I have always read that tomatoes should be planted about 24" apart, and that is how I've always done it. This year I intend to fence off part of the horse pen and plant tomatoes, corn and melons there. Since the soil will be very, very rich and I will put cans beside each plant to keep them watered I was wondering if I could get away with planting them closer together. Does anyone have any experience with spacing them 18" or so apart? Do you suppose that I could still get a heavy crop from them that way? Also, I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the perpetual problem of to stake or not to stake the tomatoes? Thanks.

-- Ava Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), April 10, 2001