On the forums devoted to growing tomatoes, there are often disputes about how to properly plant bushes in the beds. Some gardeners and breeders advise planting 2 tomatoes per hole. What does this method of planting seedlings actually give?

Tomatoes are a popular vegetable garden

It is difficult to imagine a garden bed without tomatoes - this is one of the most common garden crops. There are several hundred different types of tomato. Each gardener chooses for himself which varieties to plant in his garden. Modern varieties differ in the appearance of the bushes, their size, and the timing of fruit ripening.

Tomato bushes can be:

  • very high and requiring a garter on supports;
  • low, growing in the form of a branchy bush;
  • annual;
  • perennial.

    Tomatoes

In addition, tomatoes can be self-pollinating and insect-requiring. Tomatoes also differ in the type of inflorescence formation.

The fruits of plants may differ in appearance and quality:

  • taste;
  • size;
  • color;
  • form;
  • pulp density;
  • the number of seeds.

This vegetable contains a large amount of vitamins and substances beneficial to the human body. The fruits are eaten raw and used to prepare various dishes. Various preparations for the winter are made from tomatoes.

Tomato

Tomatoes are cultivated in all regions of the country, in the south and in the middle lane they are grown in open beds, and in the northern regions, tomatoes bear fruit perfectly in closed heated greenhouses.

Home greenhouses are usually small in size, and the fruiting times of one tomato hybrid are limited. For this reason, vegetable growers strive to increase the amount of the product obtained from one square meter of usable area by planting two different varieties of this crop in one hole.

How to plant tomatoes 2 per hole

It is customary to plant seedlings one plant per hole. It is believed that with this planting technique, tomato bushes receive the maximum amount of nutrients. Indeed, this is so when it comes to a vegetable garden with ideal conditions for cultivated plants. In reality, tomatoes throughout the season are attacked by harmful insects, and in the southern regions they burn out under the scorching sun.

In especially hot and arid regions, it has long been customary to plant 2 tomatoes in one hole. This method of planting seedlings allows plants to protect each other from the rays of the scorching sun.

A tomato

How to prepare a hole

Preparing a site for planting two tomatoes in one hole is no different from the usual. A garden bed for tomatoes is made where they grew a year before:

  • parsley;
  • dill;
  • carrot;
  • bow.

In autumn, ash and organic fertilizers are applied to the soil. After that, the site is carefully dug up. Fertilizers must not remain on the surface, they must be covered with a layer of earth.

Pits for tomato seedlings are placed in one line or staggered. The holes are given an oval shape, spaced 40-50 cm from one another.

In arid regions, a deep long bed in the form of a trench is prepared for tomatoes.Its depth ranges from 15 to 25 cm, and its width ranges from 30 to 40 cm.

Hole

It is recommended to pour several liters of boiling water into the hole shortly before planting the seedlings. This measure will destroy the larvae of harmful insects. Then mineral fertilizers are placed on the bottom of the hole. They are sprinkled with a thin layer of soil. After that, tomatoes are planted, 2 per hole.

What to put in the hole when planting a tomato

Important! It is recommended to prepare holes for seedlings a few days before planting plants in the garden. The prepared pits must be filled with water. The next day, you need to carefully look, in wet soil, tunnels and burrows of underground pests may appear. In each hole you need to lay insect poison. Only then can you start planting tomatoes.

Planting scheme for tomato bushes

Planting tomatoes with two roots per hole involves the placement of seedlings in pairs in one depression (hole). Plants are placed on different sides of the hole (groove), opposite each other or slightly obliquely. To grow both bushes healthy, you need to have at least 20 cm between them. You can plant the plants in a checkerboard pattern.

Seedlings are placed sideways in the holes, directing the top to the north, and the root to the south. Then the root part is covered with earth. If the seedlings have a thin long stem, they should be buried 5-10 cm into the ground. Some growers prefer to lay out the sprouts, directing the roots towards each other. For a double type of planting, you will have to harvest twice as many seedlings.

Landing scheme

In hot climates, a weaker shoot is planted next to a strong shoot. It grows weaker and develops worse than its neighbor, but at the same time creates the right amount of shade that protects the crop from sintering in the sun. Excess water and fertilizers are not spent on it, since nutrients are constantly introduced into the hole and watering is carried out. A weak plant is unlikely to yield a good harvest, but it will contribute to better pollination and protect the neighbor from the heat.

In greenhouses, where there is very little free space, this method of growing tomatoes allows you to get a larger amount of harvest from 1 sq. meters of usable area. In greenhouse conditions, you can grow two different varieties of tomatoes, planting them in one hole. You can plant tall tomato bushes in the garden bed, and low varieties with different fruiting periods at their feet. To do this, you need to make the holes strictly in line, and place tall tomatoes on the back wall of the holes, and low tomatoes on the opposite side right in front of them.

Tomatoes are planted 2 per hole most often with a seedling growing method. With a seedless growing method, more than two seeds are placed in the holes.

Important!When sowing tomatoes directly into the garden, you need to take into account the soil temperature.

In order for the tomatoes sown in the greenhouse to give good seedlings, three or four seeds are thrown into one hole. After the leaves appear on the seedlings, only strong shoots are left. Weak plants are removed. Excess plants can be later transplanted to another place.

Planting tomatoes two roots per hole

In addition to the listed planting methods, there is a technique that involves planting tomatoes on two roots. The two shoots are wrapped together with plastic wrap at the bottom of the stems. In this form, they are placed in the hole. This technique is most often used for weak seedlings.

Planting two roots

Some vegetable growers specially grow two shoots in one cup, while the seeds are sown side by side so that later it is convenient to tie the stems together.

You can create a single organism from two shoots by transplanting them into one container when diving. At the same time, the stems should be located at a distance of 0.5-1 cm from each other.After that, the shoots are allowed to grow stronger, as soon as the thickness of each stem reaches 4-5 mm, on the lateral sides facing the neighboring plant, a small a piece of skin, 1 to 1.5 cm long.Then shallow cuts are made on the stems. It is important that on one sprout the splits are applied obliquely from top to bottom, and on the other from bottom to top.

What to put in the hole when planting cucumbers

The depth of the incisions cannot exceed half the thickness of the stems. The splits are aligned and carefully inserted into one another. Then the plants need to be fixed in this form.

In other words, one is created from two shoots, but with two root systems. It is believed that such a plant tolerates better:

  • temperature drops;
  • short drought;
  • windy days.

Seedlings on two roots are best grown in peat cubes or glasses. When transplanted into open ground, the root system will remain unaffected.

Twin planting of tall tomatoes

If there are no difficulties with low-growing varieties of tomatoes, then the possibility of planting tall tomatoes in 2 plants together causes many controversial and contradictory opinions.

A tomato

Tall tomatoes are grown only on supports, these can be pegs or trellises. If two tall plants are planted in one hole, then for both you need to create a support or tie the stems to a single peg standing between them. Taking care of such tomatoes is no more difficult than with a single arrangement of bushes. The beds with paired bushes are watered and fed in the same way, weeds are removed from them and the soil is loosened.

Difficulties begin to arise only at the stage of the formation of bushes. It is much easier to cope with plants growing in open beds, in greenhouses the situation is more complicated.

Some gardeners advise leaving only one central stem at the paired bushes. In fact, you can leave two main stems for each plant. If you leave only one central trunk, then the plant actively rushes up and occupies the entire height in the greenhouse.

Fertilizers for potatoes when planting in a hole in spring

Important! Pruning of stepchildren and extra leaves from double tomato bushes must be done in a timely manner, otherwise the lateral branches will form dense tangled thickets.

Since fertilizers are regularly applied to each hole, fears that there will not be enough nutrients for a couple of nearby bushes are completely in vain.

For what purpose are tomatoes planted 2 bushes per hole

Paired placement of planting material on the garden bed allows you to get a larger amount of harvest from one meter of soil. In addition, if upon landing tomatoes, two seedlings per hole, take seedlings with different ripening dates, then the harvest can be obtained much longer.

Tomatoes

For hot and arid regions, planting tomatoes, 2 pieces per hole, allows you not only to save free space and increase the yield, but also to keep the tomato bushes from drying out in the scorching rays of the sun. Indeed, the nearby tomatoes create a saving shadow. In the southern regions, tomato bushes are planted in deepened beds. In this case, pairs of bushes are positioned slightly obliquely on opposite sides of the groove. This planting method makes it easier to water the plants and provides access to them.

In the vegetable gardens of rural settlements, where neighboring plots are very close, the spread of harmful insects occurs very quickly. In the event that a pest suddenly appears on the site, with the paired arrangement of the bushes, there is hope that at least one of the two sprouts will remain intact. Of course, if the owner of the site takes timely measures to combat insects, and the situation will not be left to chance.

Gardeners plant two bushes so that after a period of adaptation of the seedlings and as a result of their partial death, a sufficient number of tomatoes remain in the beds.

Disadvantages of the double planting technique

Planting tomatoes with two seedlings per hole is not suitable for all varieties. If two different varieties of this garden crop are taken, then tall and low bushes will grow better. Too branched bushes are not at all suitable for this type of growing.You cannot grow compound hybrids in this way. In this case, they throw off the color.

Tomato

Tomatoes, planted 2 bushes per hole, quickly grow to create a very voluminous bush that is difficult to care for. Therefore, tomato bushes growing 2 side by side need to be formed in a timely manner, removing excess leaves and side branches.

When choosing suitable varieties for paired planting, preference is given to those that are less susceptible to infectious diseases, such as late blight. It is believed that growing at close range, the plants are likely to become infected from each other. In fact, planting 2 tomatoes in one hole does not cause plant infection.

To protect the crop from pests and infections, it is necessary to timely carry out preventive spraying of tomato bushes with special means. In addition, it is not prohibited to use folk methods of protecting crops from diseases and insects, such as:

  • timely removal of weeds from the beds;
  • spraying the bushes with infusions of onions and garlic;
  • destruction of pests with baits.

If a diseased plant appears in the garden, it must be pulled out by the roots and burned. All other bushes then need to be treated with protective agents. [/ Alert]

You need to start fighting infectious diseases not when the adult plants are already infected, but in advance, even at the stage of growing seedlings. Otherwise, the crop will be ruined regardless of the scheme for planting tomatoes in the garden.

When planting tomatoes, 2 pieces per hole, you must follow all the rules. And only then will the tomato harvest be rich.