Tomato spacing advice from 1950s is way off for my raised beds

I was reading an old gardening pamphlet my grandpa had, from like 1954, and it said to space tomato plants 4 feet apart. I mean, my raised beds are only 3 feet wide, so that would mean like 2 plants max per bed. That seemed crazy to me, so I looked it up and apparently modern dwarf varieties and trellising methods let you push them to 18 inches apart if you prune hard. I tried it this spring with 6 plants in one 8 foot bed, just using some cheap cages and weekly suckering. So far they're all loaded with fruit and no disease yet, but I'm nervous about airflow when it gets humid in August. Has anyone else tried tight spacing like that and had issues with blight or mildew?

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vera_palmer23d ago

Did the same thing last year with 8 plants in a 10 foot bed, same 18 inch spacing, and it worked out fine until mid August when the humidity kicked in here in Ohio. Airflow got tight, and I had to strip off all the lower leaves and even some inner branches to keep things from getting soggy and moldy. Just keep a close eye on them once the nights get warm and sticky, and prune early if you see any yellowing down low...