I’m planning on growing vine tomatoes (Gardeners Ecstasy and Goldkrone) for the first time in this bed that I’ve dug out to a depth of about 20cm. It’s 2.5m long and 0.5m wide.
How many plants should I realistically grow in this space, and what’s the trade off for squeezing in an extra plant vs. giving more space?
Thanks for any help, as it’s my first time any other tips are welcome! 🍅
by Decent_Pool
22 Comments
Tomato roots need 2-3 feet of soil at the least. I think you could be fine if there is just more earth under that 20 cm with no barrier but tbh youre gonna want a lot more.
you can place 2 plants per row in the 50cm space and spacing the pairs 40cm each.
If I wanted to maximize the space I would plant one indeterminate variety in the middle of each pane of glass, and another aligned with each greenhouse strut. So, I would grow 7 maximum. But, I would need to be very diligent about pinching off side shoots, removing leaves that aren’t getting light, spotting issues like airborne fungi, BER etc and watering / feeding. So, I would only do this once I had grown toms for a few seasons, because those first seasons teach you the most about doing it. At first, I would grow maybe 4, one per pane of glass, so they have a lot of airflow and nutrients in the soil to feast on.
Between 4 and 7
4 to 6
I would probably grow 4 in that space.
> How many tomato plants should I grow in this space?
Yes.
I’d say 5 maybe 6
May look a little bare initially but will fill out come summer
As most people have said numbers it’s worth saying in terms of spacing most guides recommend 40-60cm between indeterminate plants. That would be when pruning to one or maybe two stems or things would get unmanageable and promote diseases.
I go for 40 or 45 but I know people who go slightly less. You’re likely to get competition effects affecting your yield and fruit size though.
As for how many…i say you can get 3 comfortably and 4 will fill out assuming they branch outward too but you need more tomato plants. You always need more tomato plants and thats tooootally not the tomato gremlin in me speaking…
4-6
Aren’t all tomato plants vines?
Plant more and trim more or plant less and trim less
5
No point putting more than 5 otherwise more plant will compete for the nutrients the harvest will be less .
1) How long is your grow season and are you starting indoors or in soil?
2) what is your plan for supporting the vines as they grow?
I live in the southeastern US (no frost April through end of Oct) and with proper watering had some indeterminate vines that grew to about 4 meters during the season.
Aside from that, I would plant them about 30-40cm apart.
I am going to assume you might consider a single leader up some sort of trellis. If so, I personally like to do a staggered double row with a plant every 20 inches. (Sorry I am a yank so you will need to convert).
The double row should be about 12 inches wide, so two rows, 12 inches apart, and each row has spacing of 20 inches, with the rows being staggered to each other.
This gives you an adequate square footage for each plant and will maximize your fruit per sq. foot. It is a bit more work but is well worth it imo to maximize the value of your greenhouse space.
I grew six plants in a smaller space so I say six is safe.
Fifty hundred is what my dog said
I say 5
Depends on your humidity. Less humid and you can fit more in. More humid and you need more air flow.
4-5