Best pattern to plant 2 varieties of tomato plants?

[hrhofmann]

I have a 4 x 6 matrix of spaces to plant 2 varieties of tomato plants with somewhat varying exposure to full vs almost full sun. What pattern is best, checkerboard, or alternate rows/columns?

[Natural Girl]

Plant the full exposure plants on the west side and the almost full sun plants on the east side. The full exposure plants will shade the almost full sun variety from the sun part of the time plus shade them from the hotter afternoon heat, too, thus possibly allowing them to produce more tomatoes later in the season.

[David Hare-Scott]

Makes no difference.

D

[Brooklyn1]

WTF is a matrix of spaces... 4 x 6 what... inches, feet, yards? In a 4' X 6' space all you have room for is like four tomato plants, maybe.

[hrhofmann]

I have an area big enough for 24 plants, 4 rows x 6 columns gives 24 plant spaces, and with 2 varieties of tomato plants I just wondered about planting the two varieties in a checkerboard pattern or alternate rows rows or columns of each variety, or,aybe just two big blocks, each one containing just one variety of plant. I was looking for which planting pattern would give me the most tomatoes, if there was any difference.

Your choice of language unfortunately reinforces the image of Brooklynites as uncouth individuals, who aren't very bright.

[Billy]

Brooklyn1 is only typical of drunken jerks. He has nothing to do with Brooklyn, and his previous nom de plume was Shelly. Forget Brooklyn1/Shelly, his only link is to a bad liver. What are your cultivars? Big ones go to the North. Un-caged tomatoes take more space, especially determinates.

[hrhofmann]

I planted all 24 plants, 12 of each of 2 varieties, in a checkerboard pattern.

a b a b a b b a b a b a a b a b a b b a b a b a a b a b a b b a b a b a a b a b a b

So, too late to change my mind, but if a good reason I can do differently next year.

[Pat Kiewicz]

When it comes to planting, I like staggered rows:

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

When it comes to varieties, I like to plant them in blocks, so, for instance, with onions, block plant a white in staggered rows starting on the left of the bed, then continue the pattern with red onions in the middle of the bed and finish with yellow onions on the right side of the bed.

This year, two varieties of paste tomatoes, one on the left side of the bed, the other on the right. Helps me remember which is which, when the fruit is quite similar.

Salad tomatoes I stake, one plant of each variety, sort of at random. It's hard to mistake one variety for another as they are all so different. I do like to take care toset the smaller fruited varieties on the north side of the bed, as they always seem much more vigorous and would overshadow the rest otherwise.

[Billy]

There are no gardening mistakes, just experiments.

You should plant your large tomato plants on the north side of your garden (in the northern hemisphere), and the smaller ones to the south, to avoid blocking their sunshine. For example Burpee Gloriana grows about 4 - 6 ft. tall, Old German 8 - 10 ft. tall, and Italian Tree 12 -

15 ft. tall. You'd want to plant the Gloriana on the south side of the garden, and the Italian Tree on the north side. Moreover, you'd want to plant supported determinants 15" apart, and unsupported 24" apart. Unsupported indeterminants should be 36" apart.

[Brooklyn1]

With vegetables gardens I like to plant all of each varietal of similar plants (ie. different types of tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.) at opposite ends to minimize cross pollination and ending up with aliens.

[hrhofmann]

The varieties that I put in are both supposedly the same height plants so the southern plans will shade the northern plants a little bit. I do not save the seeds so any cross-pollination problems do not exist. Thanks for the advice.

[Billy]

Not to worry. Most tomatoes don't cross pollinate.

My pleasure.