I plant tomatoes around a buried five gallon bucket with holes around the bottom .For deep root watering.I usally put five plants around one bucket and in the heat of summer only water ever three days. I usally plant 35 tomatoe plants and last year was a bad year and still produced close to 300 lbs . Put a lid on the bucket and drill a few holes for over flow. Drill a 1"1/2 in the middle to stick a piece of 1"1'4 pvc that is about 5' long to water thru. I use 6"x6" concrete wire for a cage that is cut 10' long .That will make 3' wide cage. I plant the buckets 6' apart. So my tomatoes take up a space that is 3' wide x 42' long. And most years my plants are close to 6' to 8' tall come frost.

So , you're putting 5 plants per cage with the bucket in the middle , right ?

Picked up 3 "Early Girls" at Wal-Mart this morning . I'm gonna go ahead and plant them (against better judgement) . $3+ for 3" pots.

I like the five gallon watering idea though. Going to give it a shot.

...although will probably have to go with one gallon jugs, as 5 gallons would be too deep and hard for me to dig (limestone isn't that easy to dig through).

Are you able to find any of the heat tolerant tomatoes at the store? I've tried Early Girls, Romas and a couple of other varieties the past 3 yrs with minimal success. Bushes got big but very few fruit setting despite rigorous shaking of te plants to assist with setting. Seems to me the high daytime and nighttime temps are the problem. Did manage to keep them alive all summer and they did "okay" in the Fall. I have them planted where they do not get sun after about 2 pm in the summer and I water about every 3 days. Thx