tomatoes - late pruning ok?
Pacific coast zone 7. Plants in greenhouse, 3 ft tall. Some small green fruit (6 or so on each). Indeterminate, caged.
Have read the earlier posts on this. Plants seem rather bushy/thick and was left with some unripened fruit last year. Altho' I'd pruned much away from the lower areas, I missed some now sizable suckers near the base; is it too late to prune? Risk of rot/infection?
T-U!
Laurie
Print this page
Email this MessageNavigation
Recent Discussions
Replanting Bulbs 5 replies
red growth on knockout roses 3 replies
Orchids 6 replies
Welcome to my garden 4 replies
What is this plant? 3 replies
Unsure of this plant 1 reply
Daylilies Anyone ? 10 replies
would like any seeds 2 replies
Morning Glory seeds 2 replies
Who Wants Foxglove Seed? 22 replies
Backyard from Scratch 2 replies
Repairing botched lacquer spot 1 reply
String algae 78 replies
groundcover between stones 33 replies
(post #12582, reply #1 of 13)
You could beat them with a stick and couldn't hurt them. Cut off anything you want to.
Jeana
Never try to baptize a cat.
(post #12582, reply #2 of 13)
Thanks, Jeana!
Forgot to mention these sizable suckers do have some flowers on them...
Love your quote LOL
(post #12582, reply #3 of 13)
Don't you just hate cutting off that 'potential' tomato? I know I do.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #12582, reply #4 of 13)
Sure 'nuff!
Are the left ones really tastier? Rather subjective, I know...
Sigh*
Vancouver, BC
(post #12582, reply #5 of 13)
If you want, you can not only cut them off, but stick them in soil and have new plants.
Jeana
Never try to baptize a cat.
(post #12582, reply #10 of 13)
In regards to cutting foliage or limbs....If you cut them off and stick them in soil....do you have to put root hormone on them? I live in Oregon and am just now starting to get tomatoes on my plants.. This is the first year I've grown tomatoes. I think I read somewhere here Jenna, that you said to shake the plant once in a while, so I've been doing that. And I've also been cutting the yellow leaves off as soon as they appear.. So I should cut some of the limbs (foliage) completely off to encourage fruit? On two plants I counted about twelve tomatoes today. I'm so excited. My first adventure in growing tomatoes. :-) I have learned so much here. Thank you everyone. I'm kinda new to this forum. Just a couple weeks I think. I read it every day.Darlene....
(post #12582, reply #13 of 13)
No, you don't need rooting hormone. Just strip off all but the last set of leaves, toss it in a trench and cover all of the stem except the part where the leaves are. It wouldn't hurt to shade the cutting for a couple of days, too.
Jeana
Never try to baptize a cat.
(post #12582, reply #11 of 13)
My tomato plants have grown so high and the tops have small leaves on them. Do I prune the tops? I live in central Florida and my tomato season is in full swing, But the height of these plants scare me that they are taking away from the production of the tomatoes.
(post #12582, reply #12 of 13)
That sounds like an "indeterminate" type of tomato, which keeps on growing, in contrast to a hybrid "determinate" type which is bred to grown to a certain size.
Indeterminate tomatoes do need pruning to remove extra branches which form at the intersection of the stem and a new leaf. Because they grow until stopped you can can chop them back without doing too much harm.
Hybrids will stop growing up, and may also fill out more with more fruit.
Heavy tomato plants need to be staked to keep them from falling over.
New Mexico home organic gardener
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. Emerson
Edited 7/12/2009 5:15 pm by Astrid
(post #12582, reply #6 of 13)
The one that got away was always better.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #12582, reply #7 of 13)
Very timely thread for me to read. I've let my tomatoes run amuck in the past and paid by trying to tie up/support ungainly stems. No more, am now pinching new leaf buds while I can still reach them without a ladder! That said, it is soooo hard to pinch off those potential little fruits! But, I'm being strong - it's for their own good!
(post #12582, reply #8 of 13)
In the north/northeast where I live and where tomatoes have to get in their ripening by September, it's common practice to do a major pruning/cutback in early/mid August. I mean cutting away most of the foliage so they look kind of skeletal. The idea is that they are pushed to ripen fruit, make seeds in a hurry. It is drastic but it really works.
(post #12582, reply #9 of 13)
The tomatoes that I grow are so rampant that if I did not continually prune them I probably would not see the ripe fruits. However, since the leaves do provide the necessary nutrients to ripen those fruits too drastic pruning is also counterproductive. What does slow the fruit ripening is the plant trying to keep on producing new fruit, so long about mid August start cutting off the blossoms that could produce more fruit.
West central Michigan along the lake shore
A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.
West central Michigan along the lake shore
A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.