To What Extremes Have YOU Gone To Plant More Tomatoes?

[FILMNET]

My Garden 20' BY 60' , I have 5 of 16 plants eaten by ? so i got 6 plants of Cherokee Purple for $2.25 last week. It was raining and the put them in garden, and they were looking bad. I got them out today and the roots were tight, and i did not open the roots. So i did open the tight root for 5 plants really fast. I hope the plants will grow.

[SharonRossy]

Well I started almost 100 seedlings, then spent the next 6-8weeks moving them from window to window to under grow lights, then transplanting and finally hardening them off which took forever because of the weird weather we had. I think they got confused I moved them so much. Eded up planting 20, mostly container plants, gave the rest away, regretfully tossed about 10 seedlings because I just had no more energy to prepare another container. Of course, I have since regretted that decision. And, I'm already planning on next years list!

[Claudia]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Claudia, you have room for tons more!!!

Thanks!! That is what I hoped to hear!!!!!!!!!!!

[kath]

I thought that paying for a fencing co. to come out here 2 years in a row to expand the size of my garden twice was going to extremes until I read what some of you have done!

kath

[Patihum]

Told hubby I wanted to can more so could we please double the size of the garden. Not exactly a lie but not the whole truth. I just couldn't fit all the varieties I wanted in the old garden.

[pdxwindjammer]

You all are making me feel better about spending almost $1000 to landscape my front yard so I could plant my "left over" tomato plants!

[PA_Julia]

I've brought in a satanic priestess to ask the dark master for an opening to another dimension so I'll have more room to plant more tomatoes.

Just kidding!!!.....................................Or am I?

[clkeiper]

I converted a 16x32 greenhouse into a tomato growing house...I have 40 tomatoes in there in cages and tied to the purlins. I started picking them this week. The toms in the garden are just now starting to flower. The next high tunnel has 25 tomatoes (or there abouts) and the balance of my tomatoes are in our garden this year...5 more rows of 30 each. Last year we borrowed a small section of the neighbors farm field to grow in, but as dry as it was last year it was a total failure.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Claudia

Thanks!! That is what I hoped to hear!!!!!!!!!!!

Granted I'm staking and pruning to two stems, but for comparison, I have 28 plants in 4' x 16' of bed space. I do two rows of three across 18" apart, then leave 24" between those and the next two rows of three. This way all the plants get plenty of air flow on at least one side, I have room to work between the rows, and with a 4' bed, I can still manage to reach in to the middle plants without having to walk in the bed.

If you're caging you'll need more space per plant, but I still think you can easily fit more in your 6' x 12' area.

If you really wanted to, that is ;-).

[topazgirl170]

I'm a beginner gardener. I started tomatoes from seeds in an attempt to save money, grow varieties I would like to try(exotic varities) and to know that they were organically grown.


I've research, youtubed, bought books and became slightly obsessed with tomatoes, especially heirlooms. I kept some "backup" plants just in case I killed off several due to newbieism. Now I have 6 Nepal Tomato Plants that I don't have the heart let go.

However, I knew I had a problem:

1. When I look at empty spaces and I start to visualize how many containers and tomato plants I could plant in those spaces.

2. I'm considering rental a space in a community garden next season so I can test grow more varieties.

3. I've already made a list of tomatoes I want to try for next season and asking myself should I buy the seeds now or wait until January/February.

4. Some of tomatoes I wanted to try are not doing well I'm going to start from seed a few varieties(Black From Tula, Black Heirloom, Aunt Ruby's German Green). My thought is if I can plant them by July 15, I could have tomatoes by October 15.


Oh, I have total of 21 plants(15 different varieties) in raised beds and smart pot containters.

[clkeiper]

As I am suckering the plants in the garden I find myself putting them in a bucket of water as I pull the really nice suckers off...maybe I will find another place in the garden or wait, wait, wait!!! I have an EMPTY greenhouse that had all my spring bedding plants in it and is now almost void of salable items...maybe I will put them in there for my latest crop of tomatoes.

[bcday]

Year 1: Planted 6 tomatoes in flower bed

Year 2: Planted 6 more in second flower bed

Year 3: Dug rows of holes in lawn adjoining flower beds. Replaced the crappy soil in the holes with container mix and mowed grass between the rows as "living mulch". Yield not great but I was able to try several new varieties with a minimum of digging and still had the option of returning the area to lawn with a minimum of fuss.

Year 4: Added 15 5-gallon buckets and 4 18-gallon plastic bins.

Year 5: Found room for 6 more plants by trimming back the neighbor's huge overgrown lilac bush that was growing through the fence, over the fence, and sending up suckers 5 feet this side of the fence. I did leave some smaller healthy branches on my side because I do enjoy the flowers. Neighbor didn't say much, mostly because he had been doing some trimming on my flowering crabapple that overhangs on his side and because I gave him a dozen or so tomato plants.

Year 6: Had a very large, very old silver maple and two smaller hemlock trees removed ($$$$). Did the holes-in-lawn thing again in the newly sun-drenched area. The neighbors began feeling sorry for the dog, whose play/exercise space was rapidly dwindling. The dog seemed to agree, because she started a new hobby of digging holes of her own in the nice soft dirt where I had just planted something.

Year 7: Dug up the sod between all the rows of holes. A living mulch of lawn grass wasn't working, and what in the world made me think I'd rather have lawn than tomatoes anyway? Also claimed more tomato-growing area by removing all but two overgrown forsythias that I was tired of pruning back every year. The two I kept were the only ones I could see from the house anyway.

I haven't expanded any more since then. But I am eyeballing another neighbor's large silver maple tree that shades one corner of the garden in the morning. He had one of its three large trunks removed when I had my tree taken down, and the cut surface, about 20" across, has been turning into a hollow full of sawdust faster than the edges can close in and heal over it. Its days are clearly numbered, and his parking area, my garage and the fence are not out of range if it keels over in a storm.

On the plus side, the area next to the lilac now contains phlox and beebalm for the hummingbirds instead of tomatoes for me -- for now. The second flower bed also has more flowers and only one tomato plant instead of 6. And the spot where the forsythias were, now has only a couple of tomato plants keeping company with garlic, potatoes, eggplant, and squash. Maybe I'm finally recovering.

[PaulF]

Eight years ago moving from Iowa to the wilds of southeastern Nebraska along the Missouri River, our house and yard was pretty much trees and underbrush on top of a hill. The only cleared level area for a garden was a 10'X20' spot on the edge of a steep ravine with brush and junk. I began clearing the wilderness and hacked out space for a 50X50 tomato patch.

The first couple of years the tomatoes were grown a couple of miles away at a brother-in-law's farm. As the soil was improved at the home ex-brushy area, there are now 35 tomato plants and some other miscellaneous vegetables in the reclaimed land.

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by Rideau Rambler

I LOVE this thread! Laughed hysterically at each post. I have tomatoes growing at relatives, at friends, - all with promises that I can taste and save seeds. I can only imagine what my neighbours thought when it took me a good half day to plant 45 tomato plants in my garden. It took so long because I had space for about 16 yet somehow had to cram 45 into my garden. And that's before I walked inside thinking the job was done, then found half a dozen more plants, necessitating more standing around wondering where the heck I was going to find that many pots.

Wow, and I thought I had an original idea when I gave family and co-workers plants with the only stipulations being that they would give me thier opinion of the tomatoes and give me 1 or 2 tomatoes from each variety so I could evaluate them. I grew 100 plants and gave way 50.

[RobinB]

Hey, Topazgirl,
It sounds like you fit right in! We'll have you "fully" obsessed in no time (although it sounds like you are well on your way!)