In my SFG I do 18 in spacing for various reasons, main one being that's what my toms need to not be overcrowded as season progresses, to get good air flow, so I can work, etc. Better to have too much space at first than too little IMHO.

Dan

Hopefully someone else with more experience with growing Roma VF will follow up with more information, but I can give you what I have researched.

Some of the confusion may have come from a typo in and earlier edition of the All New SFG Book. I read the following on the SFG website:

"You are right to be a little confused. When the All New SFG Book was published that year, we were horrified to discover that the typesetter had made some errors and the spacing that you mentioned for squash and tomatoes comes from this. It has now been corrected in a later edition.
The spacing for vining tomatoes (indeterminate) is 1 per square foot and the plant is trained to grow up a vertical frame. A bush tomato (determinate) needs a 3'x3' (9 square feet) space to grow and spread out."

I believe Roma VF is a bush type. I am growing 2 Window Box Romas in my new SFG this year. I will be placing 1 per 4 square feet since these are dwarf plants. But this still seems to be a lot of real estate to me. Next year I will probably look into more indeterminate tomatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Spacing - Errors In All New SFG Book

I grew a roma last year in the sfg, and gave it a 1ft x 2ft space - against a trellis. It worked quite well.

EG

Thanks for the responses.

I agree that too much is better than not enough.

Rachel, you are correct that part of my confusion was from that particular passage. Another part that adds to that is that the back of the seed pack says to make the plant spacing 12-24" and row spacing 24-30".

I have a couple indeterminates that I'd planned to use for summer slicing/eating with plans to put in 8-9 Roma VFs for salsa and canning. With only three 4x8 beds it appears that I have no where near the room required to plant this many.

I may try 2x2(4sqft) on a couple in the beds and maybe large containers for the rest.

Thanks Engineered, that seems a more reasonable amount of real estate inside the beds.

If the packet says 12-24" I'd give it 24" in all directions....1 plant per 4 sf. That's how I plant my determinates (in tomato cages), and it works fine for me.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

simplemark - when I grow tomatoes in the sfg, this is the spacing I use - whether determinate, or indeterminate. Both do excellent, and that's how I do my melons, as well.

EG