Is there anything I could do better or different for 2010? Also spacing ?

[disneynut1977]

Hi,
I don't post here often, more of a lurker. I was wondering if anybody could chime in on how many you think I could fit into my tomato garden space and if I'm really giving them enough sun? This was my fourth year for growing my own tomatoes.

This year I had a 9.5'x13'. My wonderful hubby double dug this bed and I put a good amount of super old horse manure in. I may expand 2 more feet next year (9.5'x15')and that's it. I have alot of trees in my yard and have very limited spots (this being the only 1) that get the same amount of sun from spring to fall. So as you can tell, I have to keep my tomato garden in the same spot every year. My other side does get about 10-11hrs direct sun until mid summer than is shaded alot, maybe 3-4hrs direct for the rest of the season. Stupid maple trees

I do plan on dumping either well aged manure or having compost delivered every fall to help bump this patch back up. I also fertilize with Neptune's Harvest and my plants LOVE it.

I have a white tail deer problem, so I can't place tomato plants here and there, they must be fenced.

1 end of this bed is also very close to 1 of my larger evergreen's, so I would imagine there may be very, very close root's competing for nutrients also.

Now after mentioning those few hurdles,I also have limited hrs of sun. The very middle of the bed , 9'x9', get's a constant 8-9hrs direct sun for the whole growing season (9:30am-18:00pm). Both end's, 9'x3'(10:30-16:30pm), get about 6 hrs of direct sun for the whole season. I know it's not alot, not including the fact that I also have a short growing season, but it really is the only area I have to grow these. See pic of my 2009 tom patch.




For spacing I did a 2' path and each tomato plant got a 3'x3.5' space. I realize after seeing the plants grow up I really could have spaced them closer and maybe even skipped the path and done 1 more row of tom's. I'm the only 1 that goes in there to prune and pick and I had TONS, TONS of room with the spacing I did, way too much room. I kinda felt it was a waste of room. Maybe because I have limited sun and my growing season is shorter my plants don't turn into monster's like they do in the south?

I did stake half of them (ran out of stakes and had to use cheap cages, LOL, I chuckle each time I see the cages). I will stake them from now on. I pruned to about 4 stems each plant and they were very easy to control and tie to the stakes.

So after explaining my tomato garden, How many plant's could I bump up to in 2010 with the 9'x15' bed? If I started early inside and black plastic the bed for spring to warm it up, I was thinking about making homemade water well's using soda bottles or gallon jugs to plant early, maybe early-mid May, I wanted try some late season types. Or should I even bother, because of the short light time and growing season that I have. Should I stick with early-mid season types? I have also read that large/beefsteak types need large amounts of sun to produce the large fruits, which I just don't have (all my large types this year got my prime spots in the higher amount of sun). Should I even bother with large fruited types?

This year for big 1's, I did Big Beef hybrid (have a total of 16 fruits), Chianti Rose (total of 3 HUGE and 3 medium fruits), Momotaro hybrid (13 fruits), BFT (about 20 large-medium fruits), Hazelfield Farm, not large, but was at end of bed and only got about 6-7hrs was loaded with small/medium-medium fruits. Now after having not much luck the past 3 years, to see that many tomatoes on each plant (except the Chianti Rose) I was so happy, until I started reading on good season's other people can get up to 40 fruits on a plant??? Am I right in thinking it's because of how short my season is and the amount of sun or a combo of that and I do prune?

For my cherries, I was happy with the Sungold and Black, except the Black in production wasn't much, but I will still try it again next year. Grew
Matt's Wild and it was productive (had the worst spot in my bed), but was not happy about taste at all.

I do realize I shouldn't complain too much as I did not have any problems with disease at all. So many people lost thier crop to disease and I had no problem in that area. All my plants were happy and strong this year.

[dice]

You could shoehorn another short row in that path, but that
would make larger fruited plants even more light-challenged,
and pruning would be a necessity to be able to get around
them at the end of the season. Maybe put one row in the
middle and move the other two rows out a little bit, so that
most of the plant gets the full sun of the middle area and one
side of the plant in those two rows gets the lesser sun.

(One reason that you did not have disease problems could be
that your plants were not crowded and dried out fairly quickly
after rains.)

You could try Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, and Spudakee.
Those tend to set fruit fairly promptly and ripen before cool
fall weather sets in, when I have grown them. Gregori's Altai
is even earlier (though perhaps not quite as tasty).

Another thing that you could do is runs strips of reflective
mulch on the ground between the rows once the soil warms
up, so that it reflects some sunlight back up into the plants
from ground level (helps with bug control, too, by confusing
bugs that like the dark undersides of leaves). dcarch uses
squares of aluminum flashing for that (stays put more easily
and easier to walk over than something thin like mylar).

[disneynut1977]

Thanks so much for response Dice.

I've been thinking it over and maybe I should just add 2 more plants, totaling 10 for 2010. I wanted to double my numbers and try 16 plants, but I guess I'm even pushing it with 10 for the space and sunlight. I could do 3 rows, middle 4 plants and outer rows 3 plants each and space my outer 2 rows a little bitter farther away from the middle just like you said.

I was wondering about how a reflective material would work out also. I know I want to do black at first to warm the soil up for earlier planting, than I guess I could come up with something reflective once summer heat kicks in.

I looked up Sudakee, as I didn't know what that was. I came up with a PL Cherokee Purple? Am I right? Where is there a seed source for that? Also do you know if Black Krim is earlier than Black from Tula?

[dice]

I looked up Spudakee, as I didn't know what that was. I came up with a PL Cherokee Purple? Am I right? Where is there a seed source for that? Also do you know if Black Krim is earlier than Black from Tula?

Spudakee is PL developed from a PL plant found by someone
in a row of Cherokee Purple plants. While a mutation from RL
to PL is always possible, looking at the fruit, a chance cross
that was grown out to a stable OP seems more likely to me.
(Fruit are the same color as CP, but a few ounces smaller and
more numerous on average. Excellent flavor.)

I do not know of any commercial sources for it, although
Baker Creek carries a "Cherokee Purple, Potato Leaf" that
is not likely the same cultivar, but may be close.

Black Krim is often listed as being earlier than Black From
Tula, but I have not grown both in the same summer, so I
cannot say for sure.

I saved lots of Spudakee seeds this year, and I have seeds
for Black Krim and Cherokee Purple, too. Maybe we could
trade. I will send you a PM.