tomato plants are huge!

[leeharrisz7b]

This is my first year to grow tomato plants, I'm using the 54" tall round
tomato cages & all 8 plants have out grown them. The cherry tomato is allready 6'. How do ya'll take care of these monster plants? Should I do any prunning(thinning), remove any lower suckers, remove lower leaves to keep off ground? Or do yall just let these plants grow wild?

[sandih]

Welcome to my world! My husband has to put "scaffolding" around some of our tomatoes every year. The Golden Pear or yellow pear plant grew almost 7 ft. tall, went over the edge of the scaffolding then back down to the ground. It would have been almost 15 ft tall had to had enough support. Here's a couple of images showing what we do. Start with 1x2x8 (8feet tall) then hammer into the ground until stable. As the plant grows, you can put horzontal pieces to support the branches. We use pantyhose cut in strips to secure the branches to the wood. The pantyhose work really well because they don't cut into the cranches and they give a little in the wind.

I would trim the very lowest branches off, the ones that are almost on the ground. In my experience they don't produce fruit and are more apt to get eaten on.

http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v199/sandih/tomato%20scaffolding/DSC01840.jpg

http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v199/sandih/tomato%20scaffolding/DSC01839.jpg