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Re: Pruning Tomatoes?

Hi Bill and all,

> On Tue, 29 Apr 1997 22:22:34 -0400 Al Brandenburg <AlBrand@AOL.COM>
> writes:
>>Hi folks:
>>Is there a balance point for removing the suckers? As an example, I

> There is no one way.  It's a balance between quantity of fruit desired
> and quality, considering the available growing space.

> I leave the first sucker stem but remove all others.  Also, I pinch off
> the main stem after four or five sets of fruit.  This is *my*
> approach---I'd be very interested to hear from other tomato gardeners.

> Bill o;-)

Here's what I do.  (This is a reworked/recycled message from the Organic
Gardening List, where the topic just did a round.)

I grow indeterminate tomatoes and mostly follow the "two vines" school of
pruning.  I allow the first vigourous side branch to grow, the one just below
the first flower cluster, and it becomes the second vine.  I think this
technique gives me a better yield per plant than just a single vine and also
helps lessen fruit splitting.  The exception is some super vigourous varieties,
like cherry tomatoes for example, which I'll allow 3 or 4 vines to grow.)

As far as pruning further side branches off I always let two leaves grow first
before pinching off the growing tip. This gives each plant much more leaf mass,
increasing photosynthesis and providing shade to the developing fruit, lessening
sun scald.  It's a bit more trouble than just cutting off the side branch
outright but I think it's worth the effort.  You have to watch these short
sidebranches as they'll sprout out branches as well and these you can pinch
right out as they emerge.

Once mid august arrives or when the vines reaches 6-7' tall, whichever comes
first, I pinch off the growing tips to concentrate the plant's remaining
energies into maturing the fruit already set.

   ____________________
  |                    |
  |     Bob Carter     | Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada
  |  bcarter@awinc.com | Zone 6b
  |____________________|


Baroque (adj.) - What happens when I'm out of Monet.

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