Question regarding spacing

[Jeannine Anne]

I am trying to get as many plants as I can in my new raised beds in my glass greenhouse, ecause I want a selection of varieties. I know the best spacing and I will be pushing it .

My question is. Does the depth of the soil make a difference.?

My raised beds are 36 inches high and full of good loamy soil. Given the height which is for my mobility could I get away with a bit tighter spacing? Lots of depth for roots.


I intend to prune to a single stem/

[mcsee]

Soil depth is always a good thing.


If you have deep soil, why not plant your seedling deeper, which will make them a bit stronger in growth.

[kath]

Back in the day, Mel Bartholomew recommended growing indeterminate tomatoes pruned to a single stem at the spacing of 1 per square foot in a raised bed with a minimum of 6" of his "soil" mix of = parts peat, compost, large vermiculite. Not saying that's ideal, but it seems to me that your situation could support plants grown that close. I've grown them at 14" spacing in-ground before with great results when I was cramming hundreds of varieties in a rather small area one year.

[Fusion_power]

Yes soil depth makes a difference but it is not as much as you might think. If an indeterminate variety is grown in the ground, the roots spread 10 feet away and up to 4 feet deep. There are pictures on the web that show this if you care to dig around. Consider how the root system will spread in your raised beds.

While soil depth is important, the nutrient status of the soil is far more important. If you had compost added to the raised beds to make up 20% of the volume, the extra nutrients would allow you to double the number of plants. Given that pruning will be used, I would go with 1 plant for 2 square feet in the raised beds.

Watering will be critical to keep the plants healthy. An automated system is suggested.

[b54red]

I agree with Fusion but my experience is all outside growing. I have been growing almost all my plants with single stem lean and lower for quite a while now and have found that closer planting usually means more disease problems and more intense care needed of the plants. I have tried spacing from 10 inches apart up to 3 feet apart all with single stem plants and found the happy medium to be somewhere around 2 feet. It is close enough to allow more plants and yet with enough space between that maintaining them is not a terrible chore and production is usually really good with proper feeding of the plants.

Bill

[Jeannine Anne]

The soil is not garden soil, it is all filled Sunshine mix 4 withabout 1/3rd topsoil that was delivered for another purpose that was sandy, it had had several bags of mature steer manure added plus compost and it was limed in November.

With the width of the beds and the length i could give each a 17 inch square,

Fusion Power, if I go with this, can you think of anything else I can do to help them..anything more I can add..or special feeding programme. I do have to get supplements as I have very little right now. so coud get anything you suggest.

I also have about a dozen large planters, maybe would be about 7 gallon and I had planned on a couple of determinates in 2 of them, they would be under the house eaves but facing the sun. I have a huge and I mean huge Chinese oval ceramic planter. it is about as big as a hip bath.It used to have a tree in it. All of the posts have the same mix in them apart from a couple which the lime was left out.

This is the sum total of my garden now. gone is the acreage. I did have high raised beds the length od one side of my houses bit it was partially shaded. I can keep a kale bed going well in their and a few other things but that is is.

It is hard to want to grow and circumstances change your options..I guess I will adjust.

Thanks fir the help

[Jeannine Anne]

Thanks Kath, I once bought his book many years ago, read it and gave it away.It didn't seem enough space .

[QAGuy]

Just FYI, not trying to discourage you with your spacing. They'll still grow, no doubt about that.

Here's an excerpt from an old tomato study...the root system of a tomato plant of average size filled the soil on all sides of the plant to 2 to 2.5 feet and to a depth of over 3 feet.

Partial shade can work. Does it get 5 hrs of sunlight a day?

I use Miracle-gro for tomatoes weekly in my raised beds.

[Jeannine Anne]

My greenhouse is in full sun all day, the pots get it for most of the day.all morning and till about 3pm.

[Natalie2b]

Someone here recommend Charles Dowding to me (Black Krim, I think?). He does no till gardening, but I found a you tube video of him trellising his tomatoes in his green house. He used a string/cord planted underneath the tomato and the wound the stem around the string as it grows. You might find that an easier way to manage your vines. I had already put netting up by the time I saw this, but for my fall tomatoes I will definitely do this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgAEJKZ_gZc
My trellis is just made of rebar/electrical conduit, but in a greenhouse you might be able to attach directly to the rafters. Hope this is helpful to you!

[Jeannine Anne]

Yes that is what I usually do, I used to grow in pots with wide sapcing ut I have got long deep cedar beds now and wanted to get a few more in.All different.

They are planted now. 2 deep but staggered, they have close to 18 inches, so we will see