Last year I planted heirloom determinate and indeterminate tomato varieties anywhere I thought they might grow, anywhere they would fit.
I didn't prune them. I tied them all to single stakes, which got fun when I tried to keep the determinate suckers from falling all over the ground with my fresh tomatoes. My tomato strategy, or general lack of one, yielded about what you'd expect. I enjoyed by Blue and Gold berry tomatoes all summer when I could find them in the tangle of vines and leaves. I had no luck whatsoever with my Black Beauty indeterminate tomatoes.
The plants got completely scorched in the Vacaville summer sun and produced not a single edible tomato. This year, I decided, would be completely different. Where last year I scattered six tomato plants around the entire area, this year I decided to plant the bulk of them in just one space roughly 4' x 6'.
In that space right now I have nine tomato plants, a tomatillo, a Pepino melon tomato cousin, not a melon at all , plus marigolds and edamame bushes for good measure. Too much, right? Maybe, but as I write this I do have lots of tomatoes and tomatillos just a week or two from picking.
Staking and pruning have made all the difference. I planted my three indeterminate varieties between two tree stakes and have been managing them with the basketweave technique. That approach to staking has turned these sprawling shrubs into a wall of green that I can access easily from either side of the planting bed.
My two rows of indeterminate tomatoes are behind the determinates growing up stakes and tied every foot or so. I've been pruning out all the suckers to keep the plants tidy and increase air circulation, considering the density of my determinate varieties. So far so good, but it's only May and I have already learned a few things so far.
First, I probably won't get a whole lot from the middle row of indeterminate tomatoes. It turned out that the basket-weaved green wall is too dense to let light through.
I also planted this middle row last, so these plants didn't get enough of a head start to stay above the wall. On next year's plot, on the other side of the garden to ensure healthy crop rotation , they might if they go in first. I also learned that a Pepino melon bush needs a lot of direct sunlight. I planted mine beside a staked freebie indeterminate tomato that gave it too much shade, spindly though it was. I didn't get sentimental. I pulled that jank tomato out. Hopefully, my Pepino can catch up.
The nice thing about annual crops like tomatoes is that failure, even a big one, can be forgotten by winter when those seed catalogs start showing up again with varieties you didn't think could exist let alone grow in your modest garden plot. Even the failures can work out. Last year was a disaster for tomatoes, but I was grazing berry tomatoes all summer. The nice thing about a garden is that next year it can always be different. As I already said, maintaining the correct distance between the tomato plants will help you grow healthy and strong plants with elevated yields.
It is easy to imagine that, being summer vegetables, tomatoes love bathing in the sun as much as possible. This means that you should ensure that your tomatoes get about eight hours of direct sunlight each day. Tomato plants that are spaced too closely suffer from not getting enough sunlight, as the leaves of the neighbor plants will make shade.
This will cause your tomato plants to grow tall, as each plant will try to get as much light as possible. In fact, because the plants develop in length struggling to reach the sunlight, the leaves will remain small. For this reason, they will not be able to provide enough nutrients for the plant to flourish, and as a consequence, your tomato plants will produce only a few blooms. At their turn, the blooms will struggle to get the nutrients, and only some of them will eventually produce fruits.
Not only the leaves will not be able to provide sufficient nutrients and energy to the flowers, but, if planted too close to each other, all tomato plants from the bunch will compete to get the right amount of water and nutrients from the soil.
This will prevent your tomato plants to grow strong and, in fact, they will develop small leaves. Together with the above-mentioned negative aspects, this will further diminish your tomato yield. Even if the fertilizer might slightly help the plants, it will still not be enough to make your tomatoes grow strong.
Lastly, one of the main issues is that will make the tomato plants more susceptible to parasites and diseases. This will happen both because there will be an improper airflow between the plants and because you will have difficulties in spotting pests in time. Some of the pests of the tomato plants are the green caterpillars, bugs that love the tomato foliage, and some fungi.
In the first case, considering that you most likely want to grow organic tomatoes, you will have to eliminate the caterpillars by hand. It is useless to say that you will have a hard time in spotting them if the plants are too close together. In the second case, we all know that fungi love shaded and humid spots.
The leaves of your tomato plants will create the perfect environment for those fungi both because of the improper airflow and because they will maintain humidity for a longer time, especially after a rain. Tomato plants attacked by fungi usually develop spots on the leaves while the fruits are usually unhealthy and will rot earlier.
I believe that all the reasons listed above convinced you how important tomato spacing is. Tomato plants usually grow tall, and many gardeners offer support to the plants with the help of stakes or cages. If you want to use stakes, you should plant the tomatoes at distances between 24 and 30 inches on all sides.
If you plant them in rows, then the distance between the rows should be about 40 inches. Many gardeners choose to plant their tomatoes in cages, as this will spare them from tying the plants to the stakes.
Container tomatoes should be grown in pots that hold at least 5 gallons. Pots can be placed as closely together as you would like. Your garden type will also be a determining factor in how far apart you can plant your tomatoes. Common types of gardens are:. In a traditional row garden, plants are planted in rows. Your tomato plants will be spaced anywhere from 12 inches to 48 inches apart in each row, depending on the factors previously discussed.
Rows should be kept to about 4 feet apart in order to facilitate access to the tomatoes and to give them plenty of room to grow and good air circulation. These gardens tend to need the most space. Raised bed gardens are a way to save space. Bonnie plants suggests building a four foot by four foot frame and filling it with quality raised bed soil.
Plant a large staked or caged tomato in each corner of the bed and fill in the other space with smaller herbs. This will make better use of the soil in your garden and the space you have available. In a square foot garden, spacing is done in one foot sections instead of rows.
You can take the space you need to grow your tomato plants and divide it equally. For example, if your determinate tomato plant needs 2 feet between plants and 4 feet between rows, each plant will need about 8 square feet to grow. Rather than spacing your plants in smaller sections and larger rows, you can even out the distance by planting one plant in each 8 square foot section. However, you do need to be able to access the plants so you are limited by the number of square foot sections by what you are able to reach.
Container gardening works best for determinate and dwarf varieties of tomatoes. Each plant will grow happily in its own large pot. The benefit to container gardening is that you can place the containers as close together as you like.
If you cannot reach all of the tomatoes, simply move the containers that are in the way without damage to the plants. Container gardening is great when you are short on space or do not have a garden at all.
If you are planting your tomatoes in containers, they will grow just fine! But be sure to plant them in pots that have are at least five gallons in size and fourteen inches in diameter.
Larger pots are even better. You can set the pots side by side just as you would plant them in the garden. If you have high quality, nutrient dense, loamy soil, you might be able to get away with planting your tomato plants a little bit more closely together because the soil has plenty of life-sustaining qualities. However, if your soil is poor, hard clay, or very dry, you may need to plant your tomatoes even further apart to give them the best chance to thrive under the conditions that you have.
In short, tomato plants that are planted too closely together will be more susceptible to disease and more susceptible to bug infestations. They will not be as healthy or strong and they will not grow as much fruit.
The fruit they do grow will be difficult to access. Tomato plants that are planted further apart will be healthier, stronger, and will grow more, bigger fruit. Spacing depends on variety, type, soil condition, and method of staking.
When in doubt, keep your tomato plants further apart. If you do not know what type of tomatoes or soil you have, keep your tomato plants four feet apart between plants and keep four feet of space between your rows. This will give you a better chance of having thriving, healthy plants with an abundance of tomatoes. Updated on April 28, by Amber Noyes.
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