As with any container once the roots hit the sides they begin to spiral and coil and with time the plant becomes root bound.

So rather than plant them so snugly in the corners I'd move them more in toward the centers of each section. Plus it would be much easier to support the plants properly that way.

Leaf branches inter-tangling with each other poses no problems and can be controlled with just a bit of end-of-branch trimming. But binding up roots unnecessarily can lead to stressed and even dead plants.

JMO.

Dave

I planted mine about 1 foot in from each edge last year. It was a good choice my one plant easily took 2 feet by 2 feet and I had to have some extra sturdy caging to keep it upright. It also yielded a massive amount of tomatoes. Put some basil near the base to keep it company. :)

Thank you for the quick reply, don't know what I would do without this forum. Dave, I centered the plants last year with good results, however it did become very "jungle-like." I will try some end-of-branch trimming like you suggested this year. Destiny, thanks for the advice regarding the basil.

This post was edited by gelatodave on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 22:29

They don't have to be exactly centered, just not so tight in the corners. As Destiny said a foot to a foot and half in (although I guess that would pretty much center the front ones anyway. :-)

Dave

Not going into details, I would/could plant 12 tomatoes in that raised bed/box or whatever, easily. That will be an average of 2.0 sqr-ft per plants. Considering that the planter is quite deep, this is my conservative approach. THAT IS 8 CUBIC FEET (over 50 gallons of root area/soil per plant)