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question about growing tomatoes...

819 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  motdaugrnds 
#1 ·
Some of you may remember I've planted this year in a large "raised bed" AFTER making the nutrient additives a soil test at the local agricultural lab suggested, i.e. both sulfur and calcium nitrate.

I planted each tomato plant about a foot apart. Well the plants took off and were ROBUST in no time at all filling the entire end of that raised bed so much I need a stick just to look between the leaves. Yes I've seen quite a few flowers and I've also seen some baby tomatoes, though not nearly as many as I had expected. (These were planted late April early May.)

My questions:
1. Does the robust vegetative growth of these tomato plants mean there is little left for developing tomatoes? (I'm guessing the pollinators can get into the flowers...) [I remember one year awhile back adding nitrogen to some mulberry trees and the tree turned into a "bush". The ag agent told me it had too much nitrogen and that is why there was so much "vegetation". I stopped the fertilization for quite a few years and now I have two very tall mulberry "trees" instead of bushes.]

2. Do I need to go in and pull some of those smaller plants out; and if I do so, will there still be time for tomatoes to develop on the remaining plants?

NOTE: The only time I've grown tomatoes in the past was in mid-90s and was at the bottom of a small hill. My son put each plant in a hole he had dug with the post-hold digger (adding epsum salts to bottom). They were only about 1-2 ft apart and were not staked because we wanted to them to support each other. This experiment worked great and I had so many NICE tomatoes (all kinds) that I was able to do quite a bit of canning that year. I do remember the plants being quite robust down there too....
 
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#4 ·
You might just remove the suckers. Lots of folks do that. In a normal situation it gives fewer but larger tomatoes.
 
#5 ·
Agree, on indeterminate plants. Train/prune to one stem and support them on overhead strong twine or ropes. Next year don't plant less than three feet apart--with support and minor pruning. In the current situation, being planted so close will soon use up the nitrogen.

geo

geo
 
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