Kay Lancaster wrote:
I'm new to gardening. I bought some tomato plants and they're doing
well. Each was marked at a certain number of days such as 'Early Girl 80
Days'. What is 80 days? Does it mean the number of days from seed to
edible fruits or something else?

Well, sorta. Best use for this sort of information is "which of these
cultivars will ripen soonest?" in a relative sort of way, rather than
counting on the "days" thing to mean much. And yes, it's supposed to be
days from planting to harvest (first harvest in the case of things that
will keep producing for awhile) However, in the real world, the actual
number of days to harvest will be strongly dependent on air and soil
temperatures and amount of sunlight.

I saw no explanation of 'days' anywhere in the garden center where I
bought the plants. As a comment, I bought these plants which were about
as tall as my thumb in early June. Today they are up to my chin - or
about 165 cm. They are intermingled because I only planted them maybe 30
cm apart. I figure they are ok that close. Should I trim off the
branches which intrude on their neighbors?

I usually plant tomatoes about 30" on center, or about 75 cm apart,
with about a meter or 1.25 meters between rows. The closest I'd consider
planting the tomato cultivars you list is about 18", about 45 cm. apart
in the row, and that if the plants are trellised. They're really competing
pretty hard for sunlight and nutrients and water at such a close
spacing. No, I probably wouldn't trim, but try a wider spacing next
year. Bet you'll get more yield per plant.

Thanks, Kay. Impossible for me to hope for more tomatoes if the ones
which are now green turn red. Yet clearly, they are competing for space
and sun which can't be good.

Next year I'll greatly enlarge the garden. My wife understands these
things. I took a day when she was at a seminar to purchase the materials
and do the plantings as a surprise.

Not surprised I did it a bit wrong.

-paul