Kisal wrote:While multiple tomato plants placed together in one planting hole in the ground may do well, I'm not so sure about multiple tomato plants growing together in the same pot. The roots of plants in the ground can spread as far as they need to in order to get the nutrients they need. The roots of plants in containers are constrained, and there is a limited amount of soil and nutrients available. In addition, unless the plants were grown in a very large container, the confined space could compact the roots to the extent that they could no longer absorb moisture and nutrients to keep the top growth alive. JMO.
I ran into this with a store-bought cherry tomato plant I had. It was in a 10"-square pot, and about 18 inches tall when it started looking droopy. So I got to looking around for pests in the pot, and find this:
[img]https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b178/nickdraudt/Mobile%20Uploads/0503001702.jpg[/img]
It was three separate plants! I immediately got busy extending a row in the garden to make room, and put them in the ground. It took about a week for them to acclimate. I trimmed off some sick branches to help them along, and it worked...they started focusing on new growth and spreading roots (they were badly root-bound), and look 100x happier and healthier than they did in the pot.