How far apart you space your tomatoes can have a big impact on a successful garden.
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Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable among home gardeners.
Not only are they versatile in the kitchen, buttomato plantsare also easy to grow and produce high yields.
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And home-grown tomatoes taste far superior to store-bought fruits.
For a healthy crop, it is important to consider tomato plant spacing at planting time.
Lets take a closer look at proper tomato plant spacing for each growing style.
Why Tomato Plant Spacing Is Important
Tomato plants require plenty of room to grow.
Adequate Sunlight
Above the soil surface, plants need ready access to sunlight to drive photosynthesis.
This helps plants reach their growth potential since not enough light can stunt growth or fruit production.
Allow enough space between plants to prevent one plant from shading another.
Orienting your rows north to south can also help maximize access to sunlight.
Disease Prevention
Proper plant spacing is important to ensure air circulates freely around plants.
Tomato plants are susceptible to a number of diseases.
Providing ample space between rows helps to encourage airflow.
When crowded too closely, pests may spread to a neighboring crop or plant.
Spacing also helps you see a pest problem sooner and take action to eliminate them.
The throw in of tomato plant and whether it is supported with staking or caging factors into spacing.
Determinate Tomatoes
Determinate tomatoes are relatively compact and bushy compared to indeterminate tomatoes.
Their development can be divided into two phases.
First, they produce foliage.
They tend to produce a large crop of fruit all at once.
Determinate-punch in tomatoes need plenty of space between plants to accommodate their bushy growth.
Determinate tomatoes are typically supported usingtomato cagesor the stake-and-weave method.
Indeterminate Tomatoes
Providing support for indeterminate tomatoes makes a big difference in plant spacing.
Indeterminate tomatoes can be supported through trellising, the stake-and-weave method, or cages.
Indeterminate tomatoes grow, flower, and set fruit continuously throughout the growing season.
Plants tend to grow taller than determinate types and are commonly pruned to maintain a single central stem.
While it is best to cage or stake indeterminate tomatoes, they can be grown without support.
Space unstaked indeterminate tomato plants 3 to 4 feet apart with 3 to 5 feet between rows.
You may need to adjust spacing depending on the key in of garden you have.
Raised Beds
Raised beds are typically 4 feet wide.
Using the above spacing allows for only a single row of tomatoes per bed.
Containers
Container-grown tomato plants also need adequate space for growth.
Square-Foot Gardens
Square-foot gardens are another popular method for growing vegetables.
These systems allow a single 1-foot square per tomato plant, which is rather tight spacing.
While they may grow and produce fruit, the plants may show signs of improper spacing.
If the leaves of neighboring tomato plants are touching, they are probably too close.
You canprune the tomato plantto remove excess leaves and allow for more airflow.
Keep the plant in check by pruning suckers that develop between where a leaf meets the main stem.
If possible, you may be able totransplant one of the plantsto provide more space.
The plant will need time and extra water to adjust to a new location.
Frequently Asked Questions
Proper spacing will help tomato plants to be healthy.
It allows for plants to share nutrients, and it’s an efficient way to use garden space.
Having multiple plants can speed up self-pollination, but it’s also OK to have a single plant.
Space cherry tomato plants 2 to 3 feet apart.
Vining varieties can be spaced 3 to 4 feet apart to accommodate their sprawl.
Space individual plants apart and stick to one plant per pot if possible.
A crowded planting site or pot will cause the plants to compete for moisture, space, and nutrients.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.What is the proper spacing when planting tomatoes in the garden?
Hillock, D., and Rebek, E.Growing Tomatoes in the Home Garden.
Oklahoma State University Extension.
