Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old April 25, 2008   #16
jenn_sc
SPLATT™ Coordinator
 
jenn_sc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Florence, SC
Posts: 502
Default

I think 16 would really be pushing it, especially if you don't intend to prune. I would probably go with about 10, max. Just my 2cents!
jenn_sc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 25, 2008   #17
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
Default

I would say 9 max: one of row of 5 plants, 3 feet apart, with
the end plants set in about 6 inches from the end and a
foot in from the side, and one of row of 4 plants along the
other side in the spaces between the first 5, also set in a
foot from the side.

My honest opinion: this is still going to be too crowded
if you don't prune. By midsummer you won't even be
able to see into the middle of it, and you won't be sure
which plant a branch with a fruit on it is from unless it
happens to be on the outside or have a distinctive shape
or color, different leaf type, etc.

I wish I had taken a picture last August of this one bed
I had with unpruned plants 2' apart in rows 2' apart. It was
a jungle. The plants were all shading each other. Some
of the semi-determinates that only get 4-5' tall were
completely buried under the branches of true indeterminates
around them.

If I were growing indeterminates and not pruning, I would
grow 5 right down the middle of a 4' x 16', and put basil,
parsley, etc out near the edges in the middle of the gaps
between them.

I would try to keep all of the determinates together in the
same bed, too (less shading by taller plants).

If you have too many plants, but you can't see yourself building
that many raised beds, using containers of some kind instead
of crowding them together will probably be less painful. You
have to do a lot of watering that way, but you can move them
to give them as much room as they need.

(Quick, fast, cheap container: laundry basket from a dollar
store with doubled garbage bags in it, with holes poked
around the bottom of the garbage bags for drainage. Others
use grow bags with handles, those big plastic nursery
containers for small trees and shrubs, styrofoam coolers,
homemade Earthboxes, etc.)
__________________
--
alias

Last edited by dice; April 26, 2008 at 05:00 AM. Reason: typo
dice is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 25, 2008   #18
gardengalrn
Tomatovillian™
 
gardengalrn's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Kansas, zone 5
Posts: 524
Default

I grew in a raised bed about 8 years ago and I would agree that 16 is too many for that sized bed. Despite my best intentions, I always cram too many in and it becomes a jungle. I swear each and every time as I'm crawling and maneuvering through the jungle, whether in raised beds or not. Disease and pests were a big problem for me as well. Dice brings up a good alternative if you are set on having 16; I've always grown quite a few in 5 gal buckets at my other place where garden space was limited.
__________________
~Lori
"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
-Abraham Lincoln
gardengalrn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 26, 2008   #19
Hilde
Tomatovillian™
 
Hilde's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Pendleton, NY
Posts: 256
Default

I guess I could test out what works the best for my location this year by varying the number of plants that I put in each bed.

Perhaps I should give in and make an extra bed so I still can grow all the varieties. Although I am kind of spooked after having my face only a foot away from a garden snake today!

It was resting on the other side of the bed frame that I attached, and fled when I started drilling. I broke the drill bit when I saw it too... Ugh, I hate snakes! They totally creep me out. Then it disappeared under the blueberry bed, and I ran for the Snake-Away.


I do have some rather large self watering containers that I have used for tomatoes in the past, but I was hoping that I wouldn't have to use containers anymore, although I might make an exception in the fall, I would like to try growing a small crop for November/December in the green house.
Hilde is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 26, 2008   #20
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
Default

If you have sufficient compost or manure or even just
leaves and grass clippings plus some dirt, or enough
topsoil, you could make a raised bed without building
the sides. Then you could decide over the winter
whether to build walls around it and keep it for another
raised bed.

To do it, you make a raised mound of soil with a flat top,
and then you heap up extra dirt along the edges to hold
water in. You know those raised little round berms about
2-3' in diameter around the plant that you see people on
garden shows suggest for freshly transplanted roses, shrubs,
and trees? Same idea, but you run it down the sides of the
raised mound of soil and along the ends. You can have
children run up and down along the edge and make a packed
down border all around the edge about 8 inches wide, then
build up the raised lip to hold water on top of that. It will
still subside a little from rain, but most of the dirt will stay
in the mound, and water will soak in rather than run off of
it.

If it is on top of lawn, one can put some layers of newspaper
down and then build the bed on top of that to keep turf
and weeds from growing right up through the soil in the
raised bed.

One good thing about building raised beds now: with
home construction slacking off nationwide, there should
be bargains on materials at suppliers if you watch for
them, scour Craig's List, etc.
__________________
--
alias
dice is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:35 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★