Looks like someone is going to learn how to freeze and can. Seriously though, if you like tomato sauce, salsa, tomato soup, roasted tomatoes... etc... 40 plants can easily be used by a small family. If you are just into fresh eating... yeah, that's a lot.

That said, it depends too on the variety. Some produce abundantly, and some, not so much. Also, planting a few extra is usually a good idea. Between bugs, and birds, and some that just fail, 40 for a small family, if you have the space, is a lot, but it's not overboard if you plan to use them all year long.

Lol yes I will learn to put some up (never have before... What's best freeze or canned?). Garden space is limited I have 2 raised beds 12x4 and some buckets... Brands are "beef master, hybrid... Brandywine...Goldman Italian-American and dr. Wyche yellow". Water Mellon is "Missouri heirloom yellow flesh and ledmon". I have a 4x4 space I was giving the watermelons. My yard floods a lot so it's not good for planting in. Thank Yall so much for any tips ideas lol

15 watermelon in a 4' x 4' space? Lol... I hope you have a super large area to let them spread. 15 watermelon is a lot for that sized area. It can be done, sure, but will require a lot of watering, and a goodly amount of fertilization. If you have a successful harvest of the watermelon, think frozen juices, ices, granitas etc... Watermelon wine? Hmmm.... interesting. Pale, mild, maybe fermented with strawberries...

Oh, sorry... What were we talking about? Okay, got it... You're also going to have a tough time with 40 tomatoes in that space. It too can be done, but it will be tight, and you said you have peppers too? Lol... well, you may need to do some prioritizing.

Edit... and as far as frozen vs. canned... that is a user preference. Each has it's pluses and minuses. Canning requires investment in tools and knowledge. Frozen has a more limited life, and requires freezer capacity and electric usage.

4x4 for watermelons? Yeah forget even planting 5. Maybe 3 plants if they can roam out into the yard. Compost the rest or give them away. The 4x12 garden bed could hold 15 tomato plants IF you didn't plant anything else in there. So maybe 8 tomato plants and leave room for other stuff.

With the exception of the Italian American none of them are noted for big production numbers and they are all fresh eating varieties primarily, not preserving varieties. But if you want to get into canning then you'll need more garden space then what you currently have. Otherwise you never have enough ripe ones all at the same time to make the canning costs and time/effort worthwhile. Start lining up friends for gift tomato plants.

Is it not possible to fix the yard to eliminate the flooding and get more usable space?

Dave

Agree with Dave. I personally wouldn't try to fit more than 12 tomato plants in a 12'x4' bed (2 rows with 6 plants each, giving each plant about 4 square feet). At that spacing you'll still wind up with a tomato jungle.

And wanting to plant 15 watermelon in a 4'x4' area is ambitious to say the least. A single watermelon plant by itself can take up a 4'x4' space and then some.

Rodney

Lol no not wanting to plant that many just wondering how many plants should I make room for so if I plant 12 tomatos in beds can I plant any other veggies between them? Okra, peppers? And whatttttt only certain plants can you put up?? Are any of the ones I have able to can/ freeze? Lord help what did I get into lol. I was considering doing tomatos in 2x2 space will that leave them to close? But under no way do I think I can plant 40 tomatos or 15 water Mellon lol. Just wondering how many I might need. And wow watermelon wine? I was wondering what I could do with the watermelon

I can plant some things in buckets?

Okay, first... please realize that opinions on gardening are extremely diverse. You would be hard pressed to find 2 gardeners who do everything alike, or who follow the same exact philosophy and/or methodology. Whenever you read... "you can't do this..." or... "Always do that..." you can safely ignore anything that follows lol.

Just as an example... Last year I grew 27 tomato plants in a 4' x 14' space. To listen to some gardeners, they say it can't be done... of course it can be done. I did it! I planted 3 rows of 9. Did I prune some? Yep. Did I lose from individual plants? Yep. But in total yield per sq. ft. of the space, I was able to harvest more from that plot than others did from areas twice as large.

That said... there are threads of intersection. It all comes down to your conditions and how you are able to apply your efforts. Granted, even the things that can be done, sometimes shouldn't.

So, can you plant in buckets? Yep, you sure can!

Did I miss though, where you can't put certain plants up? Do you mean the watermelon? Yes, you can put up watermelon. Some people even pickle the rind. I've never tasted it, it's supposed to be good though. If there is any food that can't be preserved, I don't, off the top of my head, know what it is.

rg - many foods are considered not preservable - either because of the resulting quality or for safety reasons. So unless one wants gallon of watermelon rind pickles, watermelon is one of them. It does not freeze well at all, it cannot be canned, and it cannot be dehyrated.

But this isn't the forum for food preservation discussions so only for purposes of clarifying my comment above, the problem with the varieties listed is they are low production varieties with the exception of the Italian as I said above. Can you make a single jar of tomato sauce or stuff a quart jar with 3 Brandywine and 2 Beefmaster tomatoes? Yes. Would experienced home canner spend the time, equipment costs, and energy and effort to do so? No way.

Can you throw a bag of 6 or 8 tomatoes into the freezer? Sure but they will be mush when taken out. Effective use of the costs and effort required for home food preservation requires extremely large amounts of ready production at the same time. Not 2 tomatoes here and another there and 4 more next week. Ask any one of us who hang on the harvest forum how many plants we put in and how big our gardens are. Better yet look at the tomato weight requirement NCHFP gives for canning 7 quarts of tomatoes (21 lbs), 28 lbs for 9 pints of sauce, 30 lbs for 6 pints of spaghetti sauce, etc. 12-15 plants of highly productive tomatoes will get you a few jars of sauce and maybe 6 pints of salsa and a lot of work. Small gardeners who also want to can buy in bulk from the local Farmers Market.

Can you plant 27 plants in a 4x14 space? Sure. Should you? Only if you want a massive jungle, nutrient and water issues, lots of broken branches, lots of time spent either aggressively pruning or tying up branches, double the disease and pest issues, and a fair % of rotten fruit. Your choice.

Can Etta plant 12 tomatoes in her bed? Sure. Should she? No. Not and still have any room for okra and peppers or anything else. Sure that spacing looks fine for the first month but by July it all begins to go downhill fast. Still, it is her choice.

It isn't a matter of my way or the wrong way or "never do this on pain of death" But there are norms, fairly standard ways of growing things, accepted spacing ranges for tomato plants and other crops, normal amounts of plants that will fit into a specific size bed. So in sharing those norms we are trying to help folks avoid the problems that we all have learned the hard way. But sometimes the only way to learn things to not do is try it for yourself so it is their choice to listen or not.

Dave

Dave, I can only speak for myself. I had no troubles from my 'jungle'. They were easy to harvest. Were caged and had no appreciative broken branches (as many as would have broke from distant spacing.) I did not 'aggressively' prune (just kept each plant to 2 - 3 main branches until they were 5' tall, then they were allowed to do what they wanted.) I used no fungicides and did not have any appreciative difference in disease than anyone else posting their experiences on this site, and... I used no pesticides at all and had the same problems with stink bugs as everyone else in my area, including those who used chemicals. I didn't even fertilize as heavy as others and did fine.

As I said, there are many ways to garden, and those of us with a lot less space than others will continue to just ignore the recommendations given by well meaning gardeners with acreage to spare.

Should Etta crowd her plants? That will be entirely up to her. Instead of pressuring her one way or another, I will just continue to phrase it as I have... there are many different ways to garden, and each gardener is going to work under their conditions in the way which seems appropriate to them.

I've seen 100's of plants squeezed into small spaces with no soil, nor sun whatsoever. I've seen many of the so-called 'rules' broken with incredibly positive results. Every place I've gardened I've had neighbors absolutely fawn over gardens that out-produced everyone following the many 'rules'. This isn't to say I'm a better gardener than someone else, in fact, I'm quite mediocre. However, what it means is that I have been able to push the limits of what so many have learned, and have been successful in my efforts. Why? Because I listen, I learn, and I do it the way I want to...

When giving advice, I have no desire to make mini-me's. Rather, it seems appropriate to encourage others to learn to be themselves.

For example... in saying that there aren't ways to preserve watermelons... Just make juice from the entire fruit and freeze it. Mix some simple syrup into the juice, pour it into ice cube trays, and voila, watermelon freeze pops. Google watermelon rind and you'll find lots of uses. I wasn't kidding about the wine either. There might be things no one has thought of yet, and if everyone follows the so-called 'rules', there never will be.

Should Etta listen to me? That will be up to her. Hopefully, she'll read the differing responses, realize that there are many ways to proceed, want to do what's best, and then... do it her own way!

Thank you all for your input! And you had me at vodka watermelon lol. I for sure won't plant 4o plants in my space and I really appreciate all the responses

You're welcome Etta. And even though I took exception, Dave really does know what he's talking about. Keep asking questions and learning, seems to me you're doing fine.

I bow to you on the watermelon uses, rg. I had the whole fruit in my head and didn't think beyond that.

But on the issues of crowding plants I fear we will just have to agree to disagree, ok? In my work I encounter so many gardeners who just can't bring themselves to work within the limits of the space they have available and so they reap the hazards of doing so. What should be fun and enjoyable becomes discouraging hard work and wasted time and I hate to see that happening.

I'd rather invest my energy in expanding the useful space whenever possible and reaping the rewards of that approach than cramming far too much into a too-small garden.

So as I ask Etta before, what would be needed to eliminate or at least reduce the flooding and increase your gardening area so that you can plant as you wish?

Dave

If I decide to put some of the tomatos in buckets what would Yall suggest for it? Just potting soil? Also I've read some say they add plant food to their soil when planting.. What would you suggest to add when planting seedlings

Dave really is the expert on tomatoes in containers. There are many discussions on that subject here in the forums, and I stay out of those because I don't do containers much. Speaking of breaking rules though, when I had absolutely no money at all to invest, I bought 1 overgrown, discounted tomato plant from the store, took cuttings (like 12 of them,) put soil from a yard into 5 gal. buckets, put 4 of the rooted cuttings in each bucket, and got a decent harvest from that effort. Now, if you have a little money to spend, you certainly can do much better, but as you will soon learn, in that case I broke most of the 'rules' of veggie container gardening lol. I say rules, but they really aren't rules... they are guidelines... The best are passed down from experience; the worst from people just repeating what they've heard or all they've ever known.

Hahahaha I really cant use all potting soil. I've got some stuff I have brought in for my raised bed garden a few years ago so I'll mix it with that too but didn't know if peat would be benificial or anything else.. I've gone threw container gardens form but mostly are talking about trees and such and not many people are responding to them. And I've read so much my eyes are crossing on this form lol.

Oh and I do have bone meal and tomato tone and a lot of other things already should these be used in buckets?

Sure I can list off all the standard recommendations but why not just check out all the discussion on growing tomatoes in containers over on the Growing Tomatoes forum and get much more info from multiple sources? The search tool there will pull them all up for you. How you do it and what you use all depends on how successful you want it to be.

If you've done some reading on the Container Gardening forum then you already know that potting soil, or any soil or dirt, is not recommended for any container growing but that is your choice. Soil-less mixes only.

Container Gardening forum discussions about growing tomatoes in containers

Dave

PS; bone meal is very slow acting. It requires approx. 6 months to break down into a plant-usable form so would be of little to no benefit this season but would benefits plants next year.

I would put 2 tomato plants (max 3 with trellis) in one raised bed and 3-4 watermelon in the other.