OPINION: Straight Line or Stagger Your Row

[greenthumbomaha]

I know most of you have moved on to container growing, but for those old die hards that still plant in the ground, do you plant in a straight row or stagger your tomatoes in to a continuous vvvvv type pattern. Not the best graphic but I hope you understand the question. I am planning a 25 X 25 traditional in ground garden and want to maximize the amount of plants so I can fit two of each variety. Suggestions are welcome!Tomatoville is addictive, I started double what I usually grow

[Pigzzilla]

I have 10 raised beds, 16'x4'x18" in my main garden area. It is surrounded by an 8' deer fence. I plant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in staggered rows, like your VVVVVVVVV. Last year I planted tomatoes about 3'apart, but this year they will be a bit closer, just about 2' or 2 1/2' apart.

3 of the beds are permanent; strawberries, asparagus and artichokes. I have 1 for salad makings and root crops like carrots, beets and radishes. 2 will have beans, green and dry. 3 for tomatoes and the last is for peppers and eggplants. They all get rotated each year.

I have another raised bed area that we need to fence this year. There are 4 raised beds there, 16'x3'x18" with grapes and blueberrys. The blueberrys are staggered like VVVVV. Also 4 beds 3'x3'x18" I plant squash in.

We plant pumpkins, winter squash and melons in a large open area in the front of the property.

[kurt]

I think the decision would be on how your sun exposure will dictate the position of the plants.If the rows or VVVV s are going South to North and your getting East and West sun I think it makes sense.If it is East to West planting dependent on how tall and what variety you use and the positioning of that variety in your VVVV s might affect it.For the low crops it makes great sense to maximize the bed growing capabilities.It took me a couple of years to sort out the positioning of rows and the varieties to maximize sun exposure in my garden caus of some trees,fencing and angle of property to the sunrise and sunset.

[greenthumbomaha]

This will be in a community garden with no obstructions. I believe the plots run East/West. My home garden is almost completely shaded from trees on all three sides, and is to the north of the house on the fourth side. I am fortunate that former farm land is being leased out for gardening in 25 X 25 plots. Its surrounded by some of the most expensive real estate in the city. I have mostly tomatoes and a few bush squash plants, yellow with high powdery mildew resistance. The pantry garden that I volunteer at had their entire squash crop wiped out by squash bugs last year. My squash survived the squash bug attack but succumbed to mildew. While I'm rambling, here is my tomato list:

Pastes:
Debarao
Opalka
San Marzano
Red Oxheart

Early:
Bloody Butcher
Stupice
Tamina
Early Treat

Heirloom:
Big Red
Alisa Craig
Brandywine Pink

Hybrid:
Big Boy
Celebrity
Delicious
Jubilee
Steak Sandwich
Super Beefsteak

at home in containers: Stupice, Better Bush, Baxters Bush Cherry, Tumbling Tom

[b54red]

I also plant in raised beds and stagger almost all of my plants to get in the maximum number in each bed. I learned a hard lesson last year by getting my plants too close together and allowing too much foliage to develop in two of the beds and it created terrible air flow and too much shade. I suggest you limit your number of stems if you are going to set your plants closer than 3 feet unless you live where the humidity remains low during the summer. I am doing a couple of beds with the plants only 2 feet apart and staggered but I am going to limit the number of stems to one. I have never done this but I'm going to give it a fair shot this year and see what kind of results I get as to production, disease and the amount of work involved.

[Keiththibodeaux]

Plant in a big maze and confuse the bugs.

[greenthumbomaha]

What advantages do you find when planting tomatoes VVVVV, Pigz. I can envision the VVV for squash or other small vegies.

[PaulF]

We have raised beds for strawberries and herbs but in-ground for everything else. Since my tomatoes get really large and spill out the sides and tops of the cages and since tomatoes are my main crop, they are all going to be at least 4 feet from plant to plant. This will be about 6 inches more space each direction. The reason is to give more air space for the vines and reduce disease. Maybe the real reason is that I am getting larger and can't squeeze into places I used to.

The cages will all be equidistant and in rows both from east to west as well as north to south like this:

O O O O O O
O O O O O O
O O O O O O
O O O O O O

The rest of the garden gets rows for the row crops and staggered around to fit for the vine crops.

[PA_Julia]

Hi I'm a relative newbie and I am planting in ground.
I have tilled the majority of my nice sized backyard to a depth of 6 ".
I'm spacing my tomato plants about 3 feet apart to the exception of my Big Zac's and Phil's Fantastic which will be at least another foot apart due to the size these varieties grow to.


Julia

[pdxwindjammer]

@ Keith, LOL!

I tend to plant in rows and then throw an odd tomato plant in wherever I can fit one in.

[Barbee]

I like traditional straight lines. I till between the rows all summer long then hoe around each plant.
I'm a neat and tidy gal

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

I know most of you have moved on to container growing, but for those old die hards that still plant in the ground, do you plant in a straight row or stagger your tomatoes in to a continuous vvvvv type pattern. Not the best graphic but I hope you understand the question. I am planning a 25 X 25 traditional in ground garden and want to maximize the amount of plants so I can fit two of each variety. Suggestions are welcome!Tomatoville is addictive, I started double what I usually grow

ONLY DOUBLE? I just bought over thirty new varieties of seeds this year that I didn't know existed until this website. I love it!!!

[greenthumbomaha]

LOL PaulF. I'm going with 4 ft too. Community plot grew to 25 X 50. Doing one straight row, next one in between.

Last year in 8 X 20 home garden, had two rows 6 toms each, plus pepper row in front, edged eggplant and garlic, toms took over everything. This year 6 total, 1/3 space other stuff.

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Keiththibodeaux

Plant in a big maze and confuse the bugs.

LOL, in a sense this is what I do. I spread out same type plants in clusters all over the yard and interplant with borage etc. I think it definitely helps keep the bugs confused. I've never yet had a bug create any serious impact to anything. Plus it looks cool and makes for way less weeding.