"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...

"hob" wrote in message
. ..

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I've heard that you can maximize yields by growing two plants in the
same
hole instead of one. I have a lot of tomatoes and peppers where there
are
two side by side, and they seem to grow fine...so far. Is this true, or
should I go and thin them so that there is just one of each in each
hole?
Any practical advice?


One plant with all the water, sun, and nutrients in its root system grows
better than two plants sharing root space, water, nutrients, and sun
space.


"Two plants are worser than one." (...I had to say it... )



Ack. sigh. I guess I need to thin my plants out. I have two beautiful
tomatoes side by side. Not to mention a bunch of tomatoes and peppers
growing in pairs. Are there any known exceptions to this?


Lots of absolutes in gardening have exceptions. One way to discover them is
by experimentation. Leave your plants as they are and see what happens.
Naturally, you'll understand that unless you also grow identical varieties
the "regular" way (one per hole), it won't be a truly scientific evaluation,
but if the results are good enough for you, that's all that's important.