This is all way over my head. In our Belgian garden we never had good toms - too cold, too wet, too hot, too dry, too many potato fields causing blight....
Never got to the point of counting leaves or spaces between them. Never had crops to shout about.
This new garden is obviously much warmer and sunnier but also drier. We have grown far too many outdoor plants and planted them too close but have had great crops and they're still coming. I've spent hours making passata and drying cherry toms and we've had gallons of gazpacho as well as tomato tarts and salads. OH has just done another tidy of our plants to encourage the remaining toms to ripen and the ones in the PT are still going strong. We've had practically no rain since mid June so we did get some blossom end rot and also split skins but that hasn't affected flavour. I've watered the beds every 3 or 4 days in rotation with the potatoes and squashes and one or two flower beds.
Next year, I'll buy fewer plants and fewer varieties and plant them further apart. Great flavour from the red, orange and yellow beef tomatoes, Ananas, Yellow pear, San Marzano, Green Zebra and another smaller red. Not at all impressed with any of the black ones which is disappointing as they looked so good.