How to Space Tomato Plants
Tomatoes are a great addition to nearly every garden. Fresh tomatoes taste great, and they are fun and easy to grow. However, you need to give tomato plants enough room to thrive in your garden. Spacing tomato plants is an important part of growing them. They need room to allow air circulation between plants and room to spread out and grow, but the spacing depends on the variety of tomatoes you are going to plant. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Understand the type of tomato you are planting. There are two basic types, growth-wise, determinant tomatoes and indeterminate tomatoes. Determinant tomatoes grow to a certain size and stop; indeterminate tomatoes continue to grow as long as they have the room and health to do so. Therefore, determinant tomatoes need less room than indeterminate tomatoes need in a garden.
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Decide on the variety of tomato you are planting. Plants range from small dwarf tomatoes to large vines overflowing with baseball sized tomatoes. The small varieties need less room than the large ones need, of course.
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Determine your tomato plants' growing conditions. If they are to remain on the ground they will need more room than a tomato plant trained on a trellis.
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Space dwarf tomato plants about one to one and a half feet apart from each other. That gives these small plants plenty of room to thrive.
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Space trellised tomato plants at least two feet apart. You can then move the vines of each plant to another trellis if they start to crowd each other.
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Space grounded tomato plants about three to four feet apart, or farther, depending on the variety of the plant. This should give large sprawling tomato plants room to grow.
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Tips & Warnings
Prune indeterminate tomato plants if they grow too large.
Space tomato plants farther apart by a foot of two if you live in a humid area. This will increase air circulation and the health of the plants.
