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Post by SPLASH on Jun 19, 2012 13:43:37 GMT -5
There are two methods when it comes to tomato pruning. 1. Plamt them and water them. 2. Plant them and keep suckers off of them. I pluck suckers until after the 2nd cluster of fruits and then allow the plant to grow 2 main vines. If it's a larger variety of vine I will allow 1 or 2 more after another couple clusters (about 3- 3 1/2' high). I get my largest tomatoes from the bottom of the plant, but more tomatoes higher up. If you just let the vine grow and leave all suckers on, you won't get the vine as tall as fast and will end up with smaller fruits. You will end up with more fruits though. If you pluck every sucker and never leave one, you will get the largest possible fruits, but much fewer. For example- My 4 plants are double the size of the plants in the other garden that have not been pruned. I already have fruits where the others don't.
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woodeye
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
Backbone 2012 Greenthumb
Catch and Release Straight into the Grease!!
Posts: 250
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Post by woodeye on Jun 22, 2012 7:36:47 GMT -5
What do you mean by suckers? I prune the lower branches but keep most of the high ones. I will see what kind of results happen. I have 2 fruits on my beefsteak plant and many more flowers..
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Post by SPLASH on Jun 22, 2012 22:19:53 GMT -5
I will get sone pics up and show you.
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Post by SPLASH on Jun 24, 2012 10:38:24 GMT -5
Here ya go, woodeye. Notice the main vine/stem going up and then a branch going off to the left. The vine/stem in the crotch of the two is a sucker. You can pluck this off, plant it in the soil all the way to the leaves and it will root and become it's own plant. Here is another sucker. They will always be in the crotch of the vine and branch. These tomato vines were pruned so no branches are on or near the soil and all suckers pruned until I allowed two to start growing above the 2nd fruit cluster. These vines were planted the same day and at the same size. Notice how smaller they are? They have been allowed to go wild and all suckers were left on, bottom branches were just recently pruned.
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woodeye
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
Backbone 2012 Greenthumb
Catch and Release Straight into the Grease!!
Posts: 250
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Post by woodeye on Jun 29, 2012 8:34:37 GMT -5
When you prune them, do you cut them or just snap them off? I have been doing both, sometimes too lazy to go to the house and get the scissors. Hasn't seemed to make a difference either way.
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Post by SPLASH on Jun 29, 2012 22:40:32 GMT -5
Won't make a difference. Snap em off
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