How many plants 128 sq ft

[chonas]

Good afternoon Tomatoville!

I'm a new member and my wife an I are intending to grow a pretty significant garden this year.

Currently I have 3 Black Krims, 6 Polaris (super fast/big sprouts), 19 Indian Zebra, 2 Fish Lake (oxheart), 4 Goatbag, 9 Amazon Chocolate, and 9 Bear Creek tomato seedlings. Assuming I get 100% survival till outdoor planting, how many can I stick in the ground to fill 128 sq ft of allocated tomato space?

If I had to add to supplement would you recommend sunchocola or sungold?

How is Kellog's Breakfast for canning?

[TomatoDon]

Sungold. Kellogg's is excellent summer eating, not so sure how it would do for canning.

I think 3 x 3 feet is a minimum for ample room for best production. A 4 x 4 is even better. Plants spaced 3 feet apart in a row is a minimum, and rows 5 feet apart is a minimum. You will have trouble walking between the plants on 5 foot walkways between rows. Six to eight feet between rows would be better.

[nyrfan]

@chonas I think 42 would be the maximum you could fit in. Rows & plants would be approximately 18 inches apart.

[chonas]

"Lucky" for me then that most of my seedlings damped off. I think I'm down to about 12. Indian Zebra is the only one I think I saw 100% germination and 0 damping loss from. I'm attempting to restart some of the others my count went down to 0 on for my breeding project.

[zipcode]

30 plants pruned to one stem would be the standard. Unpruned, tough to say, maybe half or less? depends how big they usually get.

[JRinPA]

Learn from that "luck". Damping off can be a real problem and will wipe a whole tray at a time.


So 128 sq ft, what is the geometry of that? One block, 8x16? 32x4? 32 x 4 and allowing overhang to the outside, I could stuff 64 plants in a double row in their and limit to 2 stems each, climbing CRW fence every 6". One big block, of crw cages though, could be a lot less.

[chonas]

Hypothetically the area is 13 ft long by 14 ft wide with some space carved out for paths.

Hypothetically because I measured along a fence pretty accurately, but the diagonal path along another side prevented super accurate distance measurements.

We ran out of rewire after making our bean, pea, and kiwi trellises so we just have the standard 3 ring tomato cages currently.

[Fusion_power]

The answer to this question should be directed toward figuring out the growth habit of the plants you are growing. Rampant indeterminates like Sungold need 16 square feet per plant. A compact indeterminate can get by with 12 square feet. A determinate needs about 9 square feet and a dwarf needs 4 to 6 square feet. Micro varieties can get by with as little as 1 square foot per plant.


Since most of your varieties are indeterminates, don't expect to set out more than 10 or 11 plants.

[JRinPA]

KB for canning...I've never though KB stays firm for long. They are ripe, then they soften, not great for waiting on the shelf for a big batch. I consider the taste rather...light? Not real tangy. Also, the sauce will be very light colored.


I would say not great, unless you want to make a juice/soup. I use a tomato basil soup recipe and if made with yellow/orange tomatoes and canned in pints, is like a V8 that tastes great instead of horrible! And looks like OJ.

[tryno12]

I have 30 Dwarfs in 130 Sq. Ft. and it is tight. Done that for 4 years, works ok.

[Gardeneer]

It depends on factors. I generally
Do with 4 sq-ft per plant. But with good vertikal Support. That is in one row.
If you have two rows the
you have to sacrifice a third rot
between them. So in this
case it will take six sq-ft per plant, average.
This is when Land is at Premium.
If he I have plenty of spice I will do it at
twelve sq-ft per plant.
Now I was talking about indeterminates,
all multiple staked or caged.

[PaulF]

I agree with TomatoDon: plants 4 feet apart. That is for indeterminate heirloom/OP caged. Any closer and there will be very little space between plants. Also air flow may be compromised inviting pathogens. What is that? 16 square feet per plant.