Spent a few hours yesterday getting a few posts into the ground. ended up digging up an absurd amount of stone while doing so figured l'd make some nice stone walls around my garden while I'm at it! I'm planning on putting some hardware cloth around all this sometime this weekend. Here's to hoping thats enough to keep animals out and that don't get a late frost
by Kypore
17 Comments
Those are VERY close together.
The stone walls are very cool! Those tomato plants are going to be VERY big, though–you have space for two (four at most) where you’ve put in sixteen. Do you have any large containers you could transfer some to? They do well in 5 gallon buckets (with holes for drainage).
I agree! I haven’t tried yet but there is a method called open bottom container planting. Can get away with planting closer together.
I would maybe have 5 total tomatoes in the space where you currently have them planted. leave the corner ones and one in the middle. They get very large and will eventually need supports
I know getting going with gardening is a skill and I’m super sorry to be critical so early in your journey, but those tomatoes are very overcrowded. You could fit five max in that space, one in each corner and one in the center. Four might be even better. Each one of those tomatoes are going to get 5 feet tall and will need a cage. If you have spots in your garden that you can spread these out to, that would be best.
I have one tomato in a 5 gallon container (Firehouse Subs pickle buckets) so I can spread them out when they get bushy. Your gardening space looks fantastic! You may want look into “Square Foot Gardening” to determind spacing of your veg. Happy gardening!
6 might be pushing it in that space. Mine normally get huge.
I plant my tomato plants 3 feet apart.
Those are planted wayyy too close. I’d dig up half of them at least and space them out or toss them. That’s going to be a mess of disease and bugs!! Not to mention, a real pain in the ass to pick your fruit!! Even if you took out every other plant, I would still only grow them as single vines up a large stake, pruning off all secondary vines/suckers/side shoots. If you want to leave them as bushes, you may need to take out about 3/4 of them and space them elsewhere. Not to be discouraging but for real. I’m sure other people are going to second this.
What species tomatoes are those? As everyone said, they are extremely close. If they are determinate, you could dig up every other one and space them out more. If they are indeterminate, and your climate is good for them, you will need lots of space. In that scenario, one or two tomato plants could fill that entire area if all goes well.
Another big thing is air flow. The rock wall is super cool, but will limit air flow through there, especially as they grow in. That will promote disease.
Your garden bed is very charming with all that stone. Regarding cold nights/frost: If you don’t have frost cloth on hand you can use sheets or lightweight blankets for protection. The cover needs to be propped up over the plants. You can secure it under rocks at the top level and figure something out at the lower level to keep it in place without crushing/breaking the plants. I use sections of wire garden fencing but anything stable will do. Hopefully, you won’t have those cold nights, though.
I would do no more than 3 in a row there. I did 18-24 inch spacing for mine and now I think it’s not enough.
If they stake the tomatoes and prune them to maximize fruit production along only one vine they will be fine. I have grown tomatoes like this with a string trellis. Sure you won’t get as many tomatoes from one plant but with the amount of tomatoes you can fit in an area it is a way to get a LOT more tomatoes per sq ft. If they did research it’s likely they followed advice on doing this. If not then good luck OP lol
That stone is beautiful!!
(And I agree with everyone else regarding the spacing)
Cardboard serves the same purpose as landscaping cloth and is typically free of plastics.
Like others have said they will grow huge and it will be a tangled mess. Take out about 1/3 of the plants I think my seed packets say plants should be spaced 2-3 feet apart
What kind of tomatoes are they? My yellow pears are quite small this year so I could fit more near each other.