Grow Your Own Magazine

Heading about sums it up really!

I have a 10 foot X 10 foot greenhouse which I intend filling with tomatoes.

There is an 8 foot X 2 foot path up the middle.

Whats the optimum amount of tomatoes I should plant in it!

I'll take an average of the sensible replies and use that as a guide!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I take it you're planning on planting them straight into the soil. You need to remember that not only do your tomatoes need room to grow properly, you also need to be able to get to them to pick off side shoots, spot pests, and harvest your precious crop. I would never consider filling a whole greenhouse with tomatoes, I would never eat them all and there are too many other crops that I want to grow that need the shelter. Take the average of 3 tomato plants per growbag (probably plants about a foot or a little more apart) and use that as a guide. I grow my tomatoes one plant per 10" inch pot with enough room left between for cultivation. Have had good results and enough tomatoes to eat fresh, make sauces, pickles, chutneys etc.

I have three greenhouses, two 12 X 8's and a 10 X 10. I am growing in the bedsoil in two of them and in raised beds in the third. Bed soil hasn't been used for 5 years , is in good heart, full of good old fashioned muck and full of juicy worms. Growing in bed soil is more 'forgiving' if I can't get to water them every day. I have seven different varieties of tomatoes plus the usual sweet peppers, chillies, cukes, grapevines,melons,cape gooseberry and numerous other oddities to fill them with!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

My greenhouse is 6ft x 10 ft with a 1ft wide path. I like to grow in the borders too - as you say Snadger, watering is easier. I put in 2 staggered rows each side of mine, spacing the plants about 15" apart. I cram them in, I suppose, but we have been trying for several years to find out the lethal dose of toms - haven't found it yet!

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If a man is in the garden and speaks, and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated January 3rd - Birdwatching.

That would make about 34 then? Any advance on 34 then anyone?

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

In effect you have 2 lots of 4x10 beds . And then a bit more at the end of the path.
You could fit in 3 rows on each side, 6 then 5 then 6 in a staggered spacing.
Two of those is 34 plants. Plus one more at the end of the path.
I'm with Flum....plus the extra one
I bid at 35......

I grow tomatoes in 12" pots, so they need a minimum of 1' each. On that reckoning you could get 10+10+10 =30 +1 in each corner = 34. So the MAXIMUM number would be 34.
But you asked about the OPTIMUM number, which is different. I think at that density plants might be a bit overcrowded and suffer as a result. They would be in competition for light and air.
I don't know what the answer is, but very conservatively I would say 20 plants. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Any intensive growers actually know, and what special conditions they would require.
And just by the way Snadger, what are you going to do with all the tomatoes?

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

You're right Alice, I was asking for the optimum number and I had in mind 25?

As to what am I doing with them, I have a big family/friends and loads of work colleagues have put in there request as well! I am also growing quite a few for sun drying and it takes a lot to fill those jars!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

SOmetimes you get better results with less in there Snadger as you get better air circulation etc. I would give them 2ft in all directions grown in a domino 5 pattern ( does that make sense?)

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Just spaced out my pots where they will go in my 6x10 and I get a dozen each side, staggered. 34 was your calculation Snadger! I have a bit of staging at the end opposite the door - so they don't go right to the end. I always have enough room around them to tittivate the plants.

flum

__________________
If a man is in the garden and speaks, and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated January 3rd - Birdwatching.

In teresting advice. Is my first year with a 8x6 greenhouse and i have around 80 tom plants raised from seed (2 varieties) plus around 30 chillis and peppers of 4 varieties. I have 10 large growbags in the greenhouse and am looking at 3 plants in each - prob 2/3rds toms as theb rest pepperes and chillis. I am also going top swap a few varieties with mates and grow a dozen or so in pots on patio for decoration and also as a comparison. Interested if anyone thinks the amount in growbags is reasonable, and also whetther it is sensible to plant peppers/toms/chillies in same growbag. Toms are only 4 inches tall at mo but already smell wonderful

3 to a growbag is the usual, Has-bean. I've never mixed the plants in one grow bag, maybe someone else has. Check your varieties, many can be grown in the garden in a sunny, sheltered spot.
Toms do smell great don't they? I removed a few side-shoots this morning - Ah! the smell of summer!

__________________
If a man is in the garden and speaks, and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated January 3rd - Birdwatching.

yeah my fave smells of sumer are tomatoes and rosemary. Am hungry already