Looks to me like you're doing things right! In the last few years I have been experimenting with moving up from double leaders to triple and even in some cases 4 leaders depending on variety and plant characteristics.

For example, you can easily let cherries and small plums go up to 4 leaders without crowding too much, though I wouldn't go that far on Bream's yellow pear or Riesentraube.

I find that the big beefsteaks and larger oxhearts do better with double leaders: at least the fruits are larger and I think ripen more regularly. Total yield per plant probably is favored by triple leaders but fruit size is smaller with more leaders and one easily makes up the yield difference with more plants.

Kind of fun to mess around and try different things with different varieties. Each year seems to bring such a different growing environment that year to year yields and fruit quality make firm data based decisions hard to come by. But I do learn a little and at least come to some generalized conclusions.

By the way, I find that very close plant spacing can result in more infection and damage from foliar deseases. That is
one bad thing that can happen and it must be managed. I
pay particular attention to getting early branches close to the ground trimmed off, reducing splash up from the exposed soil at the plant base by various means, and trying to get an effective desease spray program into disciplined operation. I don't like chemical residues of any kind on my tomatoes so I stop using spreader sticker when the fruits are about an inch in diameter.

I think your planting box arrangement would offer an excellent opportunity for a drip watering system on a timer.
You could then use plastic tucked right up and around the plant stalk to eliminate ground splash.

Thanks, Larry.

When you went with 3-4 leaders on the beefsteaks, did you increase the distance between plants or just the number of leaders?

I went from two to three leaders last year but kept the spacing the same---24"-30" between plants. Although I didn't weigh the output from each plant, it seemed to me that there was actually a reduction in output as compared to the year before with 2 leaders per plant. Foliar disease seemed greater as well. Then again, the vagaries of year to year.

Regarding drip irrigation: when I built the garden, I considered installing drip irrigation but decided against it thinkng that having to manually water it would force me to slow down and take a break from the usual day to day hectic pace and get out in the garden and enjoy it. Then a particularly busy last year came along...

I'm considering drip for this year :-)

No, I haven't reduced my plant spacing--just am experimenting with what happens when I increase the number of leaders I allow.

My larger garden is 21 by 24 ft. I will typically grow 3 to 4 rows of tomatoes spaced 32 to 33 inches apart (just enough to walk between) with 12 plants in each row spaced at 24". I grow on black plastic film and move the rows of tomatoes from one side of the garden to the other each year.

I have another smaller garden here at my home in PA and it is 8 ft wide by 20'6" long. I seldom grow more than 12 tomatoes in this garden and spacing works out at 30 to 36"
between plants and rows. I can't see that the additional spacing over the larger garden leads to better yields but it sure does make picking and spraying easier.

Last year was a pretty poor year for tomatoes most everywhere in the east so, as you say, it is pretty tough to make any firm conclusions on yield and fruit quality looking at one year against another.

I would definately go to drip irrigation if I could. Unfortunately, neither of my gardens would work well in such a manner that I could get a more or less permanant installation to carry over year to year. With narrow box beds as you have it seems to me you could run a manifold down one long side of the box and just have very short removable/replaceable leaders running to the base of each plant. Actually, my larger garden is out at the lake. It is on a gentle slope and when I need water I just pump it
out of the lake and run it to the top of the garden, stick the hose under the plastic and let the water run down through the garden and, eventually, back to the lake. And it works!

I have a 3'X 5' raised bed and I've planted up to 6 plants in it...I start out diligently suckering but always end up with more leaders than I want...

This year I'm going to try to only plant 3 plants and see what the yield/flavor is like...

I do use .25" diameter drip irrigation tubing with emitters spaced 6" apart and I love it! For larger spaced gardens you might want to use the tubing with 12" spaced emitters...you can get this tubing, as well as .50" tubing or t-tape, for a good price at Dripworks...their website has the most comprehensive drip irrigation catalog that I've found....

Here's hoping that 2009 is better for growing than 2008!

Here is a link that might be useful: Dripworks

thanks for the link

how about 4 plants...33% more :-)

plympton...I came to that decision today! 4 plants it is...

Saw this tomato trellis system

The trellis in the pic is "hog panel or stock panel" bent over the long way.
They are 4 foot tall, semi-rigid and about 16 feet long (may be a little longer) I use them mounted between 2 T posts and I tie my pepper plants to them.