried and tested varieties (mine is Chadwick Cherry) and stay well away from internet fluff (writing while on the internet!)

FWIW, I need to grow hybrids with the most disease and pest resistance possible, and for years Tomande was the best tasting, most prolific VFFNTA indeterminate I grew - they were very strong plants - and the fruits were pretty too, but now nobody seems to carry seeds, so I've been working on finding substitutes. This past year I grew Grandeur, First Prize, Big Beef and Think Pink - all did pretty well and had very good flavor, but none were as prolific as Tomande, which used to just keep growing and putting out fruits for the longest time.

I've never had to deal with blight, except maybe when I tried growing heirlooms. Not quite sure what killed them, but I do recall some otherwise healthy looking plants wilting and withering away before I could get any fruit.

I do not prune or pinch off suckers, but I do remove lower leaves on the bottom 10 inches or so and mulch thickly with hay, which seems to help with disease prevention too.

Favorite tomato varieties really depend on location. Too much heat/cold, humidity or lack thereof all make a big difference. The diseases common to a region reflect that. For example, in Maine, early blight, which is caused by hot days and lots of rain and Verticulum wilt, which is more common in alkaline soil are relatively rare, while late blight, caused by wet, cloudy weather and cool nights is a very common problem at the end of the season.

A variety of tomato that is highly resistant to diseases uncommon in your region is not very useful.