Tomato Planting, Plant spacing and Number of Plants per Hectare

In many tomato-producing countries, the best season for planting outdoor tomatoes is usually during the middle of the second half of spring. However, in some areas where temperatures are high enough, planting can certainly take place earlier. On the other hand, in northern areas, producers usually plant their tomatoes during early summer.

In many cases, the young seedlings must undergo a ” hardening ” procedure before transplanting. Hardening is practically a kind of artificial stress. It may involve temperature change or other techniques and is performed to help the plant better adapt to new conditions. Producers usually cause water stress by gradually reducing the water supply to their plants. Producers stop the water supply a few hours before transplanting (13-15 hours) and then irrigate again immediately after transplanting. Tomato producers keep their seedlings in seedbeds 30-50 days before transplanting them into their final positions. Producers prefer to transplant seedlings that are 3-6 weeks old. At this stage, the plants have an average height of 20 cm (8 inches) and have 3-5 true leaves.

After all the preparation steps (plowing, basal fertilization, irrigation system installation and plastic film covering), we can proceed with transplanting. The growers label the exact spots on the plastic film or directly on the soil where they will plant the young seedlings. Then, they dig holes and plant the seedlings. Planting the seedlings at the same depth as they were in the nursery is important.

Outdoors, tomato farmers usually plant their seedlings in single rows. A common pattern for single-row planting is 0.3 m to 0.6 m (12-24 inches) distance between plants on the row and 0.8 m to 1.3 m (2.6-4.3 ft) distance between rows. For twin-row planting, growers maintain the same distance between plants on the row, 0.45 m (1.48 ft) distance between rows and 1.2 m (3.94 ft) between two couples.