indeterminate tomato plants
Help! What should I do if my indeterminate tomato plants have already grown 5 feet tall and are already as tall as my stakes. What do I do if they get taller than my stakes? Do I trim the tops?
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(post #12585, reply #1 of 23)
Quit fertilizing? Just kidding. It won't hurt your plants if you want to cut them back, tomato plants that size are tough. However, I might put a trellis behind them and tie them up just to see how tall they would grow. I have seen photos of people standing on ladders picking tomatoes, and how cool would that be? You must have great growing conditions.
(post #12585, reply #2 of 23)
So how tall does a trellis come? I'm not kidding, last year when I grew tomatoes they overgrew the standard wire tomato cages (I planted them in containers and had them next to my deck) cascading over the top and onto the deck seating. It was like a jungle on my back deck. This year, we went all out and planted an actual raised bed garden and my indeterminate cherry tomato plants are only two months old and are already about 5 feet tall. I am afraid if I trim them at the top then I will kill them or hinder the production? But if I don't do something I am afraid they will grow so tall that they will fall over in the garden and end up on the ground and will lose fruit?
(post #12585, reply #3 of 23)
You can extend the trelis higher or alternatively just let them loop over. They will continue to produce clusters higher on the vine until some will be so late they won't ripen before frost. Be aware that clusters produce smaller fruit the higher they are set. I have frequently gotten to 8 clusters but the fruit is the size of golf balls while 1st -3rd were size of soft balls.
(post #12585, reply #4 of 23)
When our tomato plants get so big the cages get top-heavy we pound a stake into the ground on one side to keep the whole thing from toppling over. Those indeterminate cherry tomato plants can get really big and I just let mine drape over the top of the cage till it gets close to frost time. Trimming the top off plants makes the tomatoes that are already there grow and ripen faster, which is great for us shorter season gardeners. As far as a trellis, it can be as simple as a couple of posts in the ground with a few crosspieces nailed to them. Then tie a few branches to them and stand back and enjoy the produce. What's your favorite cherry tomato? If you have never tried it, try Sungold or Sunsugar. It's like snacking on candy!
(post #12585, reply #5 of 23)
My indeterminate tomatoes often grow higher than their supports (or higher than I can reach to tie them to their supports. When that happens, I do one of two things. If it's late in the season (early to mid-September in SW Connecticut), I lop off the tops of the plants. If not, I often lash stakes horizontally from one post to another and just drape the plants over them, or tie them as necessary.
As others have said, tomatoes are vigorous growers and will survive almost anything.
www.vegetablegardener.com
(post #12585, reply #6 of 23)
I wish mine would grow...plenty of room yet to go with the supports I have. My four heirlooms look a little yellow and they are not growing very fast. They have been in the ground now since Memorial Day. I'm north just north of Boston in zone 6. They are planted in a raised bed with good soil mixed with well composted manure. They have a lovely borage plant and some marigolds to protect them and keep them company :) They share the bed with the peas which were planted five weeks earlier and have climbed up the trellis and are beginning to flower.
Last year neither peas nor tomatoes did well but I thought that was because they went in late and it was terribly wet all of July.
Water is a great ingredient to cook with, it has such a neutral flavor - Bobby Flay
(post #12585, reply #7 of 23)
I share your pain. I was in Massachusetts last Sunday (in Sharon), and it was positively chilly. My own tomatoes seem to be in a holding pattern, too. They went in the ground Memorial Day weekend, but with all the rain and cold they haven't really started to grow. My peas are flowering now, too, and even producing a few pods here and there.
We just need to be patient, I think. With a little sun and heat, the tomato plants will take off.
www.vegetablegardener.com
(post #12585, reply #8 of 23)
And here I had planted sweet peas back in May, and they are just now starting to grow, up about 4in.
New Mexico home organic gardener
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. Emerson
sweet peas (post #12585, reply #23 of 23)
I had forgotten about the perennial sweet peas hiding in a corner between my greenhouse and a garden bed. What a neat surprise it was to see it bloom again. It is about finished blooming and is setting seed again. It is a beautiful deep red.
This is a new post, 6/10/2010, I don't know how to fix it ,by the way.
(post #12585, reply #9 of 23)
Sounds like the situation here too. There has just been no warmth until the past two days and the poor tomatoes and other warmth loving plants are just pouting. However a couple of days of warmth make a big difference. I walked into my garden this evening and my jaw dropped when I saw my spinach-it seems to have tripled in size in a couple of days, and the lettuce is actually visible from 6 feet away now. What a difference a few days can make sometimes. So be patient, the tomatoes will likely kick in any day now. At least I'm hoping mine will!
(post #12585, reply #10 of 23)
We seem to be having a cool summer also. Our peas are doing great, and we're thinking about putting in another set of spinach just in case the trend continues. On the downside, our strawberries aren't doing well with this weather. AND I've been checking the weather forecast for Vermont, because my gardening girlfriend and I are going to the North Hill Symposium on Friday. There's a 90% chance of rain for the time we are supposed to see the North Hill garden. Guess I'll take my rain gear. Sigh.
(post #12585, reply #11 of 23)
Thanks everyone for the great advise. I am going to try letting them flop over either side of my homemade trellis tying the plants to the outside as they continue to grow. Are the stems that pliable though? I mean will they actually bend over the top and cascade down the outside of my trellis?
(post #12585, reply #12 of 23)
Yes, they are fairly pliable. I've seen them continue to grow even when they look partly broken.
www.vegetablegardener.com
(post #12585, reply #14 of 23)
Absolutely, I agree with Ruth, they are quite tough and seem unfazed by draping, flopping or whatever. The cherry tomato plants are particularly good at that.
(post #12585, reply #13 of 23)
When it comes to something like planting a few spinach seeds I figure it is not that much to risk a few seeds and see what happens. I threw some in a few days ago. My first batch just went crazy all of a sudden and grew huge leaves, about 6 by 6 inches, but incredibly tender and delicious. It is about the only thing ready to harvest here, and like yours, the strawberries are dragging their feet although I did see a hint of color out there today.
Like you I have Friday plans that would be much better without rain. I organized a digging brigade to dig up all the daffodil bulbs around the town library as the area is going to be dug up so an irrigation system can be put in. I got volunteers by telling them they could have half the bulbs they dig. So of course the weather guy just gave a prediction for heavy rain on Friday! Also sigh. But I do have contingency plans-if it rains we sort books instead. We have a huge book sale in two weeks.....
(post #12585, reply #15 of 23)
I imagine you got a lot of books sorted. My friend and I saw the North Hill garden in the Thursday 5 to 6:30 time slot, and it absolutely poured the entire time we were there. Joe and Wayne said it's the first time in all their years of doing this that they've had such miserable weather for the tour. Lucky us, eh? I admit though that the weather didn't matter. Their garden is so incredible, and the creek that runs through it was absolutely roaring due to so much rain, so that was great too. I have never seen so many rare and unusual plants all together in one place. Sigh. Now I need to see it in sunlight, and in the fall, and in the spring, and...
(post #12585, reply #16 of 23)
I know what you mean about wanting to see it in the fall, and in the sunshine....That's the way I feel about Longwood gardens, which so far I have seen in the fall, and at Christmas. If it just was not so far away, but it is only an hour from my daughter's house. About Friday, once again the rain missed us in the morning so we dug about 5,000 daffodil bulbs as well as bushels and bushels of irises. My aching back! Then we were supposed to get another storm last night--at around midnight I hear it start to pour. It lasted almost 2 minutes. So I guess tomorrow I drag out all the hoses and sprinklers once again. Sigh. Every time I hear from my relatives in Missouri they have had another deluge and are having trouble even getting fields planted. I don't know which is worse, although I suspect the overabundance of rain may be. We will probably get ours the day of our big book sale.
(post #12585, reply #17 of 23)
We used to live relatively near Longwood Gardens, and I've been a few times. It is great, but some of the big displays leave me cold. When you get back to that area, try to get to Winterthur also, especially if you're there in the spring. It's in Delaware but isn't far from Longwood. Also, Chanticleer garden, near Wayne, PA, is one of the top gardens in the country and a lot of people haven't heard of it. Also, Morris Arboretum and Scott Arboretum near Philadelphia are both fantastic. Try to visit your daughter in mid-May next year on the weekend. There are so many absolutely fabulous plant sales in that area then. :--)
Edited 6/22/2009 9:43 am ET by Catskill Deb
(post #12585, reply #18 of 23)
There are so many areas of Longwood, one can always ignore the ones you don't like and go to the others. We went to Winterthur in the fall and I was very dissapointed, but now realize spring is the best time for that one. We saw Chanticleer this year in April, and Morris A. last year. My daughter bought me a book for Christmas called "Gardens of the Philadelphis area" or something like that and we are working our way through it when we go out there. And the thing at Longwood that fascinated me the most was those giant lilypads.
(post #12585, reply #19 of 23)
Sounds like you're doing a good job of it. Yes, I've never gotten to Winterthur in the spring, but I've seen it in a video made by Penelope Hobhouse. Odd to learn about a Deleware garden in a British film series, but anyway, it was stunning.
sure you have plenty of (post #12585, reply #20 of 23)
sure you have plenty of comments by now, but remember you are growing tomatoes not plants. you can pinch the central stem, remove suckers etc to get the furit to develop before it gets to cool. Adjust to your area and try a couple different methods, take notes and digital camera pics...great way to diary instead of memory.
I could use an ant control to (post #12585, reply #21 of 23)
I could use an ant control to protect mine.
Ants...little buggers!! (post #12585, reply #22 of 23)
I have them as well. I have heard that Diatomacious Earth works well but have not tried it yet.