280 VEGETABLE FORCING 



When grown with carnations, a common distance is 

 20 by 20, or three rows on benches 4 feet wide. Another 

 well-known Ohio grower plants 4 by 1 foot apart, and a 

 Grand Rapids grower 3^ by 1. Some growers are pleased 

 with the following hexagonal plan which gives each plant 

 the maximum amount of space in every direction : 



X X X X X 



Planting. As previously stated in this chapter, the 

 plants should not be allowed to become pot-bound before 

 they are shifted or transferred to the beds. The plants 

 may be set a trifle deeper than they stood in the pots, and 

 it is generally desirable to water the beds after they are 

 filled with plants. See page 278 for dates on which to 

 plant. 



Intercropping. Tomato plants soon develop a large 

 amount of foliage which retards the development of 

 smaller crops, such as lettuce and radishes, so that they 

 are not very well adapted to companion cropping, except 

 when they follow carnations. See Chapter XXI for data 

 on systems of cropping. 



Training. When tomatoes are produced under glass 

 there must be some means of regulating the habit of 

 growth. Numerous experiments have been made with a 

 view to determining the best system of training. In 

 most of the trials, the plants have been trained to one, 

 two and three stems, respectively. Perhaps the most 

 extensive work along this line was conducted by the New 

 York station. Beach, in drawing conclusions in Bul- 

 letin 123, states : "Single-stem training (as seen in Figs. 

 90, 91 and 92) is clearly superior to three-stem training 

 for forcing tomatoes in winter in this climate. The 

 superiority is seen in the larger yield of early ripening 



