This is an ongoing discussion. Both sides of the issue perceive pros and cons of their own, and the other's philosophy. Those who space are absolutely correct that crowding increases the risk, and in fact, almost guarantees disease. They also see improvements in ease of maintenance, as well as less hassles with harvest. They are also correct that yield per plant is usually (not a guarantee) higher with plants given space to grow.

The crowders will tell you that in small areas, while disease risks increase, so too does yield per sq. ft., and the ability to harvest more than 1 or 2 varieties.

One thing is certain, if you have the real estate, crowding is just not necessary.

To answer your question though, without getting drawn into a debate, my only answer is for you to test it out for yourself. The distinctions are yield per sq. ft. vs. yield per plant. The efforts and hassles each require must also be taken into account. Each individual comes to a decision of what level of tolerance each has for pests, maintenance, disease, ease of harvest, the number of varities one wants fruits from, etc... These are concerns that depend on the individual gardener, and really, while it's prudent to ask the question, only you can make the determination.

Great answer rgreen!

Spacing isn't an either/or issue but one thing you mentioned - "I am pruning suckers." means you are already losing that fruit production so any increased spacing you can give them that will reduce the need for you to do that will automatically increase your production over what you are getting now simply because you aren't removing the lateral branches that produce fruit. Add in less competition for water and nutrients, better air circulation, less disease, etc. and you can't help but get more production from the same plant.

The only advantage IMO to overcrowding the plants as is done with SQ Foot is it lets you try more different varieties in the same space. Where I put 1 plant in 3 sq feet and you would put 3 plants, I don't have to do all the pruning and nearly as much care of the plants to get just as many if not more tomatoes as you do from your 3 plants with much more work and care But you get 3 different kinds of tomatoes and I only get 1. That's fine with me but may not be what you prefer.

So your question "If I give them 2-4 square foot each, will I see 2-4 times the yield?" The answer is unknown. There are too many other variables involved with plant production than just spacing.

So try a compromise. Many of the long term Sq Ft gardeners over on that forum routinely use 2 sq per tomato plant anyway and have often discouraged newbies from using only 1 sq. So try 2 sq, leave at least some of the laterals rather than removing them and see if it works for you.

Dave

Thanks to both of you. If I can gather the energy to redo my raised beds the way I want, I should have enough room to experiment with spacing. Also after a couple of years to growing tomatoes I know which varieties will be my must haves year to year. So I can dedicate a small part of the garden to new varieties using sfg method (1 plant per 2sqft). Since that would be for trying new varieties I wouldn't be too concerned about yields.

The funny thing is that I'm swimming in tomatoes at the moment and talking about increasing yields next year.

I have been growing tomatoes , closely spaced, for a number of years,. Currently my plants get roughly 3 square foot each. Then I have to limit the number o branches to about 3 or 4. And keep pruning the lower laterals.

Having said that, I cannot imagine growing ANY tomato plant in one sq-ft area. The conventional recommendation calls for 2 to 3 foot spacing. This translates to about 4 to 9 sqr-ft per plant. If you have the real estate a 9 sqr-ft offers a lot of convenience in terms of maintenance. But if you are like me 4 sqr-ft should be fine but still you have to keep the plants supported by stakes or cage. If I had enough garden space I would do 2 1/2 ft ( 30") spacing or 6 sqr-ft per plant.

ON PRODUCTION:

It depends on a some factors. One is the variety. For example you can get the biggest bang for the buck by 2 ft spacing. Compare it to 3ft spacing, you can grow twice as many plants and yet not suffer in terms of production.

In the climates where it is hot and dry extra spacing has/can have no extra benefits as the sun beats on the soil. A more close arrangement can shade the soil and retain the moisture longer. You also use less material and efforts mulching, watering and fertilizing.

So, in my mind there is or should be an optimum spacing. I think 2 1/2 is perhaps optimum.

Sey

I have had an interesting experience the last 2 years. I grow several varieties in 4x8 foot beds. Last year I grew 8 plants per bed = 4sf per plant. Had good production but most of my fruit was golf ball sized or a little bigger. This year I planted 3 per bed = 10.7sf per plant. Most fruit is 12 - 14 oz. and up which in the eating is much more enjoyable. Obviously the total production is going to be less. This is only 2 seasons so not very scientific but I will stick with this. I don't prune unless a plant is threatening to topple a cage or about to bend.

I use the same approach as you do n111z, but decided to try giving some of them even more space this year.

In addition to the tomato plants placed, or allowed to grow as volunteers, here and there throughout my garden, I have 3 plants in one 8X10 foot bed, and 2 plants in 4 different 4X8 foot beds. My beds run east and west so I have a few things planted on the south side of each bed as companions in addition to the tomatoes. I like the results.

The plants are beautiful and all are now growing over the top of my 5' tall cages. There are flowers and fruit everywhere.

We have been eating large ripe tomatoes daily for over a week now. The ripe ones have included roma, black krin, cherokee purple, yellow boy and yellow cherries. My bandywine, old german, boxcar willie and a volunteer sweet 100 are not quite there yet.

The only pruning I do is the foliage at the base of each plant for air flow, and the odd branches that are growing too far outside the cages.

I had the same question in May as a first timer.

I have 2 tomatoes (Cuor di Bue & San Marzano) allocated about 50% of a 3.5' x 3.5' raised bed. I also planted 2 Cuor di Bue & 3 San Marzano about 2 to 2.5 ft apart in an in-ground plot. I did prune suckers in the raised bed diligently the first couple of weeks but got a bit lazy over time.

So far the results of this one-off experiment - production is similar for the Cuor di Bue, while the Marzano appear to be setting a few more tomatoes in the ground as opposed to the raised bed. But not sure on this because its hard to spot the small green fruit blended with the denser foliage of the Marzano. The raised bed plants set fruit a couple of days before the ones in the ground. And the raised bed plants are a bit taller.

Still some way to go in the season, and things may get more difficult maintenance-wise, but so far it looks like you could go either way. But if you had the option of allocating more space per plant, it would definitely make life a bit easier - for yourself and maybe the plants with more air circulation etc. But with a bit of sucker pruning and vertical tying etc, you can definitely make it work with less than 3 ft spacing.

I think 1 tomato plant per square ft is very ambitious and wouldn't do it. At least 1.5 to 2 ft with diligent sucker pruning and training the plants vertical would be OK. I was a bit late with my trellis - with the lesser space, its even more important to have your vertical supports in place early.

Hope this helps. Good luck!!

Well, tests have shown that 2.5-3 plants per square meter (usually as double row, and bigger distance between those doubles, for easy access and maintenantce) will maximize your production per area. This means at least 4 square feet per plant. All this pruned to one stem (which needs to be done properly if you start with that goal, don't just let more at some point). Of course, not all varieties do well with one stem, Sungold most probably is one of those. And you need a good plan what to do with the height which will ideally be a few meters if they are doing well (usually string attched to a higher point and a system to let those strings down once you harvest lower levels).

In a 4x4 bed, I squeezed 5 tomato plants (sungold, sweet 100, black krim, early girl and Carolina gold). Plus that bed has several kale and chard plants.

I know. I know. There are too many plants in this bed. But I followed the 1 plant per square guideline. I did not prune the sungold or the sweet 100s. At this point, I'm just letting them be. I did some light pruning on the early girl and the black krim. All the plants, except the Carolina gold which is a determinate, are 5 feet tall (I'm sure they would be taller and bushier if they had more space). But they are producing enough for our 2 person household. So far, no bacterial, fungal or viral issues. No pest issues. I must be very lucky or learned from last year's mistakes. Last year I was battling blight, bacterial spot, etc.

So based on your input, I'll be going with 1 plant per ~3 sq feet in my new raised beds for the varieties I know I want a decent output from. I'll dedicate a small part of the garden to "experiment" with new varieties (but I will squeeze those into 1-2 squares per plant and prune).