Anne I know where you are coming from. I never planned to do the staggered planting; but rather was forced by diseases to adopt it in order to have a decent season. I didn't know when I started that it would end up being a way to have fresh tomatoes for at least 6 months of the year and sometimes longer.
I too have found myself fudging on my single stem goal because some plants just are too bare to have only one stem so I end up letting one or two more get going to see if that will help. It will make it much more difficult for me dealing with multiple stems because of the support system I am using; but I promise not to go over 3 stems.
I am glad I don't have your mite problems every year. Those are nasty little beasts and hard to get rid of. Have you tried using an Insect Growth Regulator? I had some success with it a few years ago when I was pulling what little hair I have left out trying to control them. I was spraying one concoction or another every 3 days and barely keeping them in check. I did find one poison that was fairly effective and that was Malathion but I hate spraying it on my food and it had to be used in a concentration that burned the leaves some in order to work on mites. I now mix up a solution of very soapy water, and Permethrin at double strength, and a growth regulator. I hit the plants making sure to get the undersides of the leaves very good and followed it up with another treatment around a week later and they were gone. Year before last when I caught them early it only took one treatment. The IGR is supposed to have good residual action for several weeks or longer if it isn't exposed to the sun. Last year I had so many Assassin bugs that I had very few pests except a few worms and some aphids. I hope they come back again this year especially now that most of the ladybugs have moved on to greener pastures.
Bill
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