Are you buying all these posts specifically for staking tomatoes and will you be growing a couple hundred plants?

Reason I ask is that using them individually as a tomato plant stake for hundreds of plants has some real drawbacks. But using 'some' of them to stake your plants using the Florida weave system has some real advantages.

There are lots of stakes vs. cages discussions here and cages will always win hands down when talking about 20-25 plants or less. But with hundreds of plants cages (talking about real tomato cages like CRW cages, not the 3 ring things) can become too costly and difficult to manage/store.

Pluses for a staked plant - none IMO except it keeps it off the ground. Minuses - lots of work putting them in and taking them out, too short for most indeterminate plants, requires almost daily monitoring for pruning and tying, broken branches, etc.

JMO

Dave

I plant about 125 tomatoes. When I was younger we planted several hundred, but we didn't stake or cage them.

I really don't like cages. They are expensive and I don't like not being able to hoe around the stems.

I tried a Florida weave a couple of years ago, but I'm looking at close to a mile of rope or whatever, and the cheaper stuff I used was too fine and all broke. I don't like the idea of not being able to walk between the plants.

I don't know much about pruning. What I am trying to acheive is a cross between cages and stakes, where I tie rings around the plants with cloth. It worked pretty well last season, but my wooden stakes were too short.

Old fence posts have 60 inches above ground. I can buy them for $2 each, and they'll last longer than me. I have plenty of storage space, and I have an old pipe driver that I've used for 50 years.

Any further thoughts?

I usually have about 75 plants and stake with oak 6 footers from Southern States....about one dollar apiece. Works well.

How far do you drive the 6-footers into the ground?

about 6-8 inches. Two or three a yr falls after a big storm and doesnt break the stem, easily stood up and anchored to plants on either side. Staking is by far the most commonly used method in this area. My neighbor tailgates and stakes 300 or more every yr and he is 74 yrs old. Off the subject but his Old Fashioned Goliath and Bear Claw tomatoes are really nice. Round, blemish free and 12 -24 ounces. No wonder he sells so many of them.

I used bamboo stakes in the past, I foot in the ground for every 3 feet out of the ground.
I am going to try wire cages this coming Spring, year 2013.

Bigpinks:

So, the wind does not blow in Ohio? I may move there.

I use cages and try to get by with supporting each cage with a 5/8" re-bar driven 18" into the ground. When we get a forecast for our typical rainstorm with a 70 mph wind, I drive in another re-bar.

Sometimes the cages stay upright, sometimes they don't.

What I am trying to acheive is a cross between cages and stakes, where I tie rings around the plants with cloth. It worked pretty well last season, but my wooden stakes were too short.
Wot I do is the traditional staking and tying. Idealy 8' posts stuffed ~18" inground. Cannot use post pounder to do it... they are too wide. Even with 48 stakes, I use at lot of twine (about 2000 feet [ or more of it ] if I do not get lazy). If I could get 7 or 8' tall metal posts for ~$2 I would use them.. easier to pound in and do not break or fall over (if they have a bottom flange). Your plan with the cloth "cages" may work, but one needs a lot of it and also needs to resist the temptation to overly gather the stems together. With twine it is easier to select individual large stems to support. Yet in fact, what I end up with is essentially a tall twine "cage". Advantage over the caging method is that it is more flexible and fewer stems become crimped where they cascade over the concentric cage circles (or squares). Disadvantage over a good cage is that it requires more of the dreaded 4 letter word... "work".
Reggie