I have an interesting situation. I received a lot of tomato plants as a gift. I'm not sure exactly how many, but let's say that I'm dealing with 50 for good measure. Right now they're in pots that are too small for their size with a soaker hose on a timer. If I don't give them better growing conditions soon they're not going to make it, but I don't know how to go about this. I plan on planting them in the ground in rows 50 feet long. If I do the recommended 3 feet spacing, I would need about 3 rows to plant them all.
The land isn't the issue. Supporting the plants is. From an economical standpoint, what is the best way to go about supporting them? I think cages are out of the question as 50 of them would cost hundreds of dollars. Even buying 50 stakes could get pretty pricey. My current idea is to buy a few posts and some rope/twine material and put posts at either ends of the rows, and maybe a few throughout the row and run the rope from end to end every foot vertically or so. But even though I'm looking at hundreds of feet of rope and at least a few nice posts.
Any suggestions for the method, materials to use, and where to find/buy the materials is greatly appreciated - if you come up with an idea that uses more than 3 rows that's no problem.