Dense planting in earthboxes
 

Every year I have seeds for more cultivars than I really have room to plant. Without dedicating too much space, I’m interested to find a way to trial new ones all the way to fruit to decide if they deserve one or more full spots in future growing seasons.

One idea I had was to grow four plants as a single stem side-by-side in an earthbox. My thought is without letting any additional suckers grow, I could pretty efficiently grow four plants.

Has anyone tried something similar? I know the standard rec is two plants but I’m curious what I could pull off with judicious pruning.

I have never grown in an Earthbox, but I did a search and came up with this from another forum


I didn't like growing two tomato plants in one earthbox. I did like growing One tomato plant in the earthbox but I don't like all the smaller secondary vines producing smaller tomatoes.
So I grew 8 single vine tomato plants in one earthbox and I Liked it. More earlier tomatoes and more larger tomatoes. BUT
The earhbox holds about 15 gallons of soil and when growing single vine tomato plants, you should only have 1 single vine per 2.5 gallons of soil. = Should only grow 6 single vines per earthbox but 8 did good too. Those 6 single vine tomato plants will produce About 75 pounds of maters give or take.
The plants were easier to manage... and more air circulation....and neater trellis system


[URL]https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1348967/[/URL]

I grow 2 or 3 plants in Earthboxes all the time. You just need to be careful about what plants you put together. Some of the more prolific varieties will tend to take over the available area. So, don't put two of them in the same Earthbox. I have experimented with growing from 5 to 8 plants in one Earthbox with lots of pruning to control growth. That works just fine, but you need to be careful about what you plant and it requires a lot of work if you have a number of Earthboxes. Most cherry tomatos and Healthkick Romas don't benefit by lots of pruning.

[QUOTE=seaeagle;768525]I have never grown in an Earthbox, but I did a search and came up with this from another forum


I didn't like growing two tomato plants in one earthbox. I did like growing One tomato plant in the earthbox but I don't like all the smaller secondary vines producing smaller tomatoes.
So I grew 8 single vine tomato plants in one earthbox and I Liked it. More earlier tomatoes and more larger tomatoes. BUT
The earhbox holds about 15 gallons of soil and when growing single vine tomato plants, you should only have 1 single vine per 2.5 gallons of soil. = Should only grow 6 single vines per earthbox but 8 did good too. Those 6 single vine tomato plants will produce About 75 pounds of maters give or take.
The plants were easier to manage... and more air circulation....and neater trellis system


[URL]https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1348967/[/URL][/QUOTE]

I have a hard time imagining 8 plants all fitting together but this gives me confidence to try at least 4 next year. Thanks for the info!

[QUOTE=seaeagle;768525]I have never grown in an Earthbox, but I did a search and came up with this from another forum


I didn't like growing two tomato plants in one earthbox. I did like growing One tomato plant in the earthbox but I don't like all the smaller secondary vines producing smaller tomatoes.
So I grew 8 single vine tomato plants in one earthbox and I Liked it. More earlier tomatoes and more larger tomatoes. BUT
The earhbox holds about 15 gallons of soil and when growing single vine tomato plants, you should only have 1 single vine per 2.5 gallons of soil. = Should only grow 6 single vines per earthbox but 8 did good too. Those 6 single vine tomato plants will produce About 75 pounds of maters give or take.
The plants were easier to manage... and more air circulation....and neater trellis system


[URL]https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1348967/[/URL][/QUOTE]


The dude likes 1 plant, but not 2, so he put 8 in there. :dizzy:


On another note, holy crap that's a lot of plants in one container. Looks like he is using string trellis. I have an EMSCO thing, which is like a slightly shallower EB. It has two maglia rosa tomatoes in it, and not sure how it could grow more. Yikes. Maybe test project for next year - it holds 10-12 gallons of mix.

Maglia Rosa would be difficult to squeeze in more plants because of its loose growth habit. But more typical plants grown as a single stem are easier to pack in.

It depends on whether your reasons for growing are just to get a tasting sample of fruit from many varieties, or actual good production from a couple. Since the available root space and nutrients will have to be shared by 8 plants, much of that will be to maintain the extra stems and leaves in the system, so less left over for fruit production. Plus the plants will shade each other, and less air circulation, though pruning can help. The roots will still be in competition though. But four plants could give a good sample for trials.


I wonder if the person in the pictures linked above, had added a drip nutrient irrigation system to his many earthboxes. If so, that would make a big difference. Would like to see pictures of his greenhouse set up after his tomatoes were actually in production, they look very good in the picture, but are young with no tomatoes set that I can see.

My experience is the roots will extend into the reservoir very quickly, so you can put nutrients there. My plants empty the reservoir every day.

Strong winds wrecked most of the plants I had in 3 Earthboxes. The plants on both ends survived, but that's about it. It was the middle of June, so I was desperate to find replacement plants. The nursery I usually buy plants from had some they had not tossed out yet, but they were dried out and scraggly with roots in poor shape.

I found 6 plants that looked like they might survive, so I stuck them in my Earthboxes and hoped for the best. It's not ideal, way to dense, but better than nothing.