let "x" represent the number of units
5x = the number of tomato plants in Inessa's garden
6x = the number of tomato plants in Ralph's garden
the question says that half (1/2 x (5x)) of Inessa's tomato plants are taken from her garden and put into Ralph's garden
this means that Ralph has a total of 850 tomato plants in his garden
using all of this information, we get the following (which we have to solve):
(1/2)(5x) + 6x = 850
when we solve for "x", we find that:
"x" = 100
so, going back to the original statement, if Ralph started out with (6x) tomato plants, and "x" = 100, we have to multiply 6 by 100
doing so gives us our final answer:
Ralph had 600 tomato plants in the beginning