A few questions about close planting

[DoubleJ]

OK, here's the situation. I have 30 plants to get into the ground next spring. I have a 16'x8' planting bed. The garden is situated like this:



I plan to use Dcarch's support system http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...hlight=support

My questions are, what is the best way to set up this garden? How many rows? How many plants per row and how far apart? Which way should the rows run to maximize sun conditions?

I know some of you are close planting experts and have had good experiences without giving the plants the ideal 2' in each direction rule. Please help me out.

Thanks

[TZ-OH6]

Just curious, what are the plants? and why so many? I have some indeterminants spaced two feet apart but they are on 7ft tall stakes and pruned heavily. Even my little Lime Green Salads need 1.5ft so the leaves don't overlap.

[DoubleJ]

Tomatoes of various types

[robin303]

Believe me I’m no expert but I have found 32” to close and 36” just right. And for raised beds I never go over 4' wide that way you can reach from both sides.

I have beds at 8'x4', and that seems right. I can imagine 16' long w/o too much problem, but wider than 4' seems difficult. I don't like to walk in the beds, so harvesting from the middle branches and plants would be difficult on wider beds.

[DoubleJ]

It's not a raised bed, it's in ground.

[dcarch]

I am attaching a pdf plan:

Blue lines indicate scale, one box=12" x 12".
Red lines indicate support system.
Green inicates tomato plants at 18" apart.

I grow mine at 14" apart and all the plants are over 15' tall on 10' tall support systems.

It's been working out great. This is the fourth year of re-using the same system, I have yet to buy anything.

Let me know if you have further questions.

dcarch

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by eltex

I have beds at 8'x4', and that seems right. I can imagine 16' long w/o too much problem, but wider than 4' seems difficult. I don't like to walk in the beds, so harvesting from the middle branches and plants would be difficult on wider beds.

I have a different method for this for my support system:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ighlight=mulch

dcarch

[TZ-OH6]

I would run four rows of 7-8 plants northish- southish (your long axis) so the plants can get east west lateral sun. I would use two double rows (one walk way down the center of the garden) which will give you access to rows 2 and 3, and you can access rows 1 and 4 from the sides of the garden. You can squeeze one more plant at the north end of the aisle to block it off. You need at least three feet between rows 2 and 3 in order to walk and work once the leaves over hang.

[dice]

You want 3' between plants in all directions, but you can cheat
at the outside edges, planting them a foot or so in.

If you do three rows, one in the middle and the other two
a foot in from each side, that is 8' of width. If you put 6 plants
in each row, with the end plants 6" in from the ends of the
bed and 3' between plants , that would be 18 plants without
crowding, until you have to walk between trellises, at which
point you will find out that 3' may be enough space between
rows for the plants but not enough for the plants *and* you,
unless you prune indeterminates to one or two stems (and
determinates and semi-determinates can still be a width
of plant problem between rows, but you don't want to prune
those, normally, because of all the fruit that they set on
side-shoots).

30 plants in that space is likely to be an impenetrable jungle
by the 1st of August without greenhouse-type pruning, and
the "paths" between rows will have disappeared.

The orientation is ok. The slight tilt to it allows sun to hit
all plants in early and late summer, when the arc of the sun
is to the south of you.

Look at the pictures below to get an idea of what this looks like
in mid-summer.

Unpruned:
http://www.pollards.org/summer05/imagepages/image2.htm

Conscientiously pruned (second picture down on the page):
http://www.recruitingofficer.com/arc...1_archive.html

[DoubleJ]

Originally Posted by dcarch

I am attaching a pdf plan:

Blue lines indicate scale, one box=12" x 12".
Red lines indicate support system.
Green inicates tomato plants at 18" apart.

I grow mine at 14" apart and all the plants are over 15' tall on 10' tall support systems.

It's been working out great. This is the fourth year of re-using the same system, I have yet to buy anything.

Let me know if you have further questions.

dcarch

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks

[dcarch]

Warning: this is ultra-high desity planting. It would be a good idea to plant varieties with distinct differences next to each other. The branches will be inter-laced with each other you may not be able to tell what you will be getting.

I plant PL next to RL, red next to green next to black next to yellow, etc.

dcarch

[DoubleJ]

Originally Posted by dcarch

Warning: this is ultra-high desity planting. It would be a good idea to plant varieties with distinct differences next to each other. The branches will be inter-laced with each other you may not be able to tell what you will be getting.

I plant PL next to RL, red next to green next to black next to yellow, etc.

dcarch

That's a great tip, thanks