How to Plant Tomatoes in Square Foot Gardens

[AsmodeusDM]

Hi everyone. Last year I experimented with my first garden and got very disappointing results; I believe it's because the soil in my area is very very heavy in clay and is super dense and thick (like modelling clay). So this year I built a raised bed and used the Square Foot Garden method to fill up the box with a mix of 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss. I planted 20+ squares of vegetables.
So far this year the results have been, okay?, the lettuces and leafy greens I planted in the early spring have done quite well although the cauliflower never seemed to grow much.

The tomatos I planted a month ago (I planted on May 20th) have barely grown much at all. I got them as transplants from a local nursery and planted them along the back side of my garden.

My garden box, btw, is adjacent to the rear of my house. It gets southern exposure and receives 10+ hours a day of full sun.

The tomato plants just arent' doing anything. There's some small green tomatos beginning to set, but the heigt of the plants is just pathetic. I had planned to prune them to a single stem; but haven't done so yet simply because nothing much has grown at all; I've only had to trim like... 6 suckers total from 4 plants.

I've included some pictures of the tomato plants so you can see what I'm talking about.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10263709 ... 0NOqsbb9HQ

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[rainbowgardener]

It would help to know where you are and what the weather has been like..

These are pictures of 2 or 3 different beds? One has a squash or something going up a trellis and two tomato plants growing next to it.

I know square foot gardening is all about crowding things, but I think you really have to know what you are doing to get away with that. To me the two tomatoes in that bed look way too crowded. The punier one between the squash and the other tomato is probably getting shaded out (and out competed for nutrients) by the bigger plants on both sides of it. I would pull that one and focus on letting the other one, which doesn't look so bad, have a good chance.

So you planted in Mel's mix. Have you been fertilizing since? Mel's mix by itself is pretty low concentration of nutrients. Compost is great stuff and when you are using a lot of it, there may be enough nutrients. But its NPK concentration is probably 1-1- 1 or 2-2-2. I would get some Tomato Tone and fertilize with that.

Is it tomato plants in the last picture also? It just looks like a jumble of foliage, hard to tell what it is, but looking pretty healthy.

[hendi_alex]

It looks like the bed could be on the north side of the house, that info would be helpful. Growing tomatoes using square foot gardening, one plant per square foot, requires specialized pruning. The plants should be pruned to a central leader, with no side shoots being allowed to develop. The idea is that 9 plants pruned in this way will out produce a single plant that would usually take up about 9 square feet when allowed to grow in convention form.

To me your plants look healthy, but look like the weather may have been fairly cool and/or that the pants may be getting limited full sun. I agree with rainbowgardener that you may get better feedback with less guessing if you provide more information.

[ReptileAddiction]

Square foot gardening is eh I have always done it but never had that great of results. If you do do square foot gardening I recommend at least a 14 inch high bed.

[AsmodeusDM]

Re: questions

The bed in question is on the south side of my house. No nearby trees or shrubs. The tomatos are next to the house so the front side of my bed gets hit by the sun first (guessing around 8am) and the tomatos don't start picking up the sun until 10am; but then they are in full sun until sundown.

SFG recommends 6" deep beds, mine are 10" deep AND are built on open ground underneath with no weed guard. It's built on top of my soil from last year which was just my native soil (sod removed of course) amended with some additional top soil and fertizers.

I have not added any additional fertilizers to the soil, following the SFG recommendation that it is "unnecessary." I also am primarily gardening to have as natural of a food source as possible... using fertizilers (aside from compost) kind of defeats the point.

All of the images are of the same (1) bed, the wide angle image as taken near the beginning of June (the cucumber plant was still fairly new). Several weeks later (today) I took the close-up shots to show how little the tomato plants have grown (the cucumber meanwhile has shot up to almost 4' up the trellis).

I have been pruning to a single stem. Taking off the suckers as they appear. THat hasn't been much though, there's been so little growth there's been very very little to have to prune at all.

Weather. I am from northern Ohio. We've had a very mild winter, a very early hot spring, and over all the weather has been hot and dry. I've been watering close to daily.... using direct application of water to the plants root (I use a big measuring cup and dump 1-2 cups of water at the base of the plant).

[AsmodeusDM]

Also the plants in the last picture (my neighbors) are his tomato plants.. they are big and bushy with hundreds of flowers, dozens of green tomato and are about 3'+ in height.

Basically the complete opposite of mine

[cynthia_h]

Lots of info still missing: where are you? What state/region? What varieties of tomato--early, middle, late bearing? Determinate, indeterminate?

I did "pure" SFG in 2008, my first year back in gardening after a long hiatus due to a car accident. Six inches simply won't do the job, and neither do ten of 'em, but if the plants have access to natural ground, 10" should work.

Did you use single-source compost or perhaps your own, made from many sources? Single-source won't be as good for nurturing the plants. They WILL need help, best (IMHO) from multiple-source compost, but OK from other sources, like liquid kelp, or whatever organic sources you find acceptable.

Now that you've done the peat moss/vermiculite thing, don't worry about using peat moss ever again. It's dreadfully difficult to get and keep WET. Is it possible that the tomatoes aren't getting water meant for them?

And, contrary to what may seem "reasonable," STOP PRUNING THEM until they're large enough to make you happy. They NEED their leaves to make food to make more of the plant, etc. Cutting off foliage from a small plant just makes the small plant have to work harder to do anything....

Gotta go make an appointment, but I think you get the idea of where I'm going with this: Help the plants out, give 'em support, and don't whack 'em down while they're trying to grow and make up for lost time.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[ReptileAddiction]

1 square foot 10 inches deep is not anywhere near enough space for a tomato. If it were my garden I would give each plant a 2x2 square. I square foot just will NOT cut it in root space. Where are these recommendations from? SFG? Who is that? I have only ever done square foot gardening and I would have done it SO much differently. And the cucumber plant is probably taking up all the root space. If I were you I would read some good books on square foot gardening to help you master the technique. I would not exoect to get any tomatoes.

[hendi_alex]

Mel Bartholomew developed square foot gardening and presents his methods in his book, Square Foot Gardening. In it he recommends one tomato per square foot.

To thrive in such a limited space each tomato must be pruned as described in my previous post.

[Jeremy brua]

Did you turn up the soil under the bed? The roots will go deeper then 10". I would also give them more water. I have been giving my 6 plants close to 2 gal every other day. I would also fertilize them.

This is my first year so take my opinion how ever you want but mine are about 5'.

[AsmodeusDM]

I used several sources of compost...

Also I turned up the soil

The tomatoes are indeterminate heirloom variety (I bought them from a local farmer's market). I'm not sure if they are early/mid/late.

Sounds like (from other forums too) that peat moss CAN be a problem. Maybe I need to really up the water quotient..

[lily51]

I have square foot gardened here in north-central Ohio for many years, but have not read the newer books on it. From the way it was presented years ago, the bed is divided into one-foot squares, then you can also sub divide those or put two or more together as needed for the crop.

In one 4'x 12' bed we planted 17 tomato plants: 1 each big boy, early girl, baby Roma, golden salsa, little sun, tiny Tim, choice red, super sweet 100; 3 each of salsa, celebrity and Roma. They are staked with 5' cedar stakes and are loaded with tomatoes.

One raised bed with all annual statice has 48 plants, one per square.
One bed has 4 cantaloupe that will run over onto a straw mulched area around the bed, then 8 cukes on the other end which vine up metal trellises.
It all depends on what you're planting
There's more, but you get the idea.

We use good topsoil and compost, so as rainbow said, your mixture seems low in nutrients. Plants are also fertilized regularly.
This method works really well here where soil is naturally clay.
Great for controlling weeds, drainage and watering if needed.
Keep at it...once you get it figured out you'll love it.

[hendi_alex]

Another possible problem with peat moss is its acidity. Might. Want to add some quick action lime to both increase the pH and to increase the available calcium.

[AsmodeusDM]

Thanks for all the advice all.. I'm going to increase the water and do a quick soil test to determine nutrient levels and pH and see if some amendments are in order.

[cynthia_h]

Finally had a few minutes to go upstairs and get my 2005 copy of SFG by Mel Bartholomew. His recommended spacings (p. 192):

Bush tomatoes: 1 plant per 9 sq. ft.
Vine tomatoes: 1 plant per 1 sq. ft.

Primary discussion is on pp. 230-232.

Cynthia

[rainbowgardener]

RE: I have not added any additional fertilizers to the soil, following the SFG recommendation that it is "unnecessary." I also am primarily gardening to have as natural of a food source as possible... using fertizilers (aside from compost) kind of defeats the point.

That would be true of synthetic fertilizers. Tomato Tone is all organic from natural sources. There's lots of good organic fertilizers.

It doesn't matter what the book says. Mel may tell you that you can plant them that close and not fertilize. But it isn't working for you ; your plants are clearly not getting what they need. I still think the middle plant is getting crowded and shaded out (it doesn't matter how much sun is on the bed if the plant is shaded out by the ones around it) and both of them need more nutrients. You can stick by the book and get no tomatoes or you can attend to what your plants are telling you. To me, learning to listen to what your plants tell you is the real art of gardening.

Gardening can't really be done by the book (though books can help you get started) because all gardening is local. It depends on the quality of your compost, the quality of the soil under the compost, the micro-organisms available to break it down, the angle of the sun, the other plants around, the weather, etc etc....

[hendi_alex]

I definitely agree with rainbowgardener. I have a copy of Square Foot Gardening which was read cover to cover and also serves as a reference. Have also read many other how to books and reference books on gardening. I find that no one way is perfect for my garden's specific requirements and for my temperament. The garden has evolved into a hodgepodge of strategies.

Corn is planted in the ground, but in tight blocks rather than conventional rows. In gardening areas, some beds are raised and in contact with the ground while others are raised and blocked from the ground, and still other areas are in the ground and not raised at all. The depth of raised beds took a bit of experimentation to evolve to an adequate level, which is about 9 inches but is still minimal IMO.

Some plants are planted in uniform blocks like the corn, but most things are interplanted such as one tomato plant, three day lilies, and ten bean plants all planted in a 4 x 6 square. A 3 x 4 bed has two okra plants in the middle of about 8 bean plants, along with six or so Swiss Chard. One large barrel contained 3 strawberry plants, two sweet pea plants, and a young egg plant earlier in the spring.

We are heavily into succession planting, so that crops mature over a long season. We are also into year round gardening, growing whatever will produce during a given part of the year. We have raise thousands, perhaps millions of earth worms to move into our garden areas. We use organic fertilizers in most areas, but use chemical fertilizers as well, when the plants seem to indicate that they need a jolt. No poisons ever go into our garden.

We follow how to books as loose guides rather than as gardening bibles. We compost, but are very relaxed about what goes into the bin and how such is managed. Nothing is purist in our garden. Like I say, it is a mix. We do very little conventional gardening. Space seems to be maximized through a combination of intensive gardening and interplanting. That approach also would seem to me to mirror nature, where plants almost always come up in a wide mix. Intensive gardening maximizes yield, and interplanting minimizes pests. It would seem reasonable that interplanting would cause less stress on the soil as well.

[Gardenville.tv]

Do you know what variety of tomato you bought, it may be a small bush variety. With only 1/3rd compost there may not be enought nutrient for continuous growth. As fruit are beginning to form feed regularly with liquid tomato food. Extra feeding will help your other vegetables also.