Must I Murder All My Little Darlings? (Tomato Question)

12 years ago

I created a square-foot raised-bed vegetable garden in the back yard this year, and according to instructions a SINGLE square foot should have accommodated one whole tomato plant.

In reality, the tomato plants themselves have quickly grown to overwhelm the whole garden. They are in cages, but already taller than I am, and hardly anything has ripened yet. Each plant has more than a dozen good-sized tomatoes growing, but the vining is really totally out of control.

It's outrageous.

It's overtaking the peppers, the beets, the squash the peas, the beans, the corn ... the tomato plants have become monstrous.

I have pruned them aggressively every day for the past two weeks, and still they are coming back. I am collecting the adorable, darling little greenies that are on the hacked-off vines, but I need to know whether this kind of assertive pruning is appropriate.

I'm really not doing anything to make the vines grow. I'm not even watering them anymore because I heard that dry farming is now the tout-de-tout of the tomato growing world. But apparently my plants like it.

Help!!! I'm not even sure what kind of help I need (aside from intensive therapy or maybe herbicide).

Is this typical? Normal? Desirable? Am I doing the right thing?

And anyone have a few good recipe for teensy tiny little very green tomatoes?

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Comments (8)

jolj
12 years ago
You can prune the tomato back to the cage, if it is a BIG problem.
nancyjane_gardener
12 years ago
One square per tomato plant????Really?
My guess would be at least 4 SF, and the way your stuff is already growing, maybe more!
You can keep trimming, I suppose, but considering you already have huge plants in your area (I'm also zone 8ish, but i"m in No CA which hasn't had much of a spring yet) I would pluck about half of your plants and chalk it up to lesson learned for next year. If they're all crowded together, you might have issues with fungus amoungus! Nancy
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glib
12 years ago
Yes, tomatoes have a minimum footprint of 9 square feet and grow to 5+ feet, I have had them as tall as 8 ft. You will have to sacrifice most of the plants if you want anything else. Here in MI, tomatoes grown that close also always catch diseases.

Next year consider using only determinate tomatoes, which grow to three feet with a footprint of 4 sqft. Many but not all paste tomatoes are determinate.
thisisme
12 years ago
lol!!! Sounds like my tomatoes. Each time I prune them I take a garden cart full of chopped off vines and toss them in the compost heap. I have sixteen plants growing 2+ inches per day. Each with many vines all of which are growing like mad. Next year I plan to plant half as many plants. I'm toying with the idea of trying to grow a single Sungold on a trellis from one end of the yard to the other. Thats 115 feet end to end.

If you find a way to stop them from growing while keeping them healthy and fruiting let me know.
denninmi
12 years ago
Here's the "one per square foot" tomato -- anything else will overwhelm a single square foot:

Here is a link that might be useful: Microtom
OrchidOCD
12 years ago
If you happened to plant your toms near the back of the bed, you can put up a trellis along Tyne back of the bed and weave or tie the vines to the trellis. I grow my bush-type determinates in cages, and trellis all of the indeterminates. The indeterminates I grow spaced about 1' apart along the trellis, and tie them up all season. Most of the indeterminates invariably reach the top of the 8' trellis and then lean over the top hanging down the other side - it ends up looking quite jungle-like and the various varieties all inter grow. I get a ton of tomatoes this way, and I don't bother to prune, I just tie in long vines to keep them back near the trellis. They may not grow as many tomatoes as ey would if I gave them all 4' of space, but there are so many each year that in addition to eating fresh I freeze and can a LOT of tomatoes each year.

Incidentally, I usually plant a few pole beans at the base of the trellis, too, and let them ramble. This method isn't for those who want all of their veggies lined up neatly in little boxes, but it is much easier to get a good harvest without constant pruning. I've never had a disease problem, and amend the soli very well before attempting this biointensive method of planting.
bluebirdie
12 years ago
amyamybobamy, how tall is your cage? Vining tomato can easily grow over 12 ft. If you don't like the look of a vine tower, you need to either add a trellis (see OrchidOCD's post above), move the cage outside the SFG box, or add support outside the box. There is no reason why tomato support must be inside the box. I think a lot of folks can share their wonderful tomoto support structures for thinking outside the box.

It's only the beginning of June. So you must be doing something right if your toms is so prolific. I am a little envious...
homeend
12 years ago
sounds to me that amyamybobamy did not read the square foot book, only the spacing guide since to do 1 plant per square foot.
the plants have be pruned as per the book p 122-124 in original book, p 116-118 in the 2005 printing or 159 in all new square foot book.

Must I Murder All My Little Darlings? (Tomato Question)

Comments (8)

jolj

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